Olga Tokarczuk’s game is still missing. Tokarczuk also evaporated

It’s not very often that a Nobel laureate (or Nobel laureate) participates in the creation of video games. Therefore, it was not surprising that in 2024 the media made noise around reports of Olga Tokarczuk’s involvement in the production of this type of entertainment. The claims about the involvement of the famous writer were not far-fetched, it was not just about using material from one of her books. However, as it happens with the media, after a short uproar the thread died. It’s worth refreshing it.

Sundog was founded in September 2022 and at that time, few people were interested. This began to change in the following months, when the team behind this business laid its first cards on the table. It turned out, for example, that the team is working on the game Ibru, which is to be inspired by Olga Tokarczuk’s book “Anna In w tombowcach świata”. This is a novel from two decades ago, in which the author deals with the myth of the goddess Ishtar.

In 2023, there was talk that the game might appear on the market in 2026. At that time, there were about a dozen people working on it, but the team was to be expanded. It was assumed that the project budget would amount to PLN 15 million, and the gameplay time was estimated at several hours. Importantly, At the beginning of 2023, the company completed a financing round that raised almost PLN 1.5 million. It was declared that the entity would try to obtain more money. And so it happened.

We now reach the already announced media frenzy. Two years after registering the company, in October 2024, Sundog is getting really loud. This is due to the funding the entity received from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. The amount is almost PLN 17 million. This money was to be spent not so much on creating the game itself, but on developing the technology for its production.

Perhaps this thread wouldn’t interest too many people. Because PARP experts at that time also positively assessed many other projects and granted them support exceeding PLN 1 billion. However, these other projects could not boast of having a Nobel laureate involved in them. And it’s not just about using motifs from the novel to create the plot. Olga Tokarczuk invested money in Sundog and became a member of the company’s supervisory board. In fact, she became its chairman. It even became a family affair, because Zbyszko Fingas – privately the son of a Nobel Prize winner – was also involved in the project. In the Ibru project, he is responsible for, among others: for the game script.

The topic of funding caused quite a sensation. For various reasons. Some were interested in the mere fact of Olga Tokarczuk’s participation in such an undertaking. And a serious contribution at that. Others began to take a closer look at the Sundog company and the game itself, which, under favorable conditions, could become another Polish title recognized around the world. Finally, there were those who brought politics into the topic. There were, for example, insinuations that the project would not have received such support if Poland was still governed by PiS. Because the Nobel Prize winner doesn’t like this party. And vice versa. But given the current deal, the writer can count on special treatment. It turned into a small scandal, and Sundog published a statement.

You can read in it, among other things, that the company simply took part in a competition organized by PARP, that the project was assessed by external experts according to specific criteria, that the money for the project will come not only from the state program, but also from the company’s investors. There was also a declaration that the project would be implemented according to schedule, in cooperation with a team of approximately 30 specialists. The SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Goat Gamez and the GameUp Association were identified as key subcontractors of the project.

The statement also included the following fragment:

The aim of the project we submitted to the competition is to create, in cooperation with scientists from Polish universities and industry practitioners, an innovative InteGra system, which has a chance to revolutionize the RPG games market. The system will be based on psychological and life science research and AI research. Thanks to this, it will enable the creation of games that will allow for the dynamic creation and development of character psychology as a result of the actions taken by the player in the game world. This will provide users with a more complete and personal experience.

The first game to be created on its basis will be Ibru – a game set in the world presented by Olga Tokarczuk in the book “Anna In w grobowiech dziennik”. The fact that the game may draw on the work of one of the world’s most important writers will also make it of great cultural importance and will promote Polish art around the world in a unique and massive way.

Here I must write that the company’s management board, consisting of Aleksandra Bieluk, Mateusz Błaszczyk and Carlos Castañon, who signed the declaration, made a strong move. A chance for a revolution in RPG? Huge cultural importance? Massive/unique promotion of Polish art in the world? Strong words. It’s better to be careful with such declarations…

We decided to check what happens to this title a few quarters after the funding was granted and this mini scandal broke out. And on the threshold of 2026 – after all, a few years ago it was declared that the title would be available for sale now.

Our attention quickly caught the fact that Olga Tokarczuk is no longer a member of the company’s supervisory board. The change was confirmed by Aleksandra Bieluk from the Sundog management board:

In February 2025, Mrs. Olga resigned from her position on the Supervisory Board. Due to numerous other responsibilities, she could no longer participate in the Company’s day-to-day operations. Wherever possible, he continues to provide advice and creative support in the artistic development of the project and is one of the Company’s shareholders.

It all turned out a bit unfortunate: in October 2024, there is a lot of talk about the funding granted to Sundog, and the company issues a statement in which it draws attention to the Nobel Prize winner’s great involvement in the project:

Olga Tokarczuk is the co-founder, one of the company’s thirty shareholders and the chairwoman of the supervisory board. He supervises the creative development of the game based on her book.

Only a few months have passed and the writer is severely limiting her participation in this project. Well, it happens.

This is, of course, an important thread of the whole story, but another issue remains paramount: what about the game? We sent Sundog a number of questions regarding the title itself, the InteGra technology, the use of funds, the game’s release date and employment in the company. Unfortunately, the message sent by Aleksandra Bieluk did not bring us many answers:

The company obtained funding from the European Union, supported by PARP, for the implementation of the project entitled “Development of a system for creating non-linear RPG games in Unreal Engine 5, enabling the creation of psychologically coherent characters whose decisions will reflect their implied psyche, based on research in the field of science, psychology and AI technology (LLM).” The value of the entire project is PLN 23,161,453.22, and the contribution from European Funds is PLN 16,686,789.20. These are not funds left at the Company’s discretion. The project is in progress and the funds are being gradually settled. The company receives them from PARP on the basis of payment applications, which are based on submitted evidence of costs incurred, in accordance with the project implementation schedule.

The company also obtained financing from private investors, which is used to cover its own contribution to the project implementation and the Company’s current operations.

Thank you for your interest. The project is in progress and as it develops, the Company will publish more information. We encourage you to follow the news on our website and in social media.

The problem is that the information on the website or social media is rather sparse. These are just a few paragraphs from which you can learn that:

Ibru is a detective RPG game with a first-person perspective, set in a science fantasy world inspired by ancient Sumerian mythology and cyberpunk dystopias.

A few sentences about the fact that the player decides on the hero’s development (in case someone doesn’t know how an RPG works), then short information about the city in which the action takes place (the hero will EXPLORE it), inserts about immersion, non-linear plot and again assurances that the player has an influence on how the game will unfold. Finally the following message: “We are planning a simultaneous release on PC, Xbox and Playstation. The game is created using Unreal Engine 5”. When? It’s a puzzle.

To put it briefly: there is nothing crazy. But maybe social media is stuffed with content? I look at the company’s profile on LinkedIn because I am redirected there from the company’s website. I learn that Sundog is an entity that creates games, that it is built by industry veterans in cooperation with Olga Tokarczuk. The project received support from PARP. There are no job offers (they are not on the website either). The number of entries is not impressive, and the last one, from a few weeks ago, is a declaration that 2025 was an intense year, work is in full swing, the team is growing, the development of the InteGra technology is apparently progressing faster than expected. There is also an announcement that we will soon find out what the company is working on.

In other words: it’s great, but you still have to wait for our miracles. Once we show them, your slippers will fall off.

There is nothing else to do but keep your word. I don’t know if Ibru will appear on the market this year, but I hope that the world of digital entertainment will hold its breath when “a game that will force you to think, feel and act as a detective in a world where nothing is as it seems” finally lands on PCs and consoles.