Bungie co-founder and Halo and Destiny creator Jason Jones has launched Stone Kite, new Los Angeles-based world-building studio founded alongside author and game-industry veteran Margaret Stohl. The company launched October 1 with One Zero One, an original universe that begins with an 80-page graphic novel adapted from Jones’ manuscript.
Stohl serves as Stone Kite’s co-founder and CEO, while Jones is a co-founder. The studio says its goal is to develop original fictional worlds across multiple forms of media from the outset, rather than creating a project in one medium and subsequently adapting it elsewhere. Stone Kite describes its approach as bringing creators from different disciplines together early in the development process. One Zero One is the first project built around that philosophy. The story is set in a near future in which humanity faces a global conflict with AI-driven robotic soldiers. The first installment, One Zero One #1, is the opening part of a planned four-part graphic novel series and is based on Jones’ novel An Oral History of Humanity’s Final Invention. The issue includes excerpts from Jones’ original manuscript and is available to read digitally.
The comic is written by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Eric Heisserer, with contributions from artists including Dan Panosian, Ramón Pérez, Alitha Martinez, Raúl Allén and Hyeonjin Kim. Stone Kite says additional One Zero One issues will be released online for free through early 2027, while prose, audio and screen projects are planned to expand the universe during the following year. Stone Kite says it is currently collaborating with more than 250 creators from film, television, comics and literature. Among those named by the company are director and producer Jay Roach, illustrator Kyle Lambert, author Stephen Graham Jones, comic creator Christian Ward and screenwriter Akela Cooper. The studio’s investors include Griffin Gaming Partners, its founders and angel investors.
For Jones, Stone Kite also represents a return to writing beyond his career in games. In the launch announcement, he said he had “always wanted to write” and credited Stohl with helping him develop his work into a broader entertainment project. Whether Stone Kite can establish a shared universe across several entertainment mediums remains to be seen, but the company is launching with that model already built into One Zero One rather than treating cross-media expansion as a later adaptation strategy.