Though Paris-based developer Dontnod Entertainment is best-known for episodic adventure game series like Life is Strange and Tell Me Why, it's also the studio behind sci-fi action-adventure Remember Me and Victorian-era horror RPG Vampyr. When Dontnod's CEO Oskar Guilbert told GamesBeat the studio currently has six games in production, he explained the kind of games it's making might surprise people.
"We don't want to stick to the same thing every time," Guilbert said. "We innovate. We are reinventing ourselves in terms of quality, mechanics, and technology. Finding new ways of telling stories is really important."
The interview mentions action-RPGs and interactive fiction as genres Dontnod is interested in exploring, and notes the studio is well aware of the example set by Telltale Games, who stuck with an initially successful formula long after it had stopped selling (admittedly Telltale had other problems, including mismanagement and bad luck with licensed properties). As Guilbert put it, "we know it is important to renew the mechanics, the look and feel of our games, and not merely change the narrative."
To assist with the increased production, Dontnod is adding a new studio in Montreal with another 50 employees, which will bring its total staff to over 300.
Dontnod's next game is Twin Mirror, a detective story about an investigative journalist with a mind palace and an alter ego who, as Rachel said in her recent preview, "pops up at key moments in the game that have you making important decisions, with choices that impact the rest of the game." Dontnod is self-publishing Twin Mirror, which will be released on December 1, exclusive to the Epic Games Store for a year.
