Image: Splash Damage
The streamers are partnering up with Splash Damage to make an open-world survival-shooter game together.
Two of Twitch’s most popular streamers, Mike ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek and Chris ‘Sacriel’ Ball are teaming up with game studio Splash Damage to make a game of their own. The new game is currently codenamed Project Astrid, and appears to be an open-world survival-shooter game.
Aside from the game’s overlapping genres, Splash Damage chose to keep further details under wraps besides saying that it was, “truly different from anything we’ve done before.” Shroud has been known to gravitate towards competitive multiplayer shooters like CS:GO however, so we can expect something that features fast-paced combat and some form of PvP or PvE gameplay.
According to Splash Damage, their current partnership with Shroud and Sacriel isn’t just for show. The two are listed as ‘core members’ of Project Astrid’s development team who contribute, “as players, streamers, subject matter experts, and community builders and leaders." In a Twitter video, Shroud said that he was specifically looking at weapon recoil and ballistics because, “the gunplay is really important.”
On the announcement, Shroud said:
This project means everything to me. Chris and I have refined a vision for what's next in the survival genre and with Splash Damage we're setting out to build it. We want to build the best survival game ever, and with Sacriel's brain and Splash Damage's team, I know we can do it.
Sacriel, meanwhile, said:
Mike and I have been envisioning a world where we help build the game that streamers and gamers love playing [...] To be able to execute with a team as esteemed and experienced as Splash Damage is a privilege. In our work together to date, it is clear to us that we are truly part of the team and that we are well positioned to help bring this dream to reality.
Splash Damage’s most recent release was Gears Tactics in 2020, which the studio developed with Gears of War developer The Coalition. Before that, the studio mainly assisted in developing Xbox Game Studios titles like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Gears 5’s multiplayer mode. The studio also put out a top-down shooter called Outcasters on Google Stadia, but Stadia died and the game went with it.
Shroud and Sacriel frequently stream shooters like PUBG and survival games like DayZ together, with the former being one of Twitch’s most popular streamers at 10.5 million followers and counting. Both streamers have said that they will discuss the upcoming game in more detail on their streams, but it looks to be in very early development for now.
