The Witcher 3 director left CD Projekt after bullying allegations — and made The Blood of Dawnwalker, which investors fought over

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz worked through all three Witcher games — from junior tester to director of the third installment — and also held a leadership role on Cyberpunk 2077. In 2021, he became the subject of an internal investigation over bullying accusations. He was cleared, but still chose to leave, apologizing to colleagues for “everything bad.” In 2022, he founded Rebel Wolves and began development on The Blood of Dawnwalker.

What happened next, Tomaszkiewicz calls unexpected. When the studio approached investors — with a team, documentation, presentations, and clear financials — they didn’t receive a single rejection.

Tomaszkiewicz is deliberately building Rebel Wolves as the opposite of CD Projekt: around 160 people, everyone knows each other, and the director works side by side with the team instead of testing the game from afar. He calls himself a leader, not a boss — explaining that his role is not to dictate decisions, but to help the team find them. The Blood of Dawnwalker will inevitably be compared to The Witcher, and he’s fine with that. The game has already passed one million wishlists on Steam and is nearing certification.

The studio’s ambitions are intentionally modest: Tomaszkiewicz wants Rebel Wolves to remain roughly the same size even in ten years. No juggling five projects at once, no turning into a massive corporation. “I want to grow old with the team and enjoy the process,” he says.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is set to release in 2026 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, though no exact date has been announced. The game takes place in an alternate 14th-century Europe devastated by plague: vampires seized power while humanity was weakened. The protagonist, Coen, becomes a Dawnwalker — a being caught between human and vampire. By day, he fights as a human with directional combat systems; by night, he gains vampiric abilities like teleportation and enhanced vision. A key mechanic is an in-game timer: the player has 30 days to save their family, and each quest advances time, making a full playthrough in a single run impossible. Romance options are confirmed, though details remain undisclosed.

Do you think The Blood of Dawnwalker can stand alongside The Witcher 3 — or is that bar simply too high? Share your thoughts in the comments.