Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games, has announced the first projects his new studio Absurd Ventures will be working on—and neither of them are video games.
Two trademarks were filed by the company earlier this week, leading to fan speculation of upcoming game titles, but neither American Caper nor A Better Paradise are games—although that could potentially change in the future.
As reported by VGC, Absurd Ventures announced that American Caper will be a graphic novel and A Better Paradise is an audio fiction series. While this may come as a disappointment to players hoping they would be games, the door isn’t closed for the future. In an interview with Variety on Nov. 10, Houser highlighted the cross-media plans for Absurd Ventures with the aim of mitigating the risks of introducing a new IP by first launching with smaller outputs—with graphic novels and an audio fiction series certainly slotting into this plan.
American Caper is being illustrated by comic book artist Simon Bisley, best known for his work on ABC Warriors and Lobo, and the story will center on “two normal, badly-damaged American families in a world of corrupt business, inept politics and bungling crime”. Meanwhile, A Better Paradise will be “an existential suspense thriller, set in the near future”.
Houser’s work with Rockstar on the likes of Red Dead Redemption and Bully means there will be a huge amount of intrigue in both projects, and any future work from Absurd Ventures, and the studio recently bolstered its staff with the additions of Rockstar veterans Lazlow Jones and Michael Unsworth.
Jones is best known for creating the audio for Grand Theft Auto’s satirical radio stations, while Unsworth is one of only three writers credited for both Red Dead Redemption games. It seems likely that the latter will be working on A Better Paradise, while Unsworth could theoretically provide story material for either project.
Published: Nov 30, 2023 04:56 am