A New Studio Built Around Transmedia World-Building
Bungie co-founder Jason Jones has launched a new transmedia studio with author and game industry veteran Margaret Stohl, bringing together creators from games, comics, literature, film and television to develop original worlds across multiple forms of media.
Called Stone Kite, the Los Angeles-based studio officially launched on October 1, 2026, with One Zero One as its first original intellectual property. Rather than developing a project in one medium before adapting it elsewhere, Stone Kite says it wants to build its worlds across multiple formats from the beginning.
The approach puts Jones, one of the creators behind Halo and Destiny, in a new creative environment after decades in the games industry.
Stone Kite Wants to Build Worlds Beyond Games
Stone Kite describes itself as a “world-building studio” rather than a traditional game developer or production company.
Its core idea is to remove the traditional separation between entertainment mediums. Instead of creating a game, book or comic first and then deciding whether the property could work elsewhere, the studio intends to bring creators from different disciplines together at the beginning of development.
Margaret Stohl, who serves as CEO and co-founder, said her career across books, games, comics, film and television showed her how the medium that tells a story first can influence everything that follows.
“Stone Kite is about breaking down those old media silos,” Stohl said. “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.”
The studio says its creator network includes more than 250 people from across the entertainment industry.
Among those involved are director and producer Jay Roach, comic book writer and artist Christian Ward, illustrator Kyle Lambert, author Stephen Graham Jones and screenwriter Akela Cooper. Stone Kite’s wider creative network also includes figures such as Eric Heisserer, Christina Strain and Kris Anka.
One Zero One Is Stone Kite’s First Universe
Stone Kite is launching with One Zero One, a science-fiction universe based on an original manuscript written by Jason Jones.
The story centers on a worldwide conflict between humanity and a rogue army of AI-driven robotic soldiers. The project begins with a four-part limited comic series, with the first issue available digitally and additional issues planned through early 2027.
The comic is not intended to be the end point of the property.
Stone Kite plans to expand One Zero One through prose, audio and screen projects during 2027, allowing the universe to develop across different formats rather than treating each project as a straightforward adaptation of the original story.
The first issue also includes previously unseen excerpts from Jones’ manuscript, connecting the initial comic release directly to the story that served as the foundation for the universe.
Jason Jones Moves Into a New Kind of World Building
Jones’ involvement gives Stone Kite a particularly strong connection to the games industry.
As a Bungie co-founder, he helped create Halo and Destiny, two franchises that expanded well beyond individual games into broader entertainment properties and communities.
Stone Kite, however, is not being positioned as another conventional game studio. Its launch material focuses on building original universes across multiple mediums and on bringing creators into the process before a single format determines the shape of the property.
For Jones, the project also represents an opportunity to explore writing outside the medium in which he built his career.
“I’ve spent my whole life making games, but I’ve always wanted to write,” Jones said. He also credited Stohl with being the first person to believe he could write a book and the person he trusted to help develop the manuscript into a broader entertainment project.
That relationship is central to Stone Kite’s launch. Stohl brings experience across publishing, comics, games, film and television, while Jones brings decades of experience creating large-scale game worlds.
A Transmedia Strategy Built From the Start
The distinction between Stone Kite and a conventional transmedia strategy is the timing.
Entertainment companies frequently expand successful games, books or films into other mediums after an audience has already been established. Stone Kite is attempting to reverse that sequence by designing its properties for multiple forms of storytelling from the beginning.
The studio’s own description emphasizes that it wants to create “a living, interconnected, multi-channel universe,” rather than simply producing multiple adaptations of the same story.
That model could give creators more freedom to determine which parts of a universe work best in comics, prose, audio, games or screen projects. It also creates a more ambitious development challenge, because the different parts of the property need to remain coherent while functioning independently.
One Zero One will provide the first test of whether that approach can translate into an audience beyond its individual formats.
Stone Kite Begins With an Ambitious First Test
The launch of Stone Kite arrives at a time when major entertainment franchises increasingly operate across games, film, television, publishing and other forms of media.
What makes the studio notable is that its founders are attempting to make that cross-media structure part of the creative process from day one rather than treating it as a later expansion strategy.
For Jones, it marks a new chapter following his work on some of gaming’s most recognizable franchises. For Stohl, it brings together the different areas of her career around a model designed specifically for modern audiences.
One Zero One will now serve as the first demonstration of that philosophy, beginning with a four-part comic series before expanding into additional formats.
Stone Kite’s ambition is therefore larger than launching another science-fiction property. The studio is testing whether a world can be designed from the outset to belong simultaneously to multiple forms of entertainment.
