A small independent studio working in three areas: developer tools, apps, and the systems underneath games. Most of our week goes into our own products — the rest is open to a couple of client projects a year.
The same three areas whether it is our product or yours — because it is the work we are already good at.
Command-line tools, TUIs, and the scaffolding that keeps AI coding agents useful past the first prompt. Hocus and Vitreus both came out of this — we build these for ourselves first, then ship the ones that survive daily use.
Desktop and web applications that stay small: fast to open, cheap to run, and understandable a year later. We favour boring, well-understood stacks and client-side work over a server whenever the job allows it.
Simulation logic, save formats, and the systems underneath a game rather than the art on top of it. Deterministic state, sane data models, and tooling the designers can use without asking an engineer.
The same shape whether it is one of our products or your project. It is not complicated, and that is rather the point.
Work out what is actually being built and what it has to do before any code is written. Data model, boundaries, and the parts most likely to go wrong — on paper, where changing your mind is cheap.
Small commits, working software early, and a repo you can look at whenever you want. Nothing disappears into a black box for six weeks and comes back as a surprise.
Released with documentation, tests where they earn their keep, and enough written down that someone else could pick it up. Then we stay reachable — things break, and we answer email.
We take on a small number of client projects — enough to stay sharp and pay for the products, not enough to become an agency. That means we are honest about fit before anyone signs anything, and we will tell you when a project is not one.
Work is scoped in writing before it starts, delivered in a repository you own, and documented well enough that you could hand it to someone else tomorrow. Credit goes wherever you want it to go — including nowhere.
Looking to work with us rather than hire us? The familiars page is for contractors and collaborators.