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Cyberpunk 2077 Follow-up, codenamed Project Orion, grows in strength at CD PROJEKT RED North America

Cyberpunk 2077 Follow-up, codenamed Project Orion, grows in strength at CD PROJEKT RED North America

February 6, 2024

CD PROJEKT RED has announced several high-profile additions to the team working on Project Orion — the anticipated follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077 being headed up by the US and Canada-based CD PROJEKT RED North America.

Project Orion is currently in the early stages of development, with studio veterans previously involved in Cyberpunk 2077 and its spy-thriller Phantom Liberty expansion spearheading the project, including Gabriel Amatangelo (Game Director), Paweł Sasko (Associate Game Director), Igor Sarzyński (Creative Director), Andrzej Stopa (Cinematic Director), Kacper Niepokólczycki (Environment Art Director), Sarah Grümmer (Acting Lead Quest Designer) and Kacper Kościeński (Engineering Director). This group is now part of a larger team based in the newly created CDPR studio in Boston, Massachusetts.

Joining them at this location are industry professionals with years of experience and a variety of well-known and impressive AAA projects:

  • Dan Hernberg is joining the team as Executive Producer. Dan has previously worked as Head of Production at Amazon Games, Head of Production and Product Management at Panic Button, and Lead Product Manager at Blizzard Entertainment — and contributed to such titles as New World, Apex Legends, and Diablo III, among others.
  • Ryan Barnard’s past credits include Game Director at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft, as well as Gameplay Director at Hitman developer IO Interactive. He will be contributing his skillset as Design Director.
  • Alan Villani is entering the Project Orion team as Engineering Director, having previously lent his technical expertise as VP of Technology on various WB Game products, including technical direction on several Mortal Kombat titles.
  • Anna Megill is an award-winning game writer and author with 20 years’ experience in video games. She joins Project Orion as Lead Writer on the heels of narrative contributions to such titles as Control (Remedy), Dishonored: Death of The Outsider (Arkane), Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Ubisoft Massive), Guild Wars 2 (ArenaNet), and the upcoming Fable (Playground Games).
  • Alexander Freed will further bolster the writing for Project Orion. The New York Times bestselling novelist, narrative designer, and comic book writer with over 15 years of game writing experience has previously worked as Lead Writer at BioWare on, among other titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic. He has also written and consulted for various major studios, including DICE, Obsidian Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast, and 20th Century Fox's games division FoxNext.

As work on the follow-up to Cyberpunk 2077, codename Project Orion, enters early stages of development at CD PROJEKT RED North America, the company is currently hiring for various positions across its Boston and Vancouver locations.The full list of job openings is available on the official CD PROJEKT RED website and will be further updated once new openings become available.