How we build

AI in the toolbox. People in the director's chair.

For a long time, small studios had to choose between scope and polish. We use AI to stop making that trade-off, and we're open about where it fits into our process and where it doesn't.

Why

Raising the bar for small-studio games

Players don't grade on a curve. A game from a small team sits on the same store page as one from a studio of hundreds, and it's judged the same way.

We treat AI the way earlier generations treated better engines and better editors: as leverage. It takes the repetitive, mechanical work off our plates so we can put more of our time into the things players actually feel, like handling, readability, balance and polish.

What it isn't: a way to generate a game from a prompt. We don't make those games, and we don't want to play them either.

Where it fits

A clear line, drawn on purpose

Where AI does the heavy lifting

  • Engineering. Writing, refactoring and reviewing code faster. Our engineers read, test and own every line that ships.
  • Tools and pipeline. Custom editor tools, build automation and content pipelines that would otherwise take a dedicated tools team.
  • Testing and QA. Automated testing, log analysis and bug triage, so problems surface earlier and get fixed sooner.
  • Iteration. Prototyping more ideas, faster, so the ones that make the game are the best of many, not the first that worked.
  • Extending our own 2D art. Carefully, for elements such as icons, and always starting from art we created first.

Where people stay in charge

  • Art direction. The look of every game is set and signed off by people.
  • 3D art. Our in-game 3D art is created by artists, never generated from a prompt.
  • Design and game feel. Mechanics, handling, pacing and balance are designed, playtested and tuned by hand.
  • The final call. What ships, what gets cut and what "good" means is decided by developers with decades of experience.
A quick distinction

The AI in our tools isn't the AI in our games

When we talk about the 48 rival pilots in Reaper GP, we mean game AI: opponent behaviour our team designs and tunes so every race feels fair, readable and fun to beat.

That's a different thing from the AI-assisted tools we build with. Both matter to us, and we try never to blur the two.

The proof

Judge it by the games

Zaxoid shipped on PlayStation 5, Xbox and Steam. Reaper GP is built in Unreal Engine 5, and every image on its site is captured in-engine.

Reaper GP hull boosting through a neon tunnel Reaper GP pack of racers on the Gila desert circuit Zaxoid gameplay screenshot
See our games Meet the team