Jerry Hook, who helped launch the original Xbox and was the former head of design on Halo Infinite, has founded his own studio, called Jar Of Sparks.
In a recent IGN interview, Hook explained that Jar Of Sparks will focus on creating AAA action-adventure games and aims to “create a new generation of narrative-driven action games” with “immersive worlds.”
Alongside Hook, other founding members include the lead narrative designer of the Batman: Arkham trilogy, Paul Crocker, as well as Doom producer Greg Stone, and Steve Dyck, who helped create the Halo series and NBA Street. Jar Of Sparks has also been formed in conjunction with NetEase.
Although in the early stages of forming its core team, Hook estimated that Jar Of Sparks’ first game will arrive in three to four years. He also said that it won’t be a live service game, explaining it would be a risk with a new studio.
“[O]ne of the main challenges we all seem to struggle with is there’s only so much risk you can take on within a new studio,” Hook said. “You’re forming a complete team with people who don’t know each other, have never worked with each other or brand new IP.
“Live service adds more complexity on top of that and I really think from my own experience for service driven games, the amount of work you need to do to make a live service work is pretty tremendous. And I think the first game that Jar Of Sparks is going to go do isn’t going to have that component to allow the team to flourish first and be able to put their creative energy first without having to worry about the continual pressure of server driven models.”
Hook also explained that Jar Of Sparks’ AAA game isn’t thinking in terms of big sales and a massive budget, using Valheim and V Rising as an example for success.
“…how about you build a team with the right budget that allows you to be successful with just a couple million or just a million? And you can be successful that way,” he said.
In other news, Oddworld: Soulstorm is coming to Nintendo Switch as the Oddtimized Edition.
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