Polish developer Techland has announced a new fantasy RPG as their next major project. The company’s CEO, Paweł Marchewka, said in a statement:
“Our ambition is to introduce a brand new IP that is vastly different from what we have been doing for the past several years. We want to create a fully next-gen experience. A new fantasy epic set in a sprawling open world, fueled by the skills and experience we have gained as a team over the years, infused with new ideas, passion, and creativity.”
That’s quite the promise, and it would seem the studio finally wants to move on from the franchise that made them huge. Whatever this game turns out to be, the timing couldn’t be better to announce it. The white-hot popularity of Elden Ring will help maintain interest in the genre that Techland is trying to break into for some time.
So who is Techland, you may ask. Polish studio Techland has been around since 2000, producing PC games of various genres throughout the early 2000’s. They first found major success with the Call of Juarez franchise, releasing two games in 2006 and 2011 respectively. It was in fact 2011 that saw them really break out with the release of Dead Island. Then, they took the zombie formula and put in a heavy dash of parkour with Dying Light. These two game series’ have propelled the studio to tons of acclaim.
The success also allowed them to work as a publisher on a few titles as well. This new Techland RPG is a big departure for the studio, as they’ve been known for zombie games for years. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though, as the experience of making Dying Light should help them a fair bit with level design and overall design mentality for such a project.
The CEO went further, saying that they’re putting their full weight behind a new open-world fantasy game. “While we cannot share more details about this project now, we’re all truly invested in it and looking forward to showing it to gamers when the time is right.”
It’s unclear how much of the design DNA from previous Techland titles will be included here. We do know that they’ve managed to secure some helpful talent from a few major studios. Karolina Stachyra and Arkadiusz Borowik are working the upcoming project. Borowik is known for his work with The Witcher 3 as a narrative lead, Stachyra also previously worked as a writer for CD PROJEKT RED. Other talent from the likes of Arkane and Guerrilla Games are also working on this new project.
