Former Runic Games developers have established a new studio, Monster Squad Games, to start work on an unannounced co-op game.
The studio behind Torchlight and Hob was shut down by its publisher Perfect World last year.
Currently a team of 8, Monster Squad was founded by former Runic Games head Marsh Lefler, alongside Patrick Blank, Allen Fong, and Josh Dunbar. Most of the team is comprised of former Runic or Borderlands developers.
While the founders have yet to reveal any information about its first project, they’ve already secured funding and the intention is to publish the game in-house.
Looking forward, the team expressed interest in hiring staff over the next year, hoping to keep the studio small.
Speaking to PC Gamer, Blank explained that players can expect elements of a story but not a fully fleshed out campaign, wanting to avoid the kind of heavy storytelling in Torchlight 2 in favor of focusing on gameplay.
Another reason for straying away from developing another single-player, story driven game like Hob is that the team wants players to get their hands on the game early in development.
“[With Hob], it was hard to talk to our community about it without spoiling the story,” Dunbar explained.
“It made development a bit lonely, and the best times were the occasional game show where we’d have a booth and actually get to show the game to people and talk about it.”
There’s no concrete release window for Monster Squad’s first project, but the team confirmed a PC launch first before it hits consoles.