James Turner, the artwork director for Pokemon Sword and Shield and designer of a number of Pokemon from latest generations, has left Game Freak. Earlier this week, Turner took to Twitter to announce that he and sport designer onebitbeyond had based a brand new sport studio known as All Possible Futures. In a subsequent response, Turner confirmed that he had left Game Freak to open the brand new studio, however he “nonetheless loves” the corporate. Turner’s All Possible Futures introduced their first sport, The Plucky Squire, whose trailer may be seen under:
Turner was the primary Westerner to formally design a Pokemon and was accountable for creating a number of in style species of Pokemon. Turner designed Shadow Lugia, Vanillite, Vanillish, Vanilluxe, Golett, Golurk, Vullaby, Mandibuzz, Phantump, Trevenant, Buzzwole, Guzzlord, Poipole, Naganadel, Gigantamax Gengar, Centiskorch, Sinistea, Polteageist, and the Galarian Zigzagoon line. Turner additionally labored on a number of Pokemon spinoff titles, together with Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness. Turner had labored for Game Freak since 2010.
Earlier this yr, Game Freak introduced that Junichi Masuda, the director of quite a few Pokemon video games, had stepped down at his place on the firm. Masuda transitioned to a brand new place at The Pokemon Company, which might give him higher affect on the general Pokemon franchise as a substitute of the video games. While Masuda had not labored on Pokemon Sword and Shield or Pokemon Legends: Arceus, his and Turner’s departure from Game Freak represents one other signal that the Pokemon video games have actually entered a brand new era.
We want Turner all the very best in his new endeavor. The Plucky Squire is because of be launched in 2023 on the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.