{"id":87803,"date":"2026-08-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=87803"},"modified":"2026-08-19T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T15:36:40","slug":"dishonored-deus-ex-designer-stars-new-studio-to-continue-focusing-on-immersive-sims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=87803","title":{"rendered":"Dishonored, Deus Ex Designer Stars New Studio to Continue Focusing on Immersive Sims"},"content":{"rendered":"<section data-transform=\"mobile-ad-break\">\n<p>Decorated veteran game developer Harvey Smith (Dishonored series, original Deus Ex series), most recently of Arkane Austin \u2013 which Xbox <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/microsoft-closes-redfall-developer-arkane-austin-hifi-rush-developer-tango-gameworks-and-more-in-devastating-cuts-at-bethesda\">shut down<\/a> in 2024 following the failure of Redfall \u2013 has opened a new game development studio. Dubbed Black Pony Immersive, it will indeed focus on the &#8220;immersive sim&#8221; genre that Smith helped pioneer evolve through his work as co-creative director on Dishonored, creative director on Dishonored 2, and lead game designer on the original Deus Ex (which, not for nothing, this particular writer ranks as a top-10 game of all-time).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My favorite gaming memories come from seeing players approach challenges with creativity, deep-diving into our world building,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;We try to reward players for their curiosity and exploration. At our new studio, we&#8217;re building exactly the kind of single-player games we&#8217;re most passionate about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<section data-transform=\"ignvideo\" data-slug=\"dishonored-2-review\" data-loop=\"\">\n<p>Smith is a disciple of immersive-sim legend Warren Spector, who just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/deus-ex-system-shock-and-thief-developer-legend-warren-spector-announces-retirement\">announced his retirement<\/a>. &#8220;I worked closely with Warren for nine years, learning a lot,&#8221; Smith told IGN. &#8220;We still go to lunch now and then. Recently, he gave me one of his guitars after we ate a bunch of Mexican food. My feelings for Warren are deep and complicated, but mostly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decorated veteran game developer Harvey Smith (Dishonored series, original Deus Ex series), most recently of Arkane Austin \u2013 which Xbox shut down in 2024 following the failure of Redfall \u2013 has opened a new game development studio. Dubbed Black Pony Immersive, it will indeed focus on the &#8220;immersive sim&#8221; genre that Smith helped pioneer evolve&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":87805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87803"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87807,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87803\/revisions\/87807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}