Former Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Director Forms New Studio, Giant Skull, To Create Action-Adventure Game In Unreal Engine 5
Former Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen has revealed Giant Skull, a new triple-A studio developing action-adventure games. Prior to directing Survivor and its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Asmussen worked as the director of God of War III and art director of God of War II at Sony Santa Monica.
He left Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment in September. Giant Skull is headquartered in Los Angeles but will feature remote developers from around the world.
“The Giant Skull studio culture is focused on creativity and curiosity,” Asmussen, who is CEO of the new studio, writes in a press release. “We have assembled a talented team renowned for immersive storytelling, heroic combat, and exhilarating traversal, and our goal is to craft a rich universe that players will want to lose themselves in for years to come.”
According to the press release, Giant Skull is a triple-A studio dedicated to building “gameplay-driven, story immersive action-adventure games set in captivating worlds.” Considering Asmussen’s work on franchises like Star Wars Jedi and God of War, this sounds like he’s taking that experience to create a new intellectual property.
Other developers at Giant Skull include chief technology officer Jon Carr, who was the technical director on Jedi Survivor, art director Patrick Murphy, whose resume includes art director on Fortnite and Valorant, lead producer Lauren McLemore, who was a lead producer on Fortnite, and designer director Jeff Magers, who previously handled design on Jedi Survivor and Fallen Order. Giant Skull’s animation director is Brian Campbell, who was a founding member of the Fortnite team at Epic Games and then an animation director there, and the studio’s chief operating and financial officer is Anthony Scott, who has experience running teams such as Rocksteady Studios.
“Our values for the studio to translate into how we make our games and our relationship with players – autonomy, momentum, curiosity, and respect,” Scott writes in the press release. “We want players to join us on every step of this amazing journey, as we pave the way for our upcoming game. We’re creating something special and have been fortunate enough to assemble an incredible team of developers who are extremely passionate and experienced in creating genre-defining, third-person, action-adventure games.”
Giant Skull is currently developing its first game in Unreal Engine 5 right now, and it will be a triple-A single-player-focused action-adventure game.
Alongside today’s news, the studio’s website is now live here, and it features “an endless amount of possible commands” to input into its special terminal to unlock secrets and more.
For more, read Game Informer’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor review and then read Game Informer’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review after that.
What do you hope to see from Giant Skull? Let us know in the comments below!