What if the next Witcher game starred a vampire instead of Geralt? That’s one of the selling points behind The Blood of Dawnwalker, a new RPG from some of the masterminds behind The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Rebel Wolves, formed in 2022 by a bunch of ex-CD Projekt Red developers, revealed the game this week in a new teaser trailer. It looks pretty legit.
The first game in what the studio hopes will be an entire new RPG saga, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a narrative-driven, single-player, open-world, dark fantasy action-RPG. It’s being made in Unreal Engine 5 for PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, and PC. The game is currently in alpha with more updates promised later in the year. That’s another way of saying it probably won’t be out for a while.
Players will step into the shoes of a young warrior-turned-vampire named Coen who uses otherworldly powers, including teleporting around like Nightcrawler, to fight off enemies and navigate a world where monsters come in all different forms. Like I said, The Witcher with vampire powers. Here’s the cinematic trailer with a quick look at gameplay near the end:
Rebel Wolves was originally formed by Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz after he left CDPR following an investigation into workplace bullying, which he told Bloomberg ultimately found him not guilty of the charges. Speaking to the same outlet last year, he said he started the new studio out of a desire to go back to working in smaller teams where developers aren’t as pigeonholed into specific roles. He also said he’d be working on his empathy and prioritizing the well-being of the team.
Alongside its game announcement, Rebel Wolves also announced the hire of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s creative director: Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz. The CDPR veteran was a quest designer on multiple Witcher games, including the card-based spinoffs Gwent and Thronebreaker. He was also in charge of Cyberpunk 2077‘s quests before later departing after the game released to do narrative consulting for other companies.
“Throughout all my years in game development, story-driven role-playing adventures have always been something I was most passionate about,” Tomaszkiewicz said in a press release. “For me, nothing beats being able to fully immerse myself and discover handcrafted stories and worlds. There are so many fantastic RPGs out there today, however, I feel that there’s not only enough space but also a hunger among players for more captivating stories.”
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