Retro Studios Hires Top Artists and Designers from Bioware, Vigil, and Junction Point

Whatever Retro Studios is working on they keep expanding their team, this time with a focus on art design. The names of the people hired are apparently being kept secret so as to to prevent us fans from spamming them on social networks for new information. Still, while it appears Crytek has opened a new wing to take up at least 36 total Vigil employees, that doesn’t mean everyone followed suit. So, what did these folks do at their previous jobs? What are they doing at Retro?

• Former: Senior Animator at Bioware. Current: Level 3 Animator at Retro.
• Former: Concept Artist at Vigil. Current: Contract Concept Artist at Retro.
• Former: Associate Character Artist at Vigil. Current: Contract Character Artist at Retro.
• Former: Senior Character Artist at Vigil. Current: Level 3 Character Artist at Retro.
• Former: Associate Environment Artist from Junction Point. Current: Environment Artist at Retro.

Most of these hires, according to the user at NeoGAF (who discovered this surfing LinkedIN profiles), happened in the second half or later in 2012, so mostly after these studios were wrapped up entirely on previous projects. It’s interesting seeing people that have done things such as being a lead character designer for Vigil (Darksider’s series). You have to wonder if, truly, Retro Studios is making a big budget western style game in some genre.

Nintendo could certainly use a influx of fresh new IP’s, and with Retro Studios in tow they have a chance to create a strong western following for an all new franchise. Time will tell, but hopefully we get to see a bit of the fruit of this labor at E3. I’m pretty excited based upon the job experience.