Deadly Premonition creator Swery65 opens new indie studio, White Owls

The mastermind behind the games Deadly Premonition and D4, Swery65, has founded a new indie studio. Time for more Swery games, isn’t that right, Zach?

Hidetaka Suehiro, better known as Swery65, has announced that he has opened a new studio named White Owls. This is the second studio the Deadly Premonition director has founded, after Access Games back in 2002. Both studios are located in Osaka. Swery65 shared the news over Twitter:

DAY437. Finally I opened my own studio "White Owls Inc" in Osaka. I can say "I AM BACK!!". #whiteowls #SweryIsBackhttps://t.co/SqKZ9Y6Ztr pic.twitter.com/EkEgVtBTAR

— Hidetaka SWERY SueHERO (@Swery65) January 16, 2017

Over on the official Facebook page, the studio also revealed its rather elegant looking logo, along with the confirmation that Swery65 is the President and CEO of the company. Another post informs that the studio will offer “various contents” in addition to games, suggesting its involvement in the novel that Swery is working on at the moment.

Swery65’s reputation for eccentric, auteur-driven games has created quite the fanbase worldwide. His breakout work, Deadly Premonition deeply divided critics: IGN US scored it a measly 2 out of 10, while Jim Sterling gave it a perfect score at Destructoid.

The studio’s official website suggests that White Owls will continue to develop “weird” content, “which you won’t be able to find anywhere else.” And yes, that is Swery, a licensed Buddhist monk, wearing a top hat, posing with an owl. The page also explains that their inspiration for the studio’s name comes from Ancient Greece, where owls were thought to be servants of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. White Owls hopes “to keep growing until [they] can someday evolve into a similar type of mystical entity”.

Swery also gave an interview to Gamasutra, in which he describes his previous workplace, Access Games, as having grown “sluggish and obese”. He asserts that White Owls will avoid that fate. As for what kind of games to expect, Swery says: “Games that are bizarre, scary, grotesque, and dreamlike, yet also have a strange realism. Games that remind you of the past, that are comical, and sad yet lovable”.

White Owls has not announced a debut game yet.