Star Wars Jedi director who left Respawn in 2023 to 'pursue other adventures' reveals that his other adventure is a new game studio called Giant Skull

(Image credit: Giant Skull)

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen said when he left Respawn in September 2023 that he wanted "to pursue other adventures," and now we know what he meant. Asmussen announced today the launch of a new studio called Giant Skull, "dedicated to building gameplay-driven, story immersed action-adventure games set in captivating worlds."

“The Giant Skull studio culture is founded on creativity and curiosity,” Asmussen said. “We have assembled a talented team renowned for immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal, and our goal is to craft a rich universe that players will want to lose themselves in for years to come.”

That team includes Star Wars Jedi: Survivor technical director Jon Carr and design director Jeff Magers, former Fortnite, Valorant, and League of Legends art director Patrick Murphy, Fortnite lead producer Lauren McLemore, Epic Games animation director Brian Campbell, and Rocksteady chief operations officer Anthony Scott.

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Unsurprisingly, details of the studio's first game haven't been revealed beyond it being "a AAA single-player focused action adventure" built in Unreal Engine 5. But even though there's not much to see in the press release, there is some horsing around to be done on the Giant Skull website that may reveal... well, probably nothing of substance, but it's fun.

To get rolling, click the square brackets in the upper-right corner of the Giant Skull website. That opens a console prompt that accepts at least a couple Linux commands—LS and CAT—as well as various keywords: "Culture," for instance, delivers the response "AUTONOMY_MOMENTUM_CURIOUS_RESPECT," while "concept" serves up a little poem that also appears to primarily emphasize the studio's stated values.

Giant skull rendered in ASCII characters — (Image credit: Giant Skull)

If you'd rather just cut to the chase, the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit is putting together a list of all the secrets they've found so far.

Dry though the announcement may be, Asmussen has an enviable track record and the fact that he's getting up to something new is interesting: Prior to his time directing the Star Wars Jedi games (he also did Fallen Order), he served as art director on God of War 2, game director on God of War 3, and creative director of the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.