The Blood of Dawnwalker: Aiming for The Witcher 3's Quality in a Smaller Package

The open-world vampire RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker, developed by ex-CD Projekt Red (CDPR) developers under the banner of Rebel Wolves, is setting its sights high. Despite being a smaller studio releasing their first game, the team is ambitiously striving to match the quality of CDPR's acclaimed title, The Witcher 3, but in a more condensed format. Dive into the details of this upcoming title and hear directly from the game's directors about their vision and goals.

The Blood of Dawnwalker Aims for AAA Quality

30-40 Hour Main Campaign

In a recent interview with Games Radar, The Blood of Dawnwalker's creative director, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, expressed that the team at Rebel Wolves is aiming for a level of quality that rivals that of their previous work on The Witcher 3. "In terms of quality, we definitely look at AAA, because this is where we are coming from, the quality level of The Witcher 3," he affirmed. Despite the smaller scale of their studio, the team is not new to the industry, consisting of seasoned developers from CDPR who have worked on both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.

Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz and his brother Konrad founded Rebel Wolves to pursue greater creative freedom, which they felt was constrained at a larger AAA studio like CDPR. "Definitely, our games are not as huge in terms of amount of content and gameplay hours - we are a smaller studio, this is our first project, so we definitely are building something smaller. But we want to build something as robust in terms of quality, maybe a bit shorter," Mateusz explained. He highlighted that The Blood of Dawnwalker is targeting a main campaign of 30-40 hours, which is shorter than typical AAA titles but still packed with quality.

"If size is your measure, then yes it's not the size of a AAA like The Witcher. But I don't know if size is the measure, to be honest, because there are AAA games like Call of Duty that aren't 100+ hours gameplay campaigns. And I don't know if anyone would call them AA, or indie," he added, emphasizing that quality over quantity is their focus.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is set in the mystical land of Vale Sangora and follows the journey of protagonist Coen, a young peasant who gains vampiric powers after a fateful encounter. His mission is to save his ailing sister from a deadly illness, navigating through a narrative sandbox open-world filled with dark fantasy elements and hostile encounters.

While an exact release date has not been announced, The Blood of Dawnwalker is expected to launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Fans can look forward to a gameplay reveal in Summer 2025.