A group of former Evolution Studios developers have banded together to form new indie outfit, Wushu Studios.
Those at the Liverpool-based studio are perhaps best known for their work on racing franchises like Motorstorm and DriveClub, but the team now wants to move away from the world of triple-A development.
Led by founder Alan McDermott, design director Nigel Kershaw, and art director Stuart Trevor — all Evolution and PlayStation alumni — the 11-strong team aims to create games “with interesting mechanics, unique concepts, and refreshing gameplay experiences.”
“Our core team at Wushu have worked together closely on numerous projects over the years so there was no downtime in figuring out how to work together, we just fell straight into a groove kicking around game ideas that appealed to us as players and developers,” explained studio lead Alan McDermott.
Wushu is currently working on an unannounced science fiction title that began prototyping in September 2017. The game is being built using Unreal Engine 4, and despite what you might expect, won’t be a racer.
“We firmly believed in the idea that our initial concepts needed to be gamepad experiences as quickly as possible, so we turned to Unreal Engine for it’s amazing rapid prototyping capabilities,” added McDermott.
“This approach has helped us figure out which of our concepts would allow us to flex our creative muscle most. It’s definitely not what people will be expecting to see from us; it’s absolutely not a racing game.”