Jeff Strain, the former founder of ArenaNet and Undead Labs, has announced the opening of a new studio, Possibility Space. She will create an online project and work remotely with developers around the world. The team has already been joined by former employees of companies such as Ubisoft, Valve and Oculus.Possibility Space has already raised funds from the Transcend Fund and the Louisiana Economic Development Fund.
The size of the investment was not disclosed.
The studio will direct this money to the development of a certain multi-user AAA title. Possibility Space has not yet revealed details about the project, but Strain himself notes that it is “a game full of joy that I have dreamed of creating for many years.”
He will act as CEO of the new company. Strain previously founded ArenaNet Studios, known for the Guild Wars MMORPG, and Undead Labs, which developed State of Decay. During his career in the industry, he also managed to work on StarCraft and World of Warcraft.
In addition to Strain, the backbone of the team consisted of:
- Jane Ng is a visual director and former Valve artist who worked on Half—Life: Alyx and Firewatch;Liz England is the director of narrative and simulation systems, as well as a former leading game designer at Ubisoft Toronto;
- Richard Foge — Design Director and former designer of Probably Monsters;
- Leah Rivera is a senior narrative systems designer and former Chief Content Designer at Undead Labs;
- Austin Walker — IP Director and former Editor-in-Chief of Waypoint Media;
- Brandon Dillon is the vice president of development, as well as the former director of product management at Oculus VR and an employee of Double Fine;
- Charles Randall is a senior gameplay programmer, as well as a former employee of Ubisoft Toronto and BioWare;
- Erica Tam is a senior gameplay programmer and former employee of Sledgehammer Games;
- Brian Jennings is the Technical Design Director and former lead technical designer of NZXR.
- The Possibility Space office is located in New Orleans.
However, Strain stresses that the studio will be “distributed”. This means that people from all over the world will be able to work remotely in it. According to Strain, such opportunities attract many developers today.