Rebel Wolves’ director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz spent 2022 financing the first year of the project himself to create a working prototype, before NetEase stepped in at the end of that year, acquiring a 26 percent stake in the studio and providing the full $40 million development budget.
The bulk of the hiring process unfolded throughout 2023, expanding the team far beyond the originally planned cap of 90 employees to about 160 staff members by the end of the year, when full production officially began.
Bandai Namco was secured as the game's publisher, and the release window was shifted from a June launch to September to reduce overtime pressures while preserving the core design outlined in the original pitch deck.
At $40 million, the budget places ‘The Blood of Dawnwalker’ squarely in the AA tier, comparable to the roughly $41 million reported for ‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’, though the figure appears to cover only development costs and likely excludes marketing and publishing expenses.
The title proved commercially successful, moving over one million copies within days of its launch, prompting Rebel Wolves to begin recruiting for a sequel while signaling to larger publishers the profitability of a high‑quality AA project.