Rockstar Games co-founder and GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 writer Dan Houser's new studio shows off its "story-driven action-comedy"

Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser - who happens to also have been a writer behind both Red Dead Redemptions, Bully, Max Payne 3, and practically every mainline Grand Theft Auto game - has been tinkering away at a new studio, Absurd Ventures, for a while, and we finally have our first look at its new game series, Absurdaverse.

The studio announced the project and showed "just a few characters from the Absurdaverse" yesterday, with a peak at its bold logo and huge lineup of modern-fantasy character that you can see below. A moody dwarf, grim reaper-type phantom, medieval skeleton, middle-aged man donning a Hawaiian shirt, and regular people who look like they work in IT are all part of the (truly absurd) cast.

"Prepare to meet some new kinds of heroes (and watch them suffer)," the post teased. "More information to come this year about the first animation projects and about our original story-driven action-comedy adventure game set in the Absurdaverse, now in development at Absurd Ventures."

Absurd Ventures has, most notably, debuted several other multimedia projects. Fictional podcast A Better Paradise has been ongoing for a while and the team is also preparing to launch a crime comic book series, American Caper, later this year. That means the team is juggling at least three 'universes,' though the above "action-comedy" is the only one with a planned video game in production (that we know of, at least.) And when it finally comes out, it'll be Dan Houser's first game since his departure from Rockstar Games in 2019. It's unclear if it's the same game as the open-world one we found out about last summer, though.

That’s not all of what’s in the pipeline either - check out every other exciting release with our new games of 2025 and beyond.