Former Bioshock developers Johnnemann Nordhagen, Steve Gaynor, and Karla Zimonja have left Take-Two to form a brand new studio, The Fullbright Company. In an introductory note written by Gaynor at the studio’s website, he explains that the studio was opened out of a desire to work on a small independent team and “simply to make a great game.”
What might that game look like? The Fullbright Company has nothing to announce just yet, but Gaynor said a good deal more about just what type of game the studio will look to make in the future. “A memorable experience that you’ll be drawn into, and keep thinking about after the game’s turned off, and want to come back to again someday. An experience that gets away from the constraints of ossified game genres, while relying on what we’re good at as a team: creating immersive places to inhabit, and a deep, personal story to explore at your own pace. A nonviolent game in an unfantastical locale; an experience that not many games provide, built out of techniques that only video games can employ.”
That devotion to something more mundane, something nonviolent outside of a fantasy setting, is admirable. Video games thrive on spectacle but it’s encouraging to see great creative minds that worked on the Bioshock series aspire to something more grounded and relatable.
