Krafton declares new online game studio in Montreal with fantasy title first up – Montreal
Patrik Methe has a narrative to inform. Now he has to construct a online game studio from scratch to do it.
Methe, who spent the final 17 years at Ubisoft Montreal, has been tasked with heading up the brand new Montreal studio for South Korean online game developer Krafton.
Krafton Montreal’s first sport shall be drawn from the South Korean fantasy novel collection “The Hen That Drinks Tears” by Yeong-do Lee.
The collection gives an enormous canvas that tells the story of 4 races: people, Leckorn, Dokkaebis and Nagas.
“I wish to name it some type of a medieval incredible universe — with out elves, with out goblins,” mentioned Methe. “Every race has their very own lore, their very own beliefs. And the story of the novel is about an unlikely group of various races put collectively to perform a job.
“Regardless of how completely different they’re they might want to discover a solution to work collectively to realize their purpose.”
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He says the fabric from the novels is so wealthy that it may furnish a number of titles, saying “there’s loads of meat across the bone.” And whereas the books have but to be translated into English, he says their world will ring a bell.
Whereas it’s too early to foretell an actual launch date for the sport, the purpose is a four-year manufacturing cycle. The primary title will a single-player journey, though there could possibly be different parts.
Methe is aware of his stuff in the case of fantasy. Previous to growing video video games, he owned a sport retailer and was immersed in tabletop role-playing video games, from “Dungeons and Dragons” to “Warhammer.”
“All these video games, I’ve performed them for 1000’s of hours,” he mentioned. “So now having this canvas, an unknown universe that now we have the honour to carry to the gamers, it’s a dream come true.”
Montreal would be the lead studio on the sport, though there are already some 30 to 40 individuals in South Korea engaged on an artwork guide drawn from the novel to make sure that no matter comes out of the collection has the identical imaginative and prescient.
Krafton, whose portfolio consists of the smash battle royale title “PUBG: Battlegrounds,” has studios around the globe.
The brand new Montreal studio, which was formally introduced Wednesday, is Krafton’s first in Canada and third in North America, becoming a member of Placing Distance Studios in San Ramon, Calif., and Unknown Worlds in San Francisco.
Methe, who grew to become Krafton Montreal’s first worker in October, says the brand new studio will steadily ramp as much as 150 individuals over three years for the primary sport. He already has a employees of 12 together with fellow former Ubisoft workers in producer Benoit Frappier, sport director Frederic Duroc and expertise director Martin Paradis.
Methe is at the moment searching for workplace house, having visited a dozen locations already searching for a everlasting residence.
No stranger to the town, Methe spent greater than 17 years at Ubisoft Montreal, engaged on the “Splinter Cell,” “Far Cry” and “Rainbow Six” franchises.
He says in making the transfer to go up the brand new studio he spent eight months discussing the mission with Krafton.
“The additional we went into the discussions, the extra excited I used to be concerning the journey,” he mentioned. “However I had spent a bunch of years at Ubisoft so it was a troublesome resolution.”
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He was bought after a visit to Seoul to fulfill Krafton’s high administration, together with CEO Chang-han Kim, whose background is in sport improvement.
The Krafton studio is simply the newest to pop up within the Montreal gaming hotbed which is already residence to Behaviour Interactive, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Eidos, Digital Arts, Epic, Gameloft, Rovio, Sq. Enix, WB Video games and 2K’s Cloud Chamber amongst others.
Montreal Worldwide, the town’s financial improvement company, says the town ranks within the high 5 online game improvement hubs on the earth with 200-plus studios and 19,000 employees within the trade.
Ubisoft led the way in which, organising store in 1997.
“I feel that 20 years in the past there have been just a few successes after which slowly however absolutely individuals got here figuring out that the pool of expertise accessible right here is sort of excessive,” mentioned Methe. “And now what’s very thrilling for the builders right here is that you’ve got an enormous array — you could have the large enormous studios, you could have the very small indie studios and every little thing in-between. So there’s one thing for everybody.
“That’s what makes the market very alive in Montreal.”
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