01
Distance is the difficulty curve
Ore richness, hostile density and hostile tier all scale with how far you are from the origin. The map is the progression system: home space is safe and poor, so you have to leave.
Two games in development
Games with zero filler.
We're a small independent studio making multiplayer games for the browser.
01 · SPACE · PLAYABLE BUILD
Wreckbound
You fly a small mining ship. The further out you go, the better the ore and the worse the people. If you die, the wreck stays where it went down, and you can go back for it.
Playable build →
02 · LOW-POLY · IN DEVELOPMENT
Viridane
A low-poly survival RPG on a cold island you share with a few other players. You find out what they're like when you meet them.
In development →01 — Playable build
Wreckbound
make your way across the galaxy, and become something
Wreckbound is a space mining game you play in the browser. You start with a weak ship and a mining laser. The ore near home isn't worth much. The good stuff is far out, where the pirates are. Lose your ship and you lose your cargo too, but the wreck stays where it went down, and you can fly back and salvage it.
02
Your engines decide the fight
Every hostile tier has a pursuit speed, and your thrusters decide which ones you can outrun. The heavy gun is gated behind space you can only survive by running.
03
Rigs are supply lines
Moon rigs pull one material for as long as you ride the ring. Most are held by an outfit; break the garrison and the rig is yours, pinned on the chart in its material's colour.
04
The frame you turned out to be
The yard watches how you fly, then offers a frame to match: Prospector, Freighter, Gunship, Salvager and six more. Each one gives something up for what it buys.
PlatformBrowser, no install
PlayersOne shared galaxy per room
StatusPlayable build, in development
02 · In development
Viridane
You never know who's coming up the road.
Viridane is a low-poly online game for a handful of players at a time. You start on a cold island with a sword and not much else. You hunt, cook, keep warm at night and explore. Other players share the island with you, and you won't know if they're friendly until they're close.
The sword
A strike happens on the press
Walking, jumping and hitting things with a two-handed sword is the core, and it has to feel right before anything is built on it. Every foe shows a tell before it strikes, and weight comes from timing.
The stranger
You read people by what you see
Another player might pass with a wave, trade, help or draw. You read them the way you would in life: the gear on their figure, their horse, the emblem on their tabard, and what they do next.
The character
Better by doing
Smithing rises at the anvil and Tracking on the trail. Your stats are what you wear and wield, and every piece you put on shows on your figure.
The world
Born once
Every wolf, deer and named person in a room is one life in its ledger: what falls stays fallen, and new animals come only from breeding. Anything you can see, you can walk to.
Platform
Browser, WebGLPlayers
A small group per roomStatus
In developmentThe studio
Small studio.
Deep systems.
Dopamine Zero Studios is an independent studio built on one idea: a game should be worth playing for the decisions it asks you to make.
01
Systems firstHidden information, real trade-offs, emergent strategy. One mechanic that keeps surprising you beats ten that don't.
02
Respect for your timeGames you can put down whenever you like, and want to come back to anyway.
03
Balance you can measureHeadless simulation harnesses run thousands of hours of play, so tuning comes from data instead of taste.
04
Built in the openPrototypes, devlogs and postmortems as we go. When something doesn't work, we say so and show what replaced it.
Contact
Let's talk.
Playtesting, publishing, press, or an early build of either game: the inbox is open.