State of Decay founder launches new studio Possibility Space to work on "joyful" new game
The possibilities are endless.
A new studio named Possibility Space has been set up by Jeff Strain.
Strain is best known as the co-founder of Guild Wars developer ArenaNet (now acquired by NCsoft) and founder of State of Decay developer Undead Labs (acquired by Microsoft).
It's currently unknown what project the studio is working on, but talent includes industry veterans from the likes of Ubisoft, Warner Bros, Double Fine, Electronic Arts, Oculus, Valve and more.
The studio says it aims to be vibrant and diverse and have an equitable and healthy working culture, dedicated to building joyful games around human experiences.
Though based in New Orleans, employees are able to live and work wherever they like.
"We felt this was the right time to create something new - a studio built from the ground up to embrace evolving needs and perspectives for both players and developers," said Strain, referencing the anxiety and isolation of working during the pandemic.
"That fear and isolation was the catalyst for Possibility Space, a modern kind of game studio, where we are creating a joyful game that's been my dream for many years. I'm delighted and grateful for the team that has chosen to share in this vision and bring it life."
Jane Ng, formerly Lead Environment Artist on Firewatch at Campo Santo and artist on Half-Life: Alyx at Valve, is Possibility Space Visual Director. "My mom says that the world is in great need of expelling 'tired air,' which probably makes more sense in the original Cantonese," she said. "But when I had the opportunity to shape a team and a company with ambitious, fresh goals that just seemed so right for the time, I shook off the fatigue of the pandemic and jumped in."
Austin Walker, former Editor-in-Chief for Waypoint at Vice Media, will also join the team as IP Director. "To be frank, I never thought I'd take the leap from media to development, but as I got to know the folks here, I realized just how badly I wanted to work with them," he said.
They're joined by Liz England as Narrative Systems Design Director (former Lead Designer of Watch Dogs: Legion and Designer on Sunset Overdrive and Scribblenauts) and Brandon Dillon as Technical Director (former Product Management Director for Oculus VR).