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The core talent of Typhoon Studios, the developer behind Journey to the wild planet, have come together to open a new studio called Raccoon Logic with support from Tencent.
The new opening will be based in Montreal, Canada, and successfully acquired the rights to Journey to the wild planet from Google, which bought the franchise alongside Typhoon Studios in 2019 to help bring first-party content to Stadia.
Typhoon’s founding members include Creative Director Alex Hutchinson, who previously held the same role at Typhoon and before that directed Far cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed 3 at Ubisoft, and studio head and executive producer Reid Schneider, who also served as studio head at Typhoon and helped establish WB Games Montreal.
Hutchinson and Schneider are joined by Typhoon co-founders and alumni Yannick Simard (CTO), Erick Bilodeau (artistic director) and Marc-Antoine Lussier (technical design director).
Talking with Gamasutra about their broader ambitions for Raccoon, Hutchinson and Schneider spoke of a desire to take risks, act decisively, and commit to being focused on creativity rather than production.
“While it sounds simple, it translates into the fact that we always have to make the best decisions for the project rather than potentially arbitrary dates or initiatives that may not translate into success for the project or the studio,” explains Schneider. “That’s not to say that we don’t have milestones and deadlines – we absolutely have them – but at the end of the day, creative leadership has to be able to make the final decisions for the game.”
Schneider specifically emphasizes the value of sustainable development, explaining that the Typhoon team “never did a crunch or mandate weekend”. The co-founders intend to replicate this mindset at Raccoon and suggest that it is vital that the entire team feel supported and secure.
After reuniting part of the group – the new studio features around 75 percent Typhoon and 25 percent new faces – Raccoon looks set to launch new projects in the action-adventure genre and has already started work on a first project. not yet announced.
“We want to build on our strengths and really master the kind of games that we believe in until we hopefully make it a great one,” says Hutchinson. “We think player stories are a lot more interesting than author stories, and we think there’s a lot to be discovered in player-centric humor, so everything we do will include these pillars.”
New adventures in the world of Journey to the wild planet are on the cards as well, and while the duo’s time at Google Stadia hasn’t quite gone as planned, Hutchinson and Schneider are grateful that the tech giant has recognized the value of letting the franchise live.
“I can say that we really appreciated Google’s willingness to resell us the IP and source code of the first game, and everything that we had incubated while we were there,” says Schneider. “Google as a business is a lot more used to acquiring things rather than letting them go, so it was a pretty long – and sometimes complex – process, but they figured out that the original base game had developed a relatively large fan base, and that letting IP go away would not benefit anyone. “
Although Raccoon was able to shoot Wild planet from the wreckage after Google chose to move away from Stadia’s internal development, leading to the shutdown of its two development studios and an exodus of creative talent, they were unable to save Typhoon himself. Yet despite being caught in the crossfire of Stadia, Hutchinson and Schneider believe the cloud streaming service still has potential.
“Google is an amazing platform company with some of the best technology in the world. In my honest opinion, I think it comes down to the level of investment required to reach scale. From what we’ve seen at Google, the feeling was that if the initiative does not have the potential to reach billions of people, then it is better for them to deploy the workforce / capital in other areas, ”recalls Schneider . “During our time there, we also saw Microsoft acquire Bethesda for $ 7.5 billion, and Amazon’s continued challenges in releasing the best titles. It’s not hard to imagine why a company as successful as Google would reconsider its initial planning with forces like this around the world. “
These remarks were echoed by Hutchinson, who said Typhoon joined Stadia out of a desire to work on a single platform at the same company as the material creators. “[Going first-party] was the last thing on my to-do list, ”they explain, lamenting the fact that Typhoon didn’t quite keep that promise. “I still wish we could have finished something. But that said, I think [Google] realized that content is scary, risky, and expensive and demands a lot of trust from people, and that just wasn’t their main business. I still believe in the possibilities of Stadia, and I really hope they live up to it and succeed so we can ship games to it. “
When it’s finally time to show what they’ve been working on this time around, Hutchinson and Schneider intend to go truly global – and that’s where Tencent comes in. The Chinese conglomerate, which owns top studios like Riot Games and Supercell, has been on some sort of spending spree lately and has taken a minority stake in Raccoon to help the studio achieve its ambitions in China.
“It’s great to have found a group like Tencent that believes in us and comes with a strong investment. It’s not a concern this time because it’s a pure investment, and they took a minority stake in studio, so we continue to have full creative control. And this time around, we’re very interested in releasing our games to the Chinese market and we think they’ll be a big help in that regard, “he said. Hutchinson said.
This crucial investment should give Raccoon the tools and talent he needs to fully realize his first project, and Hutchinson says it will also allow the studio to make significant headway before they start flirting with publishers.
“Tencent’s initial investment is a huge boost, which means we can do some important work on our own before we start talking to publishers,” he continues. “We love systemic games, games with a sense of humor and a big heart, and games with strong flavors that get player feedback. We’re going to keep pushing those ideas and we’ll have something to show soon. “
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