Jeff Strain, the former ArenaNet co-founder who went on to helm State of Decay developer Undead Labs, has decided to expand his horizons with the announced launch of a game dev studio and broad-discipline game dev academy in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Specifics on just what this new initiative is all about are a bit thin, as things are still apparently pulling together, but the purpose of this new studio is to nurture talent in places that otherwise aren’t known as hotbeds for games development:
“Big ideas don’t always come from the biggest cities or the flashiest neighborhoods. Sometimes the heroes come from places like Marshall or Spencer’s Mill. That’s why game development needs a bigger base, where the know-how, grit, and ideas of even more people can find their way to the public.”
Strain will continue his role as studio head of Undead Labs with the support of Microsoft and Xbox, and this likely won’t mean anything for State of Decay 2’s arrival to Steam; it just means that New Orleans will hopefully become a bed for new talent to grow.
