Wushu Studios is a new independent game studio based in Liverpool, UK, and founded by former members of Evolution Studios (the developer behind Motorstorm and Driveclub). On January 15, the founders of Wushu officially announced the new studio, although the company was formed back in August.
“Currently supporting a team of 11 and expanding, Wushu Studios formed with a goal of moving away from the AAA grind to create games with interesting mechanics, unique concepts and to deliver fun, refreshing gameplay experiences to players,” the founders of Wushu said in the company’s first press release. Wushu also mentioned its first game, which they began prototyping in September 2017 using Unreal Engine 4. According to the team, Wushu’s new IP is “a tantalizing and unexpected take on the science fiction genre.”
“Our core team at Wushu have worked together closely on numerous projects over the years so there was no downtime in figuring out how to work together, we just fell straight into a groove kicking around game ideas that appealed to us as players and developers,” said studio lead Alan McDermott. “We firmly believed in the idea that our initial concepts needed to be gamepad experiences as quickly as possible, so we turned to Unreal Engine for its amazing rapid prototyping capabilities. This approach has helped us figure out which of our concepts would allow us to flex our creative muscle most.”
The studio’s leaders are made up of McDermott, design director Nigel Kershaw, and art director Stuart Trevor. Wushu has also revealed that Alex Figini, a former senior concept artist at BioWare, has been working with the team, and that prototyping progress on their IP has been “extremely positive.”
Little else has been revealed about Wushu’s IP at this time, but McDermott thinks it may surprise those familiar with the team’s past work at Evolution, adding, “It’s definitely not what people will be expecting to see from us. It’s absolutely not a racing game!”