“I believe that RPGs should be about choice. My vision for Rebel Wolves is to get a few steps closer to pen-and-paper RPGs. Where there is a gamemaster who can evolve the story and your experience in different ways once you start taking action, but always to the same goal. That’s why we are building this narrative sandbox, and why we want players to have the freedom to shape their own way of playing in the world we are creating.”
It is statements like this from Rebel Wolves CEO Konrad Tomaszkiewicz that have helped propel The Blood of Dawnwalker into the stratosphere. The upcoming RPG is one of the most anticipated video games of 2026 for good reason, an open-world dark fantasy adventure set in 14th-century Europe. What sets this experience apart is its concept, where every action (and inaction) shapes the world around you.
“We want players to have the freedom to shape their own way of playing” Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, Game Director
You have just 30 days and 30 nights to save your family from the clutches of a centuries-old clan of vampires; the gothic kingdom of Vale Sangora isolated, its citizens enslaved into ritualistic servitude. This world waits for no one. Every quest you accept, and major action you take, moves the clock forward. “Once you leave the prologue area, there are absolutely no handrails, no invisible walls. You know what your goal is – but how (or even if) you reach it is up to you,” says narrative director Jakub Szamałek.
The Blood of Dawnwalker matches this concept with incredible pedigree in the RPG space. Rebel Wolves is staffed by a mixture of fresh blood and CD Projekt RED veterans, including the game director, lead quest designer, and a senior writer of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. “It’s taken a lot of hard work to get to where we are right now,” says Tomaszkiewicz. “When we started Rebel Wolves in 2022, there were just 15 of us.”
Three years on, Rebel Wolves has over 150 developers working to deliver The Blood of Dawnwalker. “The team is not huge, but it’s not that small either,” considers Tomaszkiewicz. “When we worked with our colleagues on The Witcher 3, the average headcount during production was 160 and by the end I think it was 205, so there isn’t a huge gap.”
Scaling so quickly was necessary, because time isn’t the only complicating factor in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s design. The ability to take on any quest, in any order, with time slipping away as you work towards your ultimate objective is complicated by Coen – the protagonist who is human by day, vampire by night. “Each form offers distinct skills and abilities,” says creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, “and most quests can be approached differently during either day or night.”
The Blood of Dawnwalker is promising a staggering degree of depth in its narrative sandbox, propagating the sort of freedom and flexibility seldom seen in modern RPGs. Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who also serves as game director, says that he never feared chasing something so ambitious for Rebel Wolves’ debut project.
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