Probably the first question on any newcomer’s mind is something along the lines of “what is this company”. This post is the answer to that question. The short answer can be found here, this is the long answer.

To be honest, the company was born out of necessity. In the late winter we found ourselves laid off due to company negotiations in our previous workplace and, not wanting to move out of Tampere,  decided this would be a good opportunity to form something new. Putting up a game development studio had crossed my mind several times before, but earlier I had lacked both the right people and the industry experience. Now, the time was right.

It would be fair to say that the current economic climate is not very hospitable to new ventures, but I heartily disagree. The economic climate is actually quite good for a small agile company, free from the whims of the venture capital. We don’t have to sell hundreds of thousand of games to be successful, we don’t even need to sell many hundred to survive. We can start out slow, and concentrate on making games that are good, and of value.

To me, games of value are ones that respect the player. They are bug-free, smooth experiences that bring something valuable to the player. Be that a nifty game mechanic, alluring visuals or a captivating story. Something to be remembered by.

But so many games these days seem to lack that graceful elegance; they’re bulky collections of tried and true mechanics, often ill-fitting with each other. Sudden death action sequences in a puzzle game? That’s not smooth, that’s plain stupid.

I don’t have anything against tried and true mechanics per se, many of the most successful games rely all but exclusively on tried and true. They’re mechanics that work, but to use a mechanic “because it worked in that game” is short sighted. For a game to work and to be enjoyable, the elements must be in perfect balance. You can’t take a cuckoo clock and a digital watch and build a pocket watch. The cogs have to fit.

A good game is a game that has all right and fitting cogs, oiled and ready. No matter where the parts originate.

So, to recap, our vision is to make games that tick. More than that, games that tick because they are neat little things that one enjoys to spend time with, not because we have “250 mind-boggling spells” or the latest in HDR technology. Our games are limited in scope due to our small size, but I like to believe it makes them better rather than worse.