A Witcher-based manga called The Witcher: Ronin, which recasts Geralt and the gang in feudal Japan, was successfully crowdfunded by CD Projekt in 2021. Former CD Projekt members are now attempting to go even further by establishing a firm called Dark Passenger and developing a brand-new online action game based in, you guessed it, medieval Japan.
Together with CD Projekt, the co-founders of Dark Passenger, Jakub Ben, and Marcin Michalski worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its expansions as cinematic artists and art team coordinators, respectively. Michalski then worked as a senior artist on Gwent and Thronebreaker. On Cyberpunk 2077, they were also “outsource partners” with the Realtime Warriors studio, which produced the in-game television cinematics.
Their first stand-alone game will be The Dark Passenger project, which doesn’t yet have an official name: An online multiplayer first-person shooter with PvP and cooperative PvE features that was created using Unreal Engine 5.
We aim to produce incredibly thrilling online experiences that are both competitive and cooperative “The website for the studio claims. “We find human interactions, coalitions, risky conflicts, and unexpected turns of events to be fascinating. We’re utilizing cutting-edge procedural techniques to create each game’s individuality and surprise. Although every player’s objective is the same, every time it must be accomplished, a fresh strategy, approach, and route must be taken.
The game promises a wide range of character and item customization choices, as well as user-designed dojos that players may join with friends to train movement and fighting. However, the company made it clear in a press kit that it won’t be an MMO and will instead be a “match-based” game with “strong player advancement and stealth-action multiplayer.” There will be no single-player outside of the training dojo, though Dark Passenger showed interest in “growing the universe” in the future. However, the first-person perspective will occasionally be supplemented with third-person views.
