"We are more effective than bigger teams": Ahead of Blood of Dawnwalker's release next year, Rebel Wolves lead says he doesn't want the studio to grow

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"We are more effective than bigger teams": Ahead of Blood of Dawnwalker's release next year, Rebel Wolves lead says he doesn't want the studio to grow News By Jordan Gerblick Contributions from Ali Jones published 20 November 2025

"Because we don't have so many people, people feel responsible for some parts of the game, and feel ownership of it. And I think that this is the most important thing"

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(Image credit: Bandai Namco Entertainment)

Blood of Dawnwalker developer Rebel Wolves isn't looking to increase in size any time soon, and that isn't just in response to the general turbulence happening in the industry right now - it's also a form of creative design.

Talking to GamesRadar+, The Witcher 3 director and Rebel Wolves founder Konrad Tomaszkiewicz explained the benefit of sticking with a relatively small team.

Earlier this year, Dawnwalker creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz told me Rebel Wolves had been employing around 120 people, and his brother Konrad says that number has now crept up to 155.

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"I hoped that we could stay with 80 or 90 of us," Konrad Tomaszkiewicz tells us. "But the game is ambitious, and we needed to gather more people."

Still, it's important to Tomaszkiewicz that he remains engaged at all levels of the project and in contact with everyone working on it, and that's the main reason he doesn't want the team to expand any further.

"I don't want to grow because I'm afraid that we will lose the contact [between management and developers]," he says. "I like how it is right now. I like to work with people every day and create with them, not be somewhere and have layers of management just watching the final effect. I want to work with people. Not be a boss, but a leader."

Tomaszkiewicz says the "creative fire" that ignites under direct communication between leadership and ground-level employees is the "most important" aspect in the creation of a game.

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"When you set up the goal in a clear way, and you have a reasonable-sized team with whom you can discuss it and agree for some direction, it's easier to keep this spirit and have people motivated.

"And to be honest, what I experience right now is that we are more effective than bigger teams, because in huge teams, you need to manage in a different way, like you have really granular tasks for people ... and here, because we don't have so many people, people feel responsible for some parts of the game, and feel ownership of it. And I think that this is the most important thing."

Blood of Dawnwalker is scheduled to launch on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC sometime in 2026.

The Witcher 3 director says his upcoming RPG The Blood of Dawnwalker isn't "going fully into the vampire fantasy," and expect some Dishonored vibes

CATEGORIES Xbox Series X PS5 PC Gaming Platforms Xbox PlayStation Jordan GerblickSocial Links Navigation

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

With contributions from

• Ali JonesManaging Editor, News

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