Arkane Austin is officially no more, and Studio Director Harvey Smith, who has worked at Arkane for over sixteen years, shared all his emotions in a long and heartfelt thread on Twitter/X. Over the course of his 30-plus-year-long career in the industry, Smith was a lead designer at Ion Storm on Deus Ex, a director on Deus Ex: Invisible War, and a designer on Thief: Deadly Shadows. After a brief stint at Midway, he joined Arkane to be a creative director, designer, and writer on the first Dishonored.
He then moved to Lyon for a while, where he held the position of creative director on the Dishonored sequel and Death of the Outsider before returning to Arkane Austin as the studio director to lead Redfall. In the thread, the game designer expresses all his love and pride for his colleagues and what they went through together as a relatively scrappy studio.
I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin so much. Great times, hard times, we went through so much, together. Of course, today's news is terrible, for all of us. Your talent will lift you up, and I will do anything I can to help.
Some notes on Arkane. What a place. It was 16 years for me. Some games I will always treasure. Very proud of the team and culture. No place is perfect, but we cared a lot and put in effort. Over the years, there were so many great people at the Arkane studios. Yesterday, as we packed up and reassured one another, I spent time with people who were part of crafting Redfall, Dishonored 1, and Prey, yes, but prior to that, Deus Ex, Ultima, and countless other games that left a mark on me.
The people around me have mostly been so great, at Arkane Austin and Lyon, Id, Bethesda, Tango, Machine Games, ZOS, and all the others. Developers, marketing and PR, external production, QA (heroes), just ongoing lists of amazing people. Years of relationships.
For Arkane, I started at a time when we were struggling. Independence is hard. I was person 4 at the tiny Austin office. The two studios were very integrated, but at the time directed from Austin because Raf was there. Of course, Lyon had some of the founders too, and critically important creative and technical people.
We connected to Bethesda, made Dishonored, the Knife of Dunwall, the Brigmore Witches. The number of difficulties along the way could fill a book. But the number of glorious, hilarious moments could fill ten. We segregated the two teams, I moved to Lyon for 4 years, where we made Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider. While Raf, Ricardo, and many others, including key Redfall leads, stayed in Austin and created Prey and Mooncrash.
I moved back, we started working on Redfall, the Pandemic happened, it just goes on and on up until yesterday. For a small company created in 1999 by "6 French guys in a room," what a story. I am so proud to have been a part of it for 16 years. To help lead it.
Later in the thread, Smith said he 'made a bunch of calls' and plans yesterday. He also wondered about the 'sweet spot' when it comes to team size for making the games he's used to (immersive simulations).
Being in the building with Ricardo and so many others (I am going to stop with the lists)...people who led parts of efforts on Dishonored, Prey, and Redfall, people I have worked with for decades, since Deus Ex and even before in the case of Steve Powers...it was overwhelming. I made a bunch of calls yesterday. Made connections. Made plans. My throat is still raw. Our people are really great. Many of them - like so many colleagues - are scrambling. I hope conditions change soon.
But part of me is also wondering about team size, the role of certain types of creative groups, the role of bigger companies, etc. Maybe there is a sweet spot for the types of games I am driven to make in terms of team size.
It sounds like the former Arkane Austin studio director might be of a mind to work at a more tight-knit group next. He wouldn't be the first (or the last, surely) triple-A veteran to opt for a smaller, more agile studio. His friend Raphaël Colantonio, founder and president of Arkane for 18 years, left the company in 2017 to found WolfEye Studios, a small team that made the immersive sim/top-down action RPG Weird West. In 2020, Colantonio said that triple-A development felt more like working on a product than a game.
WolfEye announced a year ago it is making a new and ambitious IP next; perhaps Smith will join them. Either way, we'll definitely keep track of wherever he lands.
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