| Action-Adventure Game Veterans Form New Indie Studio Set to Create colorful Player-Driven Experiences
Game industry veterans Alex Hutchinson, Yassine Riahi and Reid Schneider’s new Montreal-based development studio, Typhoon Studios, has partnered with leading indie publisher 505 Games on an unannounced multi-platform project. 505 Games joins partners including MAKERS Fund and Epic, creators of the Unreal Engine, to bring the first game from the offbeat Canadian studio to life. Citing their core tenets as “strong flavours, lots of intertwined systems, a penchant for bad jokes and a deep and abiding love of collaborative play”, Typhoon is dedicating themselves to building games that let players drive the action. The all-star team of experienced game creators behind Typhoon Studios includes: • Alex Hutchinson, creative director and co-founder. Most recently a creative director at Ubisoft Montreal, where he directed Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Other past work includes Spore, The Sims 2, and Army of Two: The 40th Day. • Yassine Riahi, technical director and co-founder. Prior to Typhoon he helped Rocksteady and WB Games Montreal ship various incantations of the Batman: Arkham franchise, and earlier Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Homefront, and the first two Army of Two titles. • Reid Schneider, executive producer and co-founder. Prior to Typhoon he co-founded WB Games Montreal where he served as the Exec. Producer on Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight. Other past work includes the first two Army of Two titles, Battlefield Vietnam, and the original Splinter Cell. “As a smaller independent studio, finding partners who will support our creative vision by giving us the freedom to build our game our way is a top priority, said Alex Hutchinson. “505 Games not only provides us that creative control, they offer deep support from a partner who really understands how to elevate indie games and bring out the best in the studios they team up with. Their track record speaks for itself.” Typhoon Games joins a growing stable of up-and-coming, but deeply experienced developers partnered with 505 Games, including Remedy Entertainment (Control), Lab Zero Games (Indivisible), Otherside Entertainment (Underworld Ascendant) and Koji Igarashi (Bloodstained). “We’ve been steadily expanding our portfolio over the last few years by identifying and partnering with unique indie studios poised to make fantastic quality games,” said Neil Ralley, president of 505 Games. “Once we saw the project Alex, Yassine, Reid and the team at Typhoon is developing, we jumped at the opportunity to be a part of it. We’re always on the hunt for creative, innovative games and developers and this one certainly fits the bill perfectly. We look forward to helping Typhoon bring their exciting vision to life.” |
