Yesterday, Idol Minds (Pain, Ratchet: Deadlocked HD) announced that they’ve re-branded as Deck Nine Games as a result of their shift in direction to “fully focus on the creation of narrative-driven titles.”
Deck Nine has already signed a deal with a “leading AAA videogame publisher and are deep in development on their first title,” which is a “brand new addition to a critically acclaimed franchise.” Details on this narrative adventure game will be given at E3 2017 later this month, and Deck Nine says they’re focused “on becoming a premium developer of narrative adventure games for consoles, PC, and mobile devices worldwide.”
As studio Vice President Jeff Litchford explained, Deck Nine has created a proprietary toolset called StoryForge, granting “unparalleled freedom” for the team:
With the creation of our new, proprietary toolset StoryForge and the shift in studio focus, we are removing the shackles from our creative team and bringing together our two passions; meaningful storytelling and rich gameplay. We’ve invested heavily in our staff of incredibly talented developers and in creating some truly remarkable tools. Our game will be announced at E3 this year where you’ll be able to see our efforts for yourself.
According to a screenshot (above) found in the source code of Deck Nine’s website by GameKult, details from NeoGAF user JINX, and an Imgur album, Deck Nine is working on a Life is Strange prequel with Square Enix as the publisher. If the rumor is true, the game will allow you to explore the relationship between Chloe and Rachel.
With E3 less than two weeks away, it won’t be long before we know if this rumor is true.
Last month, Life is Strange developer Dontnod announced that a new game is in the works from them, but it won’t be at E3. Additionally, Sony announced that Life is Strange will be offered in the June 2017 PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection.
