Ex-Crytek Devs Form Gunfire Games, Considering Darksiders Revival

If you were hoping to see a revival of the Darksiders franchise, you're in luck. From the ashes of the tumultuous Crytek, a new studio has been formed that is looking into reviving the series.

The new studio, Gunfire Games is made up of ex-Crytek and ex-Vigil Games developers and will be headed by former Crytek USA head David Adams, who recently left Crytek after the company's financial situation became unmanageable. However, according to an interview with Polygon, that wasn't the only reason behind his departure.

"Forming another independent studio was something that I thought about because of what was going on," he said. "It got to the point where people were starting to leave."

The people in question were what mattered most to Adams, and it jump started his decision to leave Crytek in order to pursue other opportunities.

"It really was the team," he said. "When you make a game, one of the most important elements of that is the people you work with. You could get 12 of the best developers in the world and put them into a room and they may not make a good game."

Gunfire Games is currently made up of seven people who were all formerly leads at Crytek USA. The majority of the studio's workforce's time at Crytek was spent working on Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age. Despite their work on Hunt, the group was more interested in working together than they were on the game itself.

"We're more attached to the team than the IP," he said. "We can always make another IP."

As for what the studio plans on working on in the immediate future, they aren't sure but they are considering returning to the Darksiders franchise, which was developed by Vigil Games, where the majority of the team originally came from.

"That is one of the options we are exploring," he said. "But we don't want to jump into something immediately. We want to weigh our options."

Gunfire has spoken to the current owners of Darksiders, Nordic Games, but nothing has been nailed down. The studio is considering other options that will take less time to get started on before it worries too much about reviving an old IP.

"We're looking at some smaller short-term deals to keep the guys working," he said. "We do want to get a solid idea of what we're going to do next so we can make an informed decision about the engine we'll be using and the size of the team.

"We have a couple of good ideas. One of them is for an original idea, one is to work on an established IP. A couple of alternatives is more about helping other projects."

But according to Adams, their goal is to ultimately start nurturing the Gunfire name with an original IP.

"We want to build upon what we've done on the past," he said. "Third-person, games with a lot of characters, adventure aspects, player progression, hunt cool bosses, fantastical creatures.

"We have some ideas kicking around."

The Darksiders series was initially developed by Vigil Games before publisher THQ went bankrupt and the IP was acquired by Nordic Games. Earlier this year, Darksiders Creative Director Joe Madureira claimed that Nordic Games seemed very intent on continuing the franchise.