From Far Cry to 'Korean Witcher' — Why a Former Ubisoft Exec is Adapting a Fantasy Franchise the West Has Barely Heard of

After 15 years astatine Ubisoft moving connected Far Cry, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six, seasoned developer Patrik Méthé fancied doing thing antithetic — and 3 years later, astatine Sony's caller State of Play, viewers were treated to precisely that: a trailer for a blockbuster open-world enactment RPG starring a hulking vertebrate warrior.

This is Project Windless, a crippled acceptable successful the satellite of the fashionable Korean caller bid The Bird That Drinks Tears — albeit a franchise that galore successful the West won't person heard of. Reaction to the game's large uncover trailer was positive, Méthé tells IGN, though tinged with immoderate jokes astir its main quality that is, essentially, a ample humanoid chicken.

But aft that archetypal infinitesimal of surprise, well, the crippled and its satellite look intriguing. And it's protagonist is surely unsocial — a prime Méthé said had been cardinal to centering the crippled connected this peculiar hero, and wherefore helium was funny successful the task overall.

"What you're playing is the emergence of a mythical quality that you volition perceive astir successful the [The Bird That Drinks Tears] novels, but evidently he's not determination anymore due to the fact that it's much than 1000 years before," Méthé said, making wide that the crippled has been created arsenic an introduction constituent for the phantasy franchise.

"You're truly playing the instauration of this universe," helium continued. "Whether you work the novels oregon not won't alteration your immersion, your knowing of the crippled itself."

Project Windless is acceptable to beryllium the archetypal task from Méthé's Krafton Montreal, a workplace forged astir the thought of making this crippled that present houses 90 people. A further 40, meanwhile, are assisting improvement successful a workplace adjacent Seoul.

"I was receiving a clump of contacts connected LinkedIn and stuff, and I received 1 from a institution called Krafton," Méthé recalls of however his engagement began, soon aft leaving Ubisoft. "I had nary hint what [Krafton] was truthful I astir closed it, but past it was written: 'the creator of PUBG. I'm like, 'oh, okay, mightiness beryllium worthy [taking a look]'."

"We person this unthinkable IP, beloved successful South Korea, you person the acquisition doing large AAA single-player games"“

After a spot of research, Méthé recovered an aged nonfiction suggesting that Krafton had been "looking to bash the Korean Witcher" — and portion this statement wasn't successful the authoritative transportation for the task helium yet heard, it inactive piqued his interest.

"What Krafton asked america was simple, it was: 'We person this unthinkable IP, beloved successful South Korea, you person the acquisition doing large AAA single-player games. What would you bash with that successful bid to present it to the Western market?' Not that we don't privation to merchantability to [Korean fans too], but what would you do?'"

"My reply was: 'if anyone answers you [on the spot] to that benignant of question, you should halt the telephone immediately. Because to reply that alone, without reasoning astir it for much than a fewer minutes, it's a joke. This benignant of task requires the expertise of galore people, truthful if you privation a superior reply and not conscionable buzzwords — the utilized income car transportation — springiness maine the clip to sync with experts and we'll get backmost to you with a existent answer."

And that's what Krafton allowed Méthé to do. After immoderate archetypal treatment astir straight adapting The Bird That Drinks Tears' archetypal novel, Méthé realized that mounting the enactment generations earlier allowed for much flexibility successful crafting a much unsocial communicative suited to a video game, alternatively than adapting the books' stories to a antithetic mean portion trying to deed each the aforesaid beats.

"For maine it's much that we person the novels, which is large for america arsenic developers due to the fact that it answers a batch of questions that often instrumentality up a batch of assets and time," Méthé says. "We person those answers already successful place, and we tin past easy adhd layers of extent into the stories and the information of each race."

It hasn't each been plain sailing — Méthé says helium underestimated however overmuch of a "hectic and a bumpy adventure" it was going to be, figuring retired what Project Windless would beryllium portion besides "building a studio, uncovering a place, recruiting people, trying to recognize the ecosystem of the company." He continued: "We knew it would beryllium a bully situation and it is simply a bully challenge. So it's ne'er boring. Let's accidental it similar that."

That said, it sounds similar a invited alteration for Méthé aft much than 15 years moving connected Ubisoft shooters, including Splinter Cell Conviction, Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn, and Rainbow Six Extraction — each of which helium served arsenic crippled manager for.

"It's precise refreshing," helium says. "We're not a shooter astatine all. Sometimes arsenic developers, due to the fact that we're repeating worldly due to the fact that we're accidental we're doing follow-ups, you find a definite signifier that works, whereas this clip it's rather the opposite. We don't person a wide benchmark to follow, and we request to travel up with our ain imaginativeness of what we want."

Still, plentifulness astir the crippled remains nether wraps. Apart from that trailer, there's inactive overmuch to larn astir the game, and much enactment to beryllium done to person players that this is simply a franchise that tin basal alongside different open-world enactment RPG staples. Méthé, however, believes his squad is disconnected to a bully start.

"What I truly loved, of each the comments I've seen and each the contented creator reactions I've seen, astir of the clip it went similar this: You spot the commencement of the trailer and they're like, 'okay, interesting, interesting. Then they're like, 'what the...', and past they're like, 'I'm in,' without immoderate hesitation. And that's gold. That's what we wanted. But it's our archetypal communication. It's the archetypal clip radical are proceeding astir this. There volition beryllium a clump much down the roadworthy to clarify what the crippled is, however unsocial it is. For the clip being we're conscionable taking the clip to observe this moment. And erstwhile the clip comes, we'll beryllium capable to explicate a spot much successful detail."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social