CI Games establishes Hexworks to develop Lords of the Fallen 2

CI Games has announced the establishment of Hexworks, a new game development studio based in Barcelona and Bucharest. The Barcelona team opened its doors in early March, followed by the Bucharest team a few weeks later. Collectively, the teams are working on fantasy action RPG Lords of the Fallen 2 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.

“It’s been a long time since we started talking about Lords of the Fallen 2 and trying different ideas,” said CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski in a press release. “I am very excited for us to be able to announce the new studio that has been already at work for the last half of the year and made significant progress. Initially we decided to keep that quiet as we didn’t want to bring that to public eyes before we would build the core team and before we would all agree on the details of the first project and move forward with our vision. So, this is the time to officially say we are here and we’re here to stay.”

Hexworks is a team of around 25 people, including veteran staff with AAA game development experience, led by creative director Cezar Virtosu and executive producer Saul Gascon.

“As a dedicated gamer myself, I can feel when developers are passionate about the games they make,” executive producer Saul Gascon said. “And this is what our studio is all about: Creating games we love to play ourselves. We’ve gathered a kickass team of senior developers with a deep fascination for mature fantasy games. The path has been intense, especially with the global lockdown situation, but working shoulder-to-shoulder with Marek and Cezar, we’ve gathered a great team mostly from our networks. I can’t wait to share more information on the studio, and show what we are working on!”

Lords of the Fallen 2 is described as a shift from the original’s “power fantasy” to a “dark fantasy,” and promises to be more loyal to the challenging combat experience expected of “Soulsborne” and “Soulslike” titles.

Creative director Cezar Virtosu added, “For many months now, the three of us worked defining and scoping the project, to find the right DNA that would grant us a competitive edge and still remain in the realm of feasibility. It is challenging to develop combat focused games remotely, but this is offset by the ease of contacting and working with massive soulsborne fans scattered around the world. It is an intoxicating mix of indie production and fanwork, since we are not a big production block and we all come from the genre’s trenches, thus, regardless of nationality, we are speaking the same game language. We are enthusiastic about our mission and we are aiming to deliver a creatively charged gameplay experience within the genre’s framework.”

A release date for Lords of the Fallen 2 was not announced.