Dark Fantasy RPG From Former The Witcher 3 Devs Eyes On Same Quality Level

Exactly three years have passed since Rebel Wolves studio was founded in February 2022. Alongside the announcement, the studio revealed their debut title, The Blood of Dawnwalker, a single-player dark fantasy action RPG set in plague-ridden, war-torn 14th-century Europe. As the development enters its fourth year, we now start to receive more and more pieces of information about this much-anticipated title from former CD Projekt developers. 

In a recent interview with Games Radar+, Creative Director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, who was the lead quest designer of The Witcher 3, opened up to talk about the quality standard and campaign length of the game. As a team that is comprised of seasoned game developers who worked on a variety of titles at CDPR, including The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, and led by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, The Witcher 3 Game Director, naturally, they have a high standard to follow. “In terms of quality, we definitely look at AAA, because this is where we are coming from, the quality level of The Witcher 3.”

Tomaszkiewicz admits that, as a smaller studio, “our games are not as huge in terms of amount of content and gameplay hours — we are a smaller studio, this is our first project, so we definitely are building something smaller. But we want to build something as robust in terms of quality, maybe a bit shorter.”

Specifically, in regards to gameplay hours, players will be enjoying a 30 to 40-hour campaign in the upcoming “first chapter of Rebel Wolves’ brand new role-playing saga.” And although the team aims to make the upcoming vampire RPG their “own AAA IP,” they don’t really bother if some would argue it’s not AAA in terms of content. “If size is your measure, then yes it’s not the size of a AAA like The Witcher. But I don’t know if size is the measure, to be honest, because there are AAA games like Call of Duty that aren’t 100+ hours gameplay campaigns. And I don’t know if anyone would call them AA, or indie.”

Last month, the game received its early gameplay trailer to give us first look at the pivotal moment that sets the game’s main story in motion. Following this, we’ve learned more about the game’s time-as-resource mechanic and a “narrative sandbox” approach where side quests complete the interactive story and make it a “cohesive whole.” 

Recently, the team has been sharing concept art on social media to showcase locations like an abandoned tavern, beneath the ground, and streets of Svartrau, as well as introduce some characters with voiced footage.