A handful of former CD Projekt Red (The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077) developers have created a new studio named Blank. to make a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, “with a twist or two.”
Cyberpunk 2077 game director and The Witcher 3 co-game director Mateusz Kanik has co-founded Blank. with Jędrzej Mróz and Marcin Jefimow, both former executive producers on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Together, this new studio aims to apply “their years of experience to a clean slate” and bring “beautifully crafted games and unique experiences to players, favoring novel territory rather than well-trodden ground.” A press release from Blank. says the studio has no plans to make “clones, or predictable entries.”
Alongside the studio reveal, Blank. has released concept art for its unannounced project, which is the aforementioned game set in an apocalypse, which you can see below:
Kanik will serve as the game’s director, while Mróz and Jefimow will be executive producers. Mikołaj Marchewka joins the project as its managing director. Two other former CDPR devs in Michal Dobrowolski and Artur Ganszyniec will work on the game as design director and narrative director, respectively. Former Division 48 Studio developer Grzegorz Przybyś is the game’s art director.
“We’re thrilled to announce Blank. and to start expanding our incredible team,” Kanik writes in a press release. “After working for years in an increasingly conservative industry, we’re ready to make bold, impactful projects that share our creativity and values. Where the industry champions a dictatorship of the creative individual, we want to give ownership to the team. Where the industry leans on crunch culture, we prefer work-life balance. Where the industry says bigger is better, we’re setting our sights on highly polished games with a focus on emotion, story, and craftsmanship.”
Mróz writes that the team plans to marry inspired ideas with well-defined scopes to strong teams of support and realistic budgets.
“We’re committed to quality craftsmanship and running the studio in a sustainable way,” Mróz writes. “We plan to increase our projects’ scope as we expand the team and its capabilities.”
Blank. is headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, and currently consists of 10 team members. It’s looking to expand to 60 members to develop its unannounced project.
What do you want to see this studio create? Let us know in the comments below!
