Pixar artists fire up Steel Wool Games

A team of five artists from renowned animation studio Pixar have formed a game studio.

Steel Wool Games was founded in 2011, but only recently began spreading the word that its first game, Flyhunter, is to be released in 2013.

Sequoia Blankenship, Andrew Dayton, Jonathan Hoffman, Joshua Qualtieri and Jason Topolski have over 60 years of experience at Pixar between them, and have worked on films like Brave, The Incredibles, and Toy Story.

They hope to push the limits of game animation in the same way Pixar redefined what computer animation could do for films.

That said, Dayton told Edge that his team will be taking a slightly darker tone than they had while making movies.

“We have an internal phrase that we use to describe our style: ‘Grimsical’", he said.

"It’s our fundamental principle as a company. We create worlds that are funny and whimsical but dipped in gritty tones.”

Flyhunter will appear this summer and is being published by Ripstone.