Formerly the head of BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise, Mike Laidlaw has been up to a lot since departing the RPG studio, having worked on the indie-produced The Waylanders as well as a short-lived project for Ubisoft Quebec in 2019. However, it appears the developer is now prepared to begin working on his own projects again with the announcement of a new studio called Yellow Brick Games.

As revealed by Game Informer, Mike Laidlaw joins Thomas Giroux, Jeff Skalski, and Frederic St. Laurent B., utilizing former talent from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs series’ as well as BioWare’s Mass Effect and Dragon Age in the formation of a new studio driven by high-quality and original IPs. “We want to emphasize a ‘back-to-basics approach’, centered on the pleasure of crafting new game experiences, in a flexible and more personable environment that an independent studio can provide,” said Thomas Giroux. “We have all the resources at our disposal to achieve our goals.”

“We have learned a lot from working on world-class, multi-year projects with thousands of colleagues and we want to take a different approach,” said Jeff Skalski. “Leveraging a smaller talented team where people come first, we will create amazing worlds and experiences for all others to enjoy. The market is moving fast, and we have no desire to play catchup and chase it when we can influence where it goes. These goals drove us to found Yellow Brick Games.”

Setting up shop in Quebec, Canada, Mike Laidlaw will operate as Chief Creative Officer of Yellow Brick Games along with Jeff Skalski as Chief Operating Officer/Executive Producer, Thomas Giroux as Chief Executive Producer, and Frederic St.Laurent B. as Game Director. The studio currently has fifteen employees on staff, with an unnamed original game for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X already in the works. Of course, Yellow Brick is also looking for more talented creatives to join the team on its official website.

“The market for independently produced games is growing rapidly and the technology is keeping pace,” said Mike Laidlaw. “Small, diverse teams can now create high-quality experiences. For veterans of big-studio productions like myself and much of our team, this is the perfect time to get back to a small, agile, and highly motivated group. We want our games here at Yellow Brick to take potentially millions of players on wondrous journeys, and we want every member of our team to have a direct impact on the new worlds we’re creating.”

Really delighted to announce I’ve been working with a really great crew here in Quebec City to help create Yellow Brick Games.https://t.co/op33W8nsij

— Mike Laidlaw (@Mike_Laidlaw) November 23, 2020

What do you think? Are you excited to see what Mike Laidlaw and Yellow Brick Games is cooking up? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to follow Don’t Feed the Gamers on Twitter and Facebook to be informed of the latest gaming and entertainment news 24 hours a day! For more headlines recently featured on DFTG, check out these next few news stories:

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