Idol Minds re-brands as Deck Nine Games, working on a ‘new addition to a critically acclaimed franchise’

The creators behind PlayStation titles Pain and Ratchet: Deadlocked HD have reformed to create a brand-new studio. Previously known as Idol Minds, the studio has now re-branded itself as Deck Nine Games, marking a new direction for the Colorado-based development team as it shifts its focus toward narrative-driven games.

Deck Nine is already hard at work on its first title, too, which the studio says is "a brand new addition to a critically acclaimed franchise." More details will be revealed at E3, and given the studio has also signed a partnership deal with a "leading triple-A video game publisher," we may even see it make an appearance at one of the big E3 press conferences.

As well as recruiting an influx of talent from the film and TV industries, Deck Nine has also been busy creating its own proprietary toolset called StoryForge. This toolset has been three years in the making, and the studio says it "provides unparalleled freedom for Deck Nine’s writers, directors and cinematic artists to focus on telling great stories."

Jeff Litchford, vice president at Deck Nine commented:With the creation of our new, proprietary toolset StoryForge and the shift in studio focus, we are removing the shackles from our creative team and bringing together our two passions; meaningful storytelling and rich gameplay.

We’ve invested heavily in our staff of incredibly talented developers and in creating some truly remarkable tools. Our game will be announced at E3 this year where you’ll be able to see our efforts for yourself.”

Mark Lyons, president and CTO at Deck Nine, added:The studio has been focused on the creation of StoryForge for the last three years. We built StoryForge to give our writers, directors and cinematic artists and give them the tools they need to make deep, interactive, great looking games. We can’t wait to show what we have created with it.”