Harvey Smith, a lead designer on the original Deus Ex, as well as a co-director on Dishonored, the creative director on its sequel, a quality assurance developer on Prey, and the studio director for Redfall, has officially formed a new studio. Smith isn't moving far from his former home, as he's still going to be based in Austin as he was when Arkane Austin was functioning.
Instead, Smith will be founding a new studio with long-time collaborator Ben Horne called Black Pony Interactive. It'll be focusing on making first-person action-RPGs, with a single-player focus, built around player choice, exploration, and emergent systems. Immersive sims, in other words, but due to the vague nature of that label, it doesn't often give the best idea of what Black Pony Interactive will be working on.
"During a time of industry volatility, I'm proud to announce the next step in my video game journey with the reveal of our new studio. At our new studio, we're building exactly the kind of single-player games we're most passionate about," Smith said (via Polygon).
Smith and Horne are joined by veterans from Arkane, Insomniac, Epic, Avalanche, and Volition. Black Pony hasn't revealed what its first game is going to be, but its ambitions are clear, and Horne says more will be revealed soon.
