Bungie co-founder Jason Jones, who helped create Halo and directed Destiny, has opened Stone Kite, a new Los Angeles-based studio alongside Beautiful Creatures author Margaret Stohl, who has also worked on film, TV, comics, and games (such as Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate). The studio’s first project is called One Zero One and is set in a future where humanity faces rogue, AI-driven robotic soldiers.
One Zero One kicks off with Part One of a four-part limited comic series of the same name, and you can read the first issue here. This comic speaks to the studio’s aim to develop stories across all kinds of mediums, not just games.
A cropped screenshot of the One Zero One Issue #1 cover
“Stone Kite was founded around a single premise: audiences no longer experience stories through a single dominant medium, and the creative process should reflect that reality,” a press release reads. Stohl adds that Stone Kite is about breaking down old media silos. She writes, “Instead of starting in one medium and adapting outward, we bring the best global creators from different disciplines into the room from day one to shape the world together. We change the conversation. We never say that’s how it’s traditionally done. We build communities, and we listen to them. That’s how we’re creating worlds that people can explore for decades, in whatever ways they want.”
Issue #1 of One Zero One debuts today, and includes “never-before-seen excerpts from Jason’s manuscript.” New issues will be released through early 2027 and will grow with “prose, audio, and screen projects” to further expand the world of One Zero One throughout the year, the press release says. “I’ve spent my whole life making games, but I’ve always wanted to write,” Jones writes in the press release. “I used to bike fifteen miles along Lake Michigan to the used bookstores in North Chicago, and bike home again with a backpack full of sci-fi paperbacks. Margie [Stohl] was the first person to believe I could write a book of my own, the first person to read it, and the one person I trusted to help me develop it into epic entertainment that leaves the world a better place.”
A piece of art from the Stone Kite website
One Zero One universe contributors include Eric Heisserer (screenwriter of Arrival, Bird Box, Shadow and Bone); Christina Strain (comic book writer and screenwriter of Shadow and Bone, The Magicians); Kris Anka (character and concept designer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse); and artists including Dan Panosian (Batman), Ramón Pérez (Hawkeye), Alitha Martinez (Wonder Woman), Raúl Allén (Dune: The Graphic Novel), and Hyeonjin Kim (Power Rangers).
Stone Kite’s multimedia plan is ambitious, but not unheard of in games. Developer Reflector Entertainment intended the same for its Unknown 9 universe, but plans were put on pause after the first game, Unknown 9: Awakening, failed to meet expectations, leading to layoffs at the studio. Time will tell if Jones and Stohl’s plans play out.