Harvey Smith and Former Arkane Austin Devs Found Black Pony Immersive

Harvey Smith and several veterans from Arkane Austin have founded Black Pony Immersive, a new independent studio that will work on narrative-driven, first-person single-player games. The company has been active since August 2025, but its existence was only made public on August 19, 2026, as reported by Game Developer.

Smith, formerly creative director of Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, will serve as CEO and creative director. Alongside him is Ben Horne, production director of Redfall, now COO and executive producer. The group also includes Ricardo Bare, a veteran of Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey, and Redfall.

Black Pony currently has 26 developers, with experience gained at Insomniac Games, Epic Games, Avalanche Studios, and Volition. The project has also already secured financial support from a publisher whose identity has not yet been disclosed, according to statements made by the team to The Game Business.

We do not yet know the title, setting, platforms, or launch window for the first game. The creative direction, however, is already quite precise. Smith spoke of single-player, narrative, first-person productions, built around exploration and the ability to tackle problems in different ways.

The reference comes directly from him: "Think Deus Ex, think Dishonored, that's what we're doing." Horne also explicitly used the term immersive sim to describe the type of experience the new group wants to develop. The connection to Arkane and Ion Storm's previous works thus arises not only from the resumes of the people involved but from the stated intentions of the founders themselves.

The birth of Black Pony follows Microsoft's closure of Arkane Austin in May 2024 and the experience of Redfall. Smith explained to The Game Business that the new studio wants to return to what the group loves to create.