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Grinding Gear Games co-founder Chris Wilson wants everyone to know his new, unannounced action-RPG won't be comparable in size to Path of Exile, and he worries his fans will be disappointed when it's revealed.
In the latest video posted to his official YouTube channel, Wilson gets into all sorts of fun topics like whether there's really fishing in Path of Exile (don't expect a clear answer), the games he's been playing (Project Diablo 2 and a mobile fishing game), and his plant wall. Most relevant to this story, he also gets into the game that's in development at his new studio, Light Pattern, which has yet to reveal its debut title.
"What we're making is small," he stresses. "What we're making is not a thing that's huge, like Path of Exile, and I worry that because at some stage we're going to announce our game – this is years away, like we're in stealth mode for quite a while – but at some stage we'll announce our game, and I really worry the reaction is going to be, 'What? All this time and you just made that?'"
Wilson adds that people expecting "the next huge online game" with a $100 million budget should know Light Pattern is a "tiny" studio with about 10 employees. Wilson is "loving" working with such a small team because "you get to work really closely with everyone" and "you understand everything that's going into the game" like "the good old days of game development," but it sounds like the project is much smaller in scope than something like Path of Exile or, to an even greater degree, Diablo 4.
Ultimately, Wilson says the opinion he values more than anyone's else is his own, since he's funding the project entirely by himself.
"I think I'm going to like the game. And to me, being the person who's funding this and, you know, [is] so invested in it, that's the important part," he says. "And we will, at some stage, talk about it, but it's going to be substantially closer to completion at that stage. We want the ability to kind of just cook on what we're working on, and not really have to worry too much about keeping up a public image of doing marketing and providing updates and that kind of stuff."
As a lifelong Diablo 2 player, I couldn't be more excited to see what Wilson and co. are cooking up. Wilson himself makes me look like a dirty, filthy casual when it comes to passion for Diablo 2, and of course Path of Exile itself is a fantastic spiritual successor to Blizzard North's 2000 opus, so I'm hopeful his next project will be imbued with some of that same magic.
