Welcome to Emberwell Games!
Hey everyone, Justin here. I'm excited to introduce you to my new indie game studio; welcome to Emberwell Games!
Today I want to tell you a bit about my background and my vision for the studio.
My Background
Gaming for me started at the early age of 5 with the NES, and I’ve been passionate about games ever since. I experienced the technological breakthroughs in gaming from 8 to 128-bit and beyond. I went with friends to midnight console launches, played couch co-op and had deathmatches together in the same room with multiple Xbox consoles connected.
I dedicated ~8 years to competitive PC FPS games during the prime days of arena shooters like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. I also played them on Dreamcast using the built-in dialup modem and the official mouse and keyboard!
Later on learned about computer programming in high school with the sole purpose to make games. I’ve now been in the tech industry for ~20 years as a software engineer working for companies ranging from successful start ups to Meta.
Core Values
This experience led me to the creation of Emberwell Games with the goal of bringing forward the values of past generations to modern games.
I've stamped my beliefs onto the studio as it's core values.
Small teams can do big things
Retention is greater than growth
Games should be final
I’ll break down each of these in more detail.
Small Teams Can Do Big Things
Small teams are lean and focused. We iterate fast and have no monetization scheme overlords to adhere to. There are no shareholders to take our focus away from what matters. Everything we do is in our control; we answer to no one but ourselves and our fans; the way it should be.
Retention is greater than growth
Where most studios are looking for growth at all costs, I'm creating a fun community of people who enjoy our games and want to take part in making them; your feedback goes directly to me. We're all tired of becoming the product to large companies; it's time we get back to just being fans and enjoying the journey. I simply need enough to keep the studio sustainable.
Games should be final
Lastly, a "final" game is one free of predatory practices, dark patterns, microtransactions and live service hooks. It's genuine, and built for one purpose; fun. Our games will provide a complete experience at launch, and we'll never ask you for more money to activate in-game content you've already paid for.
The only updates we provide are to fix issues, improve systems, and provide free downloadable content.
Development of our first game is underway, and while I can't share much about it yet, I can tell you it will be a fast-paced, first person shooter inspired by the original Quake and Alice.
That's all I have to share with you today.
Thank you for your time and stay tuned for updates!
