This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Polish indie studio Eleven Puzzles has been making a name for themselves as the creators of some fine cooperative puzzle games, like Unsolved Case and Unboxing the Cryptic Killer. The game is designed so that players are often separated, holding different pieces of the puzzle, and must rely on each other entirely.
This game sees Tetris Effect developer Enhance putting the Lumines puzzle formula through that same extravagant prism: the colour-matching of 2x2 blocks to the rhythm of a beat, brought to life with awe-inspiring visuals that often have a similar effect on the players brain as the stargate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Chris Kerr , Senior Editor, News June 17, 2025 1 Min Read Image via Bigger Games Turkish mobile studio Bigger Games has raised $25 million in Series A funding to scale its flagship title Kitchen Masters. As noted by VentureBeat , the company raised $6 million in December 2020 with the intention of driving into the casual puzzle genre.
New platforms like the Nintendo Switch 2 are a siren call for many developers—and being selected by Nintendo to create a launch-exclusive title can be a huge boon for a game studio. Its first employee was Dennison, who leads the studio, primarily helping developers "behind the scenes" optimizing Unity.
With IDFA regulation changes and an influx of new games entering the market, publishers and mobile game studios are facing an ever-uphill battle to acquire new players (UA) and retain them. If you’re a fan of the viral puzzle game Wordle , all of this should sound very familiar.
For Barcelona-based Gatera Studio , their debut title ANTRO is more than just a game, its a statement. platforming, parkour mechanics and puzzle-solving, all tightly synchronized to a pulsating urban soundtrack. Gatera Studios origins are as grassroots as the themes of their game. Keep it simple, stupid!
Silly things He admits that game- and level design was a real puzzle to solve in the semi-open world that allows players to carve their own paths by smashing through just about everything. “It Starting your own studio Far Out Games officially launched as a studio in late 2021, spurred by the early buzz surrounding Deliver At All Cost.
The average check size for Early-stage VC-backed gaming studios has fluctuated notably between 2020 and 2024. Ex-Riot studios received some of the highest checks, peaking at $15.8m Ex-ATVI studios saw a similar rise, reaching $10.7m 1 tech company: a cloud with a modular architecture, Vital Game Studios.
Gram Games $250 million Zynga deal reinforced the idea that Turkish studios werent just successfulthey were acquisition targets. This led to an investment boom in 2021-2022, with Dream Games emerging as the fastest Turkish unicorn , proving that Turkish studios could go beyond hyper-casual into puzzle dominance.
Developed by Iron Galaxy (replacing Vicarious Visions after the studio merged into Blizzard Entertainment ), the game has been met with generally favourable reviews on Metacritic , with a score of 83 based on 28 critic reviews. It feels like the full potential of how these remakes play has finally been realised.
In the upcoming Sci-Fi Action-Puzzle FPS IHAS , from Ukrainian solo developer Vladyslav Pidiashenko , players wake up aboard a giant, desolate spaceship swarming with hostile robots. A year later, I started to add puzzles and worked out a story and a few key philosophical concepts for the game.” Another unique point is the weapon.
Dylan Tredrea is a product & publishing consultant with over 12 years of experience in mobile free to play games at studios such as Disney, Rovio, Zeptolab, & CrazyLabs. The initial results are sufficient to deconstruct the games product positioning and how the top 4x studio has decided to bet big on drama.
Developer Dmitriy Gusev , operating under the name Diedemor Studio, made this game by himself. All in Jordan Mochi has been working on his debut game Conscript for 6 years under the name of Catchweight Studio. This has been one of the most complex games for me so far, he admits. No amount of playtesting is ever enough, he says.
What makes it special is that it is well-liked among indie designers and large studios. Cost and Licensing Unity It offers a free tier, making it accessible to indie programmers and small studios. It uses C# as its main scripting language, which is easier to learn and more accessible for beginners.
Guest post by David Fox , founder of Double Coconut — a design and development studio that has delivered hit mobile and web games for partners such as EA Sports, WB Games, Microsoft Casual Games, and more. We believe that just as early Facebook games became much more sophisticated and fun, the same will happen to Telegram games.
Anchor Companies The third piece of the puzzle - is major studios that not only offer a large number of jobs but can act as talent magnets and training grounds for future founders. For studios planning their next move, Abu Dhabi deserves serious consideration.
Weve seen everything from the likes of PUBG x Jujustu Kaisen, to Puzzles & Dragons x Demon Slayer, Fortnite x Naruto, and Grand Summoners x One Punch Manto name a few historic examples. To name just a few, these include Fortnite (Battle Royale), Top War (4X Strategy), Puzzles & Dragons (Match3), and Tower of Fantasy (MMORPG).
Studios deploy AI with a shrug, “we’re just using off-the-shelf tools.” George took that further, pointing to the eroding middle tier of studio hierarchies. But the mid-level layer, the human throughput of the studio machine, is thinning. Puzzle levels? This isn’t evil. But what happens when people are in the process?”
Set in a beautiful, Slavic-inspired world, Selfloss by Kazakhstan-based indie studio Goodwin Games is an adventure that explores themes of grief, healing, and resilience. Kazimir’s staff is more than just a weapon, it’s a dynamic tool that players can use to solve puzzles, combat enemies, and cleanse the Miasma.
Real Programming Languages: We teach popular, in-demand programming languages like Python and C++the same ones used in game development studios around the world. They start seeing problems as puzzles, setbacks as part of the process, and success as something they can build, line by line. That mindset shift?
