We're nerds from MIT.
Gaming is our obsession.
Perfection is our objective.
Lunarch Studios was conceived in 2010, when our designers—a team of five fiercely competitive gaming enthusiasts—set out on a journey to advance the art of online strategy games through aggressive innovation.
Experts in a myriad of real-time and turn-based games, our designers were dissatisfied with the industry standard: clunky, shallow titles monetized through exploitative "pay-to-win" schemes. While PhD candidates at MIT, they spent years refining their design, often completely restarting from scratch. Eventually, our founders left MIT to bring the game to market. Lunarch Studios was born.
At Lunarch Studios, we're committed to creating fresh, disruptive new competitive computer strategy games without any bullshit—just like we always wanted. With the technical skill and determination of a modern web startup, but the integrity and craftsmanship of a pure indie game developer, we're driven by raw, unflinching perfectionism.
Strategy games have advanced surprisingly slowly. CCG, RTS, and tactics games all rely on the same basic 20-year-old formulas. At Lunarch, we disregard formulas in favour of a purely analytical approach: we define metrics—elegance, intuitiveness, novelty, simplicity, skill ceiling—and exhaustively search for game rules and design parameters that maximize them. The end result feels perfectly crafted and refreshingly fun to play.
We transcend "easy to learn, yet difficult to master", a deceptive tagline espoused by many games in which mastery ultimately becomes a grind of calculation, memorization, or dexterity. Instead, we heighten the skill ceiling by maximizing the richness of the emergent interactions spawning from simple game mechanics. Our games are a joy to master—a neverending endorphin rush as players uncover each new layer of strategic complexity.
As expert competitive gamers, some of our saddest moments transpire when a high-profile tournament boils down to a single unlucky card draw, low-probability execution mistake, or completely arbitrary rock-paper-scissors choice. Many games depend on elements of chance as a crutch to obscure hidden balance issues, or to offer cheap gambling thrills to conceal underlying shallow gameplay. At Lunarch, we vow to do better. And we must.
Free-to-play is here to stay, but the message from players is very clear. They're fed up with pay-to-win. They're fed up with pay-or-grind. And they're fed up with greedy corporations attempting to monetize their frustration. Player exploitation is no longer a sustainable business model, and games like Dota 2 have exhibited a very profitable alternative. We intend to build an enduring brand by respecting our users. We're in this for the long haul.
Prismata
We make a strategy game called Prismata.
Work for us.
Want to work at a fresh gaming startup that passionately emphasizes quality over all else? We offer extremely competitive compensation and a friendly, casual work environment. Our current openings are listed below.
We are still seeking 2D artists to draw our characters, backgrounds, and other game assets. See our postings on CGHub and deviantART. Interested applicants should contact swadeteam [@] lunarchstudios.com.
More info coming soon...
More info coming soon...
More info coming soon...
Get in touch with us.