atomhawk
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Navigating The Realm: How two studios are building an adventure
Apart from some gorgeous concept art, some game design mock-ups and a look at its Unity-powered innards, we haven't really seen much of The Realm. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was a brand new project, but planning for the point-and-click adventure began over a year ago. Art studio Atomhawk Design, which has produced art for games like Mortal Kombat, Dead Island, Driver: San Francisco and Enslaved, began working on the concept for The Realm 18 months ago. Meanwhile, Lantern Interactive technical director Tom Szirtes was looking for a new project. "I met up with [Atomhawk creative director Ron Ashtiani], who I used to work with at a company called Computer Artworks, and we've remained friends for a long time. We met at GDC in San Francisco actually, last March, and he was showing me the graphics that they'd made." "So I suggested, 'Okay, let's try and make a game out of this.' And so that's really where it started off." It began as a part-time project, but eventually became a full-time endeavor. It became clear that the two studios couldn't make The Realm into the game they wanted it to be without some help, and so they turned to Kickstarter.%Gallery-187723%
From the ashes of Midway Newcastle, Atomhawk Design rises
One of our favorite things about the game industry (not the game business, mind you) is its unflappable resilience. Take, for instance, the story of Midway Newcastle. Even after the staff got a 60-day warning of the studio's imminent closure and was shut down preemptively, some members of the team were able to band together and form a new company, Atomhawk Design.Billing itself as "a leading creative visualization and digital art production company," Atomhawk plans on creating digital art for not just video games, but also "film and online." We're not sure how much of the ex-Midway Newcastle folks made the jump to the new company, but we've asked Atomhawk for comment.