Feature by Lewis Packwood Features Editor Published on July 16, 2025 Katherine Mould, senior talent acquisition specialist at Keywords Studios, says she was diagnosed with ADHD at age six. And its been really helpful, not just for me, but for my studio teams as well." ." Image credit: MissLunaRose12 CC BY-SA 4.0 says Mould.
Rather than rely on traditional platforms or publishing routes, Cassavaugh focused on a specific audience: fans of casual puzzle games, particularly women over 40. By staying lean, avoiding creative bottlenecks and delivering consistently, Joe Cassavaugh (“The Joe in Puzzles by Joe! Get the Clutter games at Puzzles by Joe.
Casino, Puzzle (Casual), and Strategy games are flourishing, with blockbuster titles like Monopoly Go and Royal Match driving incredible success. However, I predict that the widespread adoption of AI tools will enable studios of all sizes to significantly lower their production costs. Test and iterate quickly to find winning creatives.
The Istanbul-based studio also anticipates using the funding to increase its headcount. "We Turkey’s biggest hits are from the mobile puzzle genre, so the talent experience is there… We’re trying to innovate in the later game phase for player experience by introducing new mechanics.
Small Giant Games (founded in 2013) didn't see any success until Empires & Puzzles took off in 2017. It drained me emotionally," Brad*, first-time founder and CEO of a mobile studio. They later launched Clash of Clans and Hay Day in 2012, nearly 2 years after founding. That’s 4 years after founding. We passed on the deal.
The three-year-old studio is working on a puzzle title its investors say 'has the type of commercial mindset required to succeed in a demanding mobile market.'
Cocoon, the intricate puzzle adventure by Jeppe Carlsen , known as the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside, launched to raving reviews after 6.5 Cocoon is the first venture of Geometric Interactive , a Danish indie studio founded by Carlsen and his ex-Playdead colleague, Jakob Schmid. years of development.
This has become especially prevalent in the puzzle subgenre, with around 75% of casual puzzle games in the US top-grossing 200 implementing these features. Only 15% of casual puzzle games in the US top grossing 200 have implemented it, despite it proving reasonably effective at boosting performance in several level-based puzzle games.
Botany Manor is a 3 hour first person puzzle game about growing plants while exploring a big beautiful fancy house that smells like British Bake-Off. Gone Home anchors its story focus with voice acting, narration, simpler puzzles, and wry realism. The Witness fully commits to hundreds of puzzles at the scope of an open world game.
It may have been born out of necessity, but after two successful murder mystery games EQ Studios can now be considered somewhat of a specialist in this particular genre. Still, Fery Tomi, Director of the Las Vegas based studio, wants to keep all options open for the next project. Some started from a puzzle standpoint.
Over 100,000 students across Alberta puzzled their way to freedom and participated in the educational programs that taught them how to make their own escape rooms. By applying everything they had learned by designing puzzles for escape rooms, Reynolds and Harvey managed to design an ambitious 12-episode first season. Step 1: Wonder.
And if the game you’re working on is a match-3 puzzle, there is a widely accepted assumption that your target audience primarily consists of women aged between 25 and 45. A very casual summary of the casual puzzle player demographics. Puzzle RPG is the first thing that comes to mind for puzzle games that target a male audience.
Founded by Helen Burnill, who spent more than a decade in various director positions at Fall Guys developer Mediatonic, the company will initially focus on assisting established studios bringing their next games to market and helping them to improve the chances of each new release living up to previous successes. Read more
Cocoon, the intricate puzzle adventure by Jeppe Carlsen , known as the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside, launched to raving reviews after 6.5 Cocoon is the first venture of Geometric Interactive , a Danish indie studio founded by Carlsen and his ex-Playdead colleague, Jakob Schmid. years of development.
While this often translates to how well said characters do in combat or when confronted by puzzles, developers are exploring more ways in which players can shape stories as well. One such studio is As Dusk Falls developer Interior Night.
Wood Nuts: Screw Puzzle The first game on the list is a title by Zego Studio: Wood Nuts: Screw Puzzle. In this game, the user solves various puzzles by unscrewing everything on the screen. Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle Next in line is the ABI Games Studio’s Wood Nuts & Bolts Puzzle with its 27M installs in Q2 2024.
Midnight Girl , from indie studio Italic , oozes French cool. Our last game was a kids puzzle game, our current game is a point-and-click adventure and our next game might be something completely different.” The post Midnight Girl by indie studio Italic is a cool cat – Cat burglar that is appeared first on PreMortem Games.
Industry veterans Tina Merry and Carina Kom have formed a new studio, Simply Sweet Games. Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, Simply Sweet Games is a fully remote studio that is currently developing its inaugural mobile title – the roguelike word puzzle Criss Cross Castles.
Your demo should be an excellent example of what you intend your game to be, should showcase your team’s developmental ability, and show that your studio can hand in deliverables on time and budget. It showcases the game’s primary mechanics, which encompass a unique camera/perspective system, puzzle-solving, and shooting.
Solo dev Feryaz Beer’s debut Super Fantasy Kingdom “A weird mashup of genres” Jordan Mochi has been working on his debut game Conscript for 6 years under the name of Catchweight Studio. I’m not good with story telling or puzzle design, so combining some expertise would be nice.” It’s something different.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content