An expansive free-to-play MMORPG, Wayfinder represents a lot of firsts for developer Airship Syndicate. The studio’s best known for creating Darksiders Genesis (a co-op prequel to the hack-and-slash Darksiders trilogy) and the single-player League Of Legends RPG Ruined King. This online interconnected open world is not only its first original IP but already shaping up to be its most ambitious game yet.
That said, even when working with other companies’ properties, Airship Syndicate’s staff enjoyed freedom to experiment with their past projects, to the point where some games felt very much their own. “Spiritually, Ruined King felt like the only title where we were working with somebody else’s IP” says Ryan Stefanelli, the company’s president. The studio was founded by staff from the defunct Vigil Games, the developer of Darksiders, and he goes on to explain that “THQ really trusted us to just do our thing with it [Genesis]. Ruined King was very different because it was clearly somebody else's IP, we had to learn a lot about it, we had to stay inside boundaries that they set." "Wayfinder is new and so we have a lot more freedom," adds Joe Madureira, the CEO and creative director, so “it’s been really fun.”
SCALING UP
“All the games that we’ve worked on have essentially been a love letter to a genre,” says AJ LaSaracina, the marketing and engagement director, “and this is a love letter to those online games that you stay up late at night playing”. Even so, the vision for Wayfinder originally started small and grew over time.
This story is from the July 2023 edition of PLAY Magazine UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2023 edition of PLAY Magazine UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster
The first-ever Star Wars FPS gets the remaster treatment
Stilt
A hopportunity for some silly fun
Penny's Big Breakaway
Spin it to win it
Bound by fate
Ys X: Nordics to get an English-language release this autumn
Morbid: The Lords Of Ire
Slash-happy soulslike loves slicing red bits out of bodies
WWE 2K24
Rock solid, yet wrestling itself into an annual headache
Host with the ghost
Surviving inside Celeste's hotel is tricky enough; try escaping with an enraged spectral manager in pursuit
Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Remake
The remake proves this burning's still a fraternal flame
Alone In The Dark
Needs more bright ideas
A Little To The Left
Ah, the cat's got into this puzzler