Services
A small studio, broad bench. We mostly work on our own titles — but a few times a year we take outside work on the things below. Mix and match; most engagements touch two or three.
Game Design
We design the mechanics, systems, and moment-to-moment feel that decide whether a player keeps holding the controller.
What we do
- Core-loop design: the 30-second test, the 30-minute test, the 30-hour test
- Systems design: economies, progression, difficulty, anti-frustration nets
- Design pillars and a scope you can actually ship
What success looks like
- A core loop that holds up across the first session, the tenth, and the fiftieth
- A design doc your team can argue with and act on
- Scope cuts made early, while they're cheap
Narrative & Worldbuilding
Worlds with internal logic, characters with edges, and stories that don't fall apart when the player turns left.
What we do
- World bibles, lore, and history that systems can lean on
- Branching narrative design (Ink, Twine, Yarn, custom)
- Voice direction, barks, environmental storytelling
What success looks like
- Players quoting lines back to you a year later
- A world consistent enough to support DLC, sequels, or spin-offs
- Cutscenes that respect the player's time
Level Design
Spaces that teach mechanics without tutorials, surprise without trolling, and reward exploration on purpose.
What we do
- Greyboxing and metric tuning: pacing, sightlines, encounter density
- Tutorial-through-architecture: every space teaches something
- Level reviews against a player-skill bell curve, not a single playthrough
What success looks like
- No "where am I supposed to go" moments without intent
- Replays that find new paths instead of the same path faster
- Tutorials that don't feel like tutorials
Art Direction
A visual identity that holds up in a thumbnail, a key art, and a hundred hours of play.
What we do
- Style pillars, palette, silhouette rules, readability constraints
- Concept art, pipeline definition, asset-budget math
- Marketing-asset review: capsule, key art, screenshots, trailer cuts
What success looks like
- A look that doesn't blur into the next storefront banner
- Asset production that doesn't balloon out of scope
- Capsule art that earns the click
Engineering
When the right answer is to ship code: gameplay, tools, pipelines, ports. We pick the engine that fits the game.
What we do
- Unity, Godot, Unreal — pragmatic engine choice based on the project
- Gameplay programming, tools, editor extensions, build pipelines
- Performance passes for low-end hardware and Steam Deck
What success looks like
- Code your team can own and extend after we leave
- Builds that don't break on Friday afternoons
- A frame budget you can defend
Audio & Music
Sound that does the heavy lifting — feedback you feel, music that earns the moment, dialogue that doesn't fight the mix.
What we do
- Audio direction, middleware setup (FMOD, Wwise), implementation review
- Composer briefs and music-system design (adaptive layers, stems)
- Mix passes against headphone, TV speaker, and Steam-Deck-handheld realities
What success looks like
- Feedback your hands notice before your eyes do
- A soundtrack people pull up after the credits
- A mix that survives bad speakers
Playtesting & Iteration
Real players in front of real builds — and a process that turns watching them into design decisions, not just notes.
What we do
- Playtest plans: who, how often, what to watch for
- Telemetry: drop-off curves, heatmaps, "what killed them"
- Decision frameworks for cut/keep/sharpen calls
What success looks like
- A short list of cuts you actually make, on time
- Telemetry that informs design, not just postmortems
- A demo that converts wishlists into sales
Production & Launch
From vertical slice through launch and the first patch — scope, schedule, and the calm to keep both honest.
What we do
- Roadmap, milestones, and risk register that age well
- Trailer and capsule strategy, festival picks, Steam Next Fest timing
- Launch checklist, day-one patch plan, post-launch support cadence
What success looks like
- A launch date you hit without burning the team out
- A wishlist curve that doesn't flatline a week after announcement
- A team still standing the morning after release