Comps research
What the nearest games in your genre actually earned — the ceiling and the floor, before you pay for either.
Industry
Game Development
Games are the hardest software we make. We've shipped seven - so we know the whole road, from idea to app store.
Our own titles
This art isn’t stock. We shipped the games it lives in.
Every piece of art on this page shipped inside one of our own games — led by Ashfall Kingdoms, the strategy title whose titan holds this wall. Seven games, designed, built, and published in-house.
Shipped, not mocked up
Seven games. Five engines.
Strategy, detective noir, fishing, a merge battler, a dungeon crawler, arena tactics, a pedometer RPG — every one designed, built, and published in-house. These frames are live gameplay, not renders — the mileage behind the pitch.
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Spectrum Smash Arena
Mid-match — holding lanes against a push
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Lost in Translation
An interrogation, half in Spanish
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Fin & Fortune
Casting into the starter pond
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Merge Blades
The merge board mid-fight
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Halls of Minos
Sword out, one room from the merchant
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Stride Kingdom
The gates of Embervale — every step counts
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Ashfall Kingdoms
Chapter 1 — the guided march on Holt Keep
How game projects make it to launch
Every shipped game clears the same gates. We cleared them with our own titles — and we know the way through each one.
- A game idea stuck at the prototype stage, because publishing is its own maze
- App store rejections, for reasons the error message never explains
- Gameplay that works in testing - and servers that fall over when real players arrive
- No website behind the game, so there's nowhere to send players or press
- Two years of building with "marketing later" - and later never comes
- Ad and store money spent before anyone checked whether players stick around
Before a line of code
First, find out if it’s worth building
Everyone you know will say your idea is great. None of them have seen a number. Validation is a short, cheap stage that puts one in front of you — before build money is spent.
Graybox prototype
The core loop in plain shapes, in weeks. If it isn’t fun gray, art won’t save it.
Stranger playtests
Friends are kind; strangers churn. We watch people who owe you nothing try to put it down.
Go / no-go, with a number
Cost to build against what it could earn, and our honest read. A “no” here is cheap. The same “no” two years in is ruinous.
The cheapest game we ever made is the one we advised a client not to build.
The road, named
The stages nobody tells you about
The surprise isn’t that games are hard. It’s that marketing starts before development does — wishlists and followers are the only pre-launch numbers that pay.
Validate
Comps, genre ceiling, session model. Go or no-go — with a number.
Prototype
Find the fun in weeks, not years — and kill it cheap if it isn’t there.
Store page first
The game’s page goes live before the game does. Wishlists start banking on day one.
Build in public
Devlogs, GIFs, playtests. An audience that forms while you build is marketing you don’t have to buy.
Soft launch
A small market first — real retention numbers before a dollar goes to ads.
Launch
Creators, festivals, press kit — timed to land in one loud week, not dribbled across a year.
Liveops
Updates, events, seasons. Launch day starts the revenue curve; it doesn’t end it.
Ask us what an ad actually pays
How games actually get paid
Our own titles run these models right now. The advice isn’t from a blog post — we can show you the dashboards.
Premium
One price, whole game. Clean, honest — and the hardest sell to strangers. Works when the first minute sells the rest.
Ads
Rewarded video — ads players choose to watch — pays real money. Careless interstitials pay pennies and cost you players.
In-app purchases
Only a few percent of players ever buy — the design has to earn that purchase without punishing everyone else.
Hybrid
Ads for the many, purchases for the few, one economy that respects both. How most small mobile games actually survive.
The model isn’t a preference — it’s matched to your genre and session length at the validation stage, so the game is designed to earn from day one.
How we build it
From prototype to app store
We've shipped seven of our own games - from Ashfall Kingdoms, our flagship strategy title, to a Unity arena game, a detective game that teaches Spanish, and a pedometer RPG - across Android, iPhone, and the web. The design, the servers, the store listings, and the sites behind them. That end-to-end run is what we bring to a games project: the game, the backend it runs on, and the site that promotes it.
Every game shown on this page is our own title - designed, built, and published in-house.
Common questions
Can you build and publish my game idea?
We can tell you honestly what it would take - we've walked the whole road from prototype to published game. The first call is free.
Do you build the website and servers too?
Yes. The game, the backend it runs on, and the site that promotes it can all come from one team.
What does a game cost to build?
No two games are alike, so games are quoted per project. The first call is free and ends with an honest picture of the road.
How long does a game take?
Longer than a website - think months, not weeks. We map the milestones before we start, so you always know where you are.
The app store keeps rejecting my game. Can you help?
That maze is exactly the part we've walked - Ashfall Kingdoms is live on Android, iPhone, and the web.
Do you build web games or just mobile?
Both. Our seven titles span Android, iPhone, and the web - Ashfall Kingdoms alone shipped to all three.
Can you just do the game's website?
Happily. A press page, a trailer, and store links - a game with nowhere to send players is a real problem, and a quick one to fix.
How do I know if my game idea is any good?
That's the first gate we run: what the nearest games actually earned, a graybox prototype, and playtests with strangers. You get a number and an honest go / no-go before build money is spent.
When should I start marketing my game?
Before the game is built - that's not a typo. The store page and site go live first, so wishlists and followers bank while the game is made.
How should my game make money?
One price, ads, purchases, or a mix - matched to your genre and session length, not to preference. Our own titles run these models today, so the advice comes from dashboards, not blog posts.
Do I need a publisher?
Usually not at first. Publishers mostly sign games that already show traction - and validation plus a live store page costs far less than the revenue share they'll ask.
From prototype to app store
We've shipped seven games to Android, iPhone, and the web. We know every gate on that road.
Tell us what you need
The call is free. There's no pressure. And if we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone who is.