CI Games has announced the opening of Hexworks, a brand new game development studio that is to be based in Barcelona and Bucharest. The Barcelona crew opened doors at the beginning of March, with the team in Bucharest following a few weeks later. Collectively, the team of veterans has been hard at work on their debut title: Lords of the Fallen 2. The fantasy action-RPG is targeted for next gen consoles and PC.
“It’s been a long time since we started talking about Lords of the Fallen 2 and trying different ideas. I am very excited for us to be able to announce the new studio that has been already at work for the last half of the year and made significant progress,” says CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski. “Initially we decided to keep that quiet as we didn’t want to bring that to public eyes before we would build the core team and before we would all agree on the details of the first project and move forward with our vision. So, this is the time to officially say we are here and we’re here to stay.”
Creative Director Cezar Virtosu and Executive Producer Saul Gason lead a Hexworks team of around 25 people including veteran staff with AAA game development experience, but the studio is embracing a bit more of an indie approach to development as opposed to larger studios. Hexworks projects will focus on the high-quality craftsmanship of role-playing games.
“As a dedicated gamer myself, I can feel when developers are passionate about the games they make,” says Executive Producer Saul Gascon. “And this is what our studio is all about: Creating games we love to play ourselves. We’ve gathered a kickass team of senior developers with a deep fascination for mature fantasy games. The path has been intense, especially with the global lockdown situation, but working shoulder-to-shoulder with Marek and Cezar, we’ve gathered a great team mostly from our networks. I can’t wait to share more information on the studio, and show what we are working on!”
The studio’s debut will be Lords of the Fallen 2 and the Hexworks team hopes it serves as a prime example of the studio’s pillars. Inspired by community feedback for the first game, Lords of the Fallen 2 is a shift from the original’s power fantasy to a dark fantasy. The sequel will also be much more loyal to the challenging combat experience that the Soulsborne and Souls-like communities enjoy.
“For many months now, the three of us worked defining and scoping the project, to find the right DNA that would grant us a competitive edge and still remain in the realm of feasibility,” says Hexworks Creative Director Cezar Virtosu. “It is challenging to develop combat focused games remotely, but this is offset by the ease of contacting and working with massive soulsborne fans scattered around the world. It is an intoxicating mix of indie production and fanwork, since we are not a big production block and we all come from the genre’s trenches, thus, regardless of nationality, we are speaking the same game language. We are enthusiastic about our mission and we are aiming to deliver a creatively charged gameplay experience within the genre’s framework.”
Right to left: Saul Gascon, Marek Tymiński, Cezar Virtosu
The establishment of Hexworks sends ripples across CI Games proper, as well, as the group is focusing more on the development of CI’s own IPs. The new initiative is spurred by 5.7 million Euro that CI Games has just raised from investors in the last week.
“I am very pleased with the strong interest from the investors,” Tyminski says. “This is a very good news for CI Games as a developer with studios in several locations in Europe.”
Visit Hexworks.com to learn more and stay tuned for more on The Lords of the Fallen 2.
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