author: Bart Swiatek
StarCraft 2 Devs Create a New Studio and Work on an RTS
Former Blizzard Entertainment employees founded Frost Giant Studios. Developers plan to create another groundbreaking real-time strategy.
IN A NUTSHELL:
- Several former employees of Blizzard Entertainment have founded a new studio - Frost Giant Studios;
- The team includes developers who worked on StarCraft 2 and WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne, among others;
- the developers want to create "another great RTS on PC".
Today, several former employees of Blizzard Entertainment announced the founding of a new company - Frost Giant Studios. The developers' goal is to create "another great real-time strategy for PC", characterized by innovative, cooperative gameplay, epic story and emphasis on e-sport.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Tim Morten notes he was pushed to make the decision to create Frost Giant Studios by the fact that his former company no longer seems to be interested in the RTS genre - Blizzard prefers to invest in franchises such as Overwatch, Diablo or World of Warcraft. The developer decided that it was time to try something different. However, abandoning Blizzard Entertainment was not an easy decision.
I felt that creating a brand new RTS outside of Blizzard Entertainment was too attractive an opportunity to give it up. But I think we all had a lot of love for Blizzard in our hearts, which made this decision difficult," admits Tim Morten.
Who is in the Frost Giant Studios?
The new studio consists of some unexpected names. Here are the current employees:
- Tim Morten - Founder and CEO of Frost Giant Studios, formerly production director of StarCraft 2 and cancelled C&C: Generals 2;
- Tim Campbell - President of the new studio and Game Director of the mysterious project, formerly director and designer of the campaign portion of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, recently also worked as a director on Wasteland 3;
- Cara LaForge - Head of Business Operations, formerly Senior Program Manager of Blizzard Esports;
- Jesse Brophy - Art Director, worked as Lead Artist on StarCraft 2 and played a similar role on Diablo 4;
- Ryan Shutter - Chief User Experience Designer, also worked on StarCraft 2;
- Kevin Dong - Lead Co-op Designer, who had the same role when working on StarCraft 2;
- Joseph Shunk - Customer Chief Engineer, was a gameplay engineer during the development of StarCraft 2 and Warcraft III: Reforged;
- Austin Hudelson - Chief Server Engineer, had the same role when working on StarCraft 2;
- Micky Neilson - Scriptwriter, worked at Blizzard Entertainment and wrote two books that have been featured on the New York Times bestseller list.
We don't know the title of the first production of Frost Giant Studios yet, nor do we have any details about it. It's worth noting, however, that the creators have already gathered $4.7 million for this project - it seems that some investors believe that the real-time strategy genre still has the potential to attract players.