(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)
A duo of ex-Diablo and StarCraft developers are heading up a new studio and starting work on an RTS game. The studio is called Uncapped Games, and it s being backed by Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent under its Lightspeed and Quantum Studios subsidiary.
Uncapped Games lead game designer David Kim worked on all three chapters of StarCraft 2 and more recently, Diablo 4, while lead producer Jason Hughes has producing credits on Diablo 3 and 4. Zhongshan Zhang, another Blizzard alum who was a programmer on Starcraft 2, is also helping Uncapped Games as lead engineer.
For now, the studio is dedicating its resources to creating the next great PC RTS, and with Kim leading the charge, Uncapped Games definitely has the right credentials. The StarCraft veteran told GamesIndustry.biz that a new RTS game has been a long time coming.
In recent years, a stream of developers and executives from top video game publisher Blizzard have left to create their own studios, seeking the creative freedom and autonomy they feel is no longer possible at a company chasing mega hits.
With Blizzard having shed a lot of key talent in recent years due to layoffs and other leavings at the company, a lot of major players have moved into either other major studios, or formed studios of their own. We’ve seen a couple major groups spring up already, but another was just formed from former veterans of Blizzard Entertainment, Epic Games, and more. Lightforge Games has opened its doors as a new studio set to specialize in RPGs and has apparently started on a cross-platform “social videogame.”
Lightforge Games officially came into being just recently, having announced its opening late last week with a new website. The company’s key staff features veteran devs including UI director Matt Schembari from Epic, project manager and producer Nathan Fairbanks from Epic and ZeniMax, former Blizzard content and game designer Bridget Collins, former Blizzard art director Glenn Rane, and former Blizzard and Epic brand manager and marketing director Marc Hutcheson, just to name