IO Interactive, the developer behind the Hitman franchise, is working on a new game, and it could be a multiplayer role-playing game. “Project Fantasy” was revealed by the developer about a month ago and described as an online fantasy role-playing game. However, it appears that IO Interactive is building more than that.
IO Interactive is a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen. The company was formed in 1998 from the merger of two entities: video game developer Reto-Moto and film studio Nordisk Film. Earlier, IOI started discussing the possibility of a fantasy MMO called “Rex Dominus.” However, Nordisk Film asked the team to stop production and instead make a simple shooter. IOI ended up with a running and bombing action game, which later developed into Hitman: Codename 47. In order to create this game, IOI also built its own game engine Glacier. The developers wanted to make death animations better than the industry standard at the time. This turned into the first use of advanced ragdoll physics in a video game.
In a job listing posted earlier this year, IOI included an interesting detail. The position in question is Lead Game Programmer, specific to Project Fantasy. Among the requirements listed, IOI wants “preferably multiplayer” from someone who has previously developed a AAA game. That does make it very likely that the upcoming game will have multiplayer elements or be a multiplayer role-playing game entirely. It is also interesting to think about how IOI presents the project on its website. It sounds a lot like a passion project, and most of its employers have at least some level of emotional connection to it. “This journey has also been a deeply personal one for many, long before we started making games for a living,” reads the statement below the Project Fantasy announcement.
Fans may wonder if Project Fantasy is really IOI going back to its original dream, which was Rex Dominus. It’s likely that the original concept hasn’t existed since it was conceived 25 years ago, but it might be a theory worth considering. In fact, IOI wanted to start with a fantasy MMO, and now that the company is sharing its personal connection to an online fantasy RPG, it looks like it has at least a multiplayer element that’s too much fun to ignore.
Whether the theory of IOI returning to its first project is true or false, fans may learn about it from the developers at a later date. But it seems more likely that while IOI is taking a break from the killer and focusing on Project Fantasy, those efforts will include creating multiplayer games.