Tomb Raider, Call of Duty devs form experimental game design studio Tangentlemen

Former Tomb Raider, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Call of Duty and Spec Ops: The Line developers, who "are prepared to dive down the rabbit hole of experimental game design," have established game development studio Tangentlemen, the new studio announced today.

The team met while working on Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z and founded the studio once the title was released to take creative risks and offer "uncanny interactive experiences." Currently in concept stage, the studio's first project is tentatively titled Daedalus, "an existential, surreal horror trip."

"The rocketing costs of AAA development led to a creative stagnation in games until the recent explosion of the indie scene," co-creative director Toby Gard said in a statement. "We have formed Tangentlemen to take some creative risks and trust our belief that there is an audience who want fun experiences that don't fall comfortably inside predefined marketing boxes."

Tangentlemen's founding members include Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z creator, Toby Gard; Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z art director and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare artist, Rich Smith; Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty producer, John Garcia-Shelton; Spec Ops: The Line creative director and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z lead designer, Cory Davis; along with "a secret crew of genius tinkerers."

"At Tangentlemen, we see each creative dilemma — no matter how challenging as a dance with the devil, so to say," Tangentlemen co-creative director Davis said in a statement. "We live for those challenges. By relying on our collective experience, mutual respect, and off-kilter personalities, we're able to twerk it out into new exciting thematic territory."

"Our solutions are not what you'd expect," he added. "They're often weird, or even absurd, with strong gestures that challenge the status quo. Our games are extreme in their thematic, narrative, and mechanical design. I seriously can't wait to tell you exactly what we're up to right now!"