Shadows Of The Damned Director Leaves Grasshopper

Massimo Guarini, director of recent third-person thriller Shadows of the Damned, has left developer Grasshopper Manufacture to set up his own company. The Suda51-fronted development team confirmed to games blog Joystiq that Guarini has left to work on his new studio, called Ovosonico Productions. The newly launched official site for Ovosonico claims to be "the sound of bold ideas", while the source code also reveals the line "Games, Music, Films with an attitude," suggesting that Guarini is setting his sights on more than simply video games. There is no official word yet regarding when the Ovosonico site will fully launch. Before working at Grasshopper, Guarini also had a number of roles at Ubisoft Montreal, including game design director on Naruto: Rise of a Ninja and lead level design on Open Season. Guarini talked to Gamasutra last month as part of a feature interview, noting that creative challenges and opportunities are what excited him about the Grasshopper studio.