Rebel Wolves has not yet shipped The Blood of Dawnwalker, but studio leadership is already plotting a bold expansion beyond that world. CEO and co-founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz said the studio plans to eventually juggle multiple franchises, rotating between new and established intellectual property to keep both creators and players engaged.
Tomaszkiewicz drew inspiration from Blizzard's approach to game development, when the company maintained both Warcraft and StarCraft simultaneously. He described this model as essential for long-term studio health. "People need refreshment," he said, noting that dedicating two decades exclusively to one IP would eventually wear on the team and audience alike.
The vision he outlined involves an alternating cadence: one game from the Dawnwalker universe, followed by a title in a completely new IP, then back to Dawnwalker. This strategy, he argued, prevents creative fatigue that comes from working on "the same but different" projects repeatedly.
For Tomaszkiewicz, this philosophy is grounded in hard experience. He spent 17 years at CD Project Red, including 14 years developing the Witcher trilogy before pivoting to Cyberpunk 2077 as design director. That transition from fantasy to sci-fi showed him firsthand how a shift in setting and tone could reinvigorate a development team. He left CD Project Red after 3.5 years on Cyberpunk to co-found Rebel Wolves.
Creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz has already laid groundwork for Dawnwalker's expansion. At Gamescom last year, he indicated the studio deliberately left swaths of the game's world unexplored in the first installment, planting hints about protagonist Coen's future and the larger mythology. "There is this whole hidden world that we are not exploring on purpose in this first game," he said. "We want to leave a lot of fuel for the sequels."
The studio's broader philosophy centers on team welfare. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz emphasized that retaining talent ranks above all else. "The team comes first," he stated, describing efforts to foster a healthy workplace culture and ensure developers feel invested in their current projects. The theory goes that offering creative variety through different IP helps sustain that engagement over decades.
The Blood of Dawnwalker arrives September 3, marking the start of what Rebel Wolves envisions as a multi-franchise future. Before the studio can dream about branching into uncharted territory, however, it must deliver on its debut.
Author Emily Chen: "Tomaszkiewicz learned from watching CDPR burn out its teams on one world for too long. Smart studios know when to pivot, and Rebel Wolves is proving it's thought this through before day one."
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