Cyberpunk’s director and other former CD Projekt Red devs form new studio, Blank

Several top ex-CD Projekt Red developers have unveiled a new game studio and teased a new project.

Mateusz Kanik, game director of Cyberpunk 2077 and co-game director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, as well as Witcher and Cyberpunk executive producers, Jędrzej Mróz and Marcin Jefimow, have formed Blank, a new game studio based in Warsaw, Poland.

It’s the second major spin-off studio announced this year by CD Projekt leads, after Poland-based Rebel Wolves, which was formed by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who was The Witcher 3’s director and head of production/secondary game director for Cyberpunk 2077.

“We’re thrilled to announce Blank. and to start expanding our incredible team,” said Kanik. “After working for years in an increasingly conservative industry, we’re ready to make bold, impactful projects that share our unique creativity and values.”

He added: “Where the industry champions a dictatorship of the creative individual, we want to give ownership to the team. Where the industry leans on crunch culture, we prefer work-life balance. Where the industry says bigger is better, we’re setting our sights on highly polished games with a focus on emotion, story, and craftsmanship.”

Mateusz Kanik left CD Projekt last year after 15 years at the studio. Kanik joined in 2006, originally working on a game design for The Witcher, as well as the cancelled console port The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf.

He would then serve as the lead game designer on The Witcher 2. Between 2013 and 2016, Kanik was also the game director of Cyberpunk 2077 before moving on to serve as the studio’s design director.

The Blank founders have brought together an experienced team of developers: Michal Dobrowolski (CD Projekt Red) joins as Design Director, Artur Ganszyniec (CD Projekt Red, 11 Bit Studios) as Narrative Director, with Grzegorz Przybyś (Division 48 Studio, Artificer) as Art Director.

“Our game development philosophy comes from our own stories and experiences,” said Marcin Jefimow, Blank. Co-founder and executive producer.

”With Blank. we want to build a space where we can honor our histories, but also be playful and open to brand-new inspirations as we collaborate creatively. We’ve already got a head start on a budding new project that we can’t wait to share with players and craft with new team members.”

The studio currently has 10 team members, but they are looking to expand to almost 60 people to support the development of their unannounced project.