The Blood of Dawnwalker Director Says He Self-Funded the RPG’s First Year Before Rebel Wolves Grew to 160 Developers

The Blood of Dawnwalker has emerged as one of 2026’s notable RPG success stories, and new details about its development reveal that Rebel Wolves created the game with a reported $40 million development budget. The figure comes from a Bloomberg report examining the Polish studio’s journey from a small prototype team to the developer behind a successful new dark-fantasy RPG.

The game was created by Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by former CD Projekt developers including The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz. After initially financing the project himself, Tomaszkiewicz secured backing from NetEase, which invested in Rebel Wolves while acquiring a 26% stake in the company. The resulting $40 million budget placed The Blood of Dawnwalker considerably below the budgets associated with many modern AAA productions.

Rebel Wolves Built Dawnwalker Without a Massive AAA Budget

Development of The Blood of Dawnwalker began with a small team working on an early prototype in 2022. Tomaszkiewicz initially funded the studio while the developers worked toward creating a project that could attract an external investment partner.

NetEase eventually provided the reported $40 million development budget, allowing production to expand. The deal also gave the Chinese technology company a 26% ownership stake in Rebel Wolves. According to reports based on Bloomberg’s investigation, full production began toward the end of 2023 following an earlier period focused on recruitment.

The budget is notable because The Blood of Dawnwalker is a large-scale open-world action RPG featuring a gothic setting, branching choices and a distinctive day-and-night gameplay system. However, the reported $40 million figure refers to development funding and should not automatically be treated as the game’s complete production, marketing and publishing expenditure.

Konrad Tomaszkiewicz Wants to Keep Rebel Wolves Manageable

As the game’s ambitions expanded, so did Rebel Wolves. The studio had approximately 90 employees in 2024 but has since grown to around 160 people.

Tomaszkiewicz explained that the studio does not want continued expansion to come at the expense of its creative culture. Speaking to Bloomberg, he said,

“We decided that the size of the team we have right now is the most fitting for our needs.”

He added that the current structure allows him to remain personally connected with the developers rather than becoming removed from the creative process.

“I still feel like a creator and not a manager, which is the place I want to be,”

Tomaszkiewicz said.

That approach could become increasingly important as Rebel Wolves works on additional projects, including plans connected to The Blood of Dawnwalker. The studio has already indicated that further content and a New Game Plus mode are in development, while the team continues working on its future plans.

The Blood of Dawnwalker Turns Its Smaller Budget Into a Success

The reported $40 million budget becomes even more notable when compared with the game’s early commercial performance. The Blood of Dawnwalker launched on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in September and surpassed 1 million copies sold shortly after release. Rebel Wolves confirmed the milestone through its official channels.

The game has also attracted a substantial PC audience. SteamDB recorded an all-time concurrent-player peak of 78,188 players, demonstrating strong launch interest for Rebel Wolves’ first release.

The commercial response has been accompanied by generally positive critical and player reception. The Blood of Dawnwalker combines an open-world setting with a protagonist who operates differently depending on the time of day, while its story centers on a vampire-controlled region and the protagonist Coen’s struggle to save his family.

Rebel Wolves’ debut therefore offers an unusual example of a major-looking RPG being developed without the enormous budgets increasingly associated with blockbuster games. Its reported $40 million investment, 160-person team and early sales success have made The Blood of Dawnwalker an especially interesting case study in how modern RPGs can be produced outside the traditional AAA spending model.