Original IP — Dungeon Crawler
Our own title: a dark-fantasy dungeon crawler built end to end in-house. Art direction, UI language, meta systems and the client build all come out of the same room — which is exactly the pipeline we then run for client projects. No handover friction, because there is no handover.
- Client
- Astel Games — internal title
- Engine
- Unity
- Platforms
- iOS, Android
- Year
- 2025
- Duration
- In production
- Team size
- Internal team
- Disciplines
- Game design, 2D art & UI, Client engineering, Live-ops tooling
- Category
- Full-cycle
Artwork from our archive. High-resolution originals are available on request under NDA.
What we set out to build.
Running an original title alongside client work means the internal project sets the quality bar instead of following one. We had to define an art direction that a small team could sustain across hundreds of assets, keep the UI readable on phone screens at arm’s length, and still be able to staff client work without stalling our own build.
- Locked a limited palette and a single lighting model first, so every later asset could be checked against one reference rather than a written spec.
- Built the UI as a component library (buttons, panels, currency bars, shop cards) so new screens are assembled, not redrawn.
- Kept a shared source project for both the game and client submissions: same folder conventions, same review process, same build scripts.
- Funnel-tested screens as key art before committing to full illustration, which cut rework on login and store screens.
- Instrumented the build from the first playable so balance changes could be measured rather than argued about.
- A complete original title in production, owned outright — no licensed IP, no platform-holder approvals on art direction.
- The internal component library and palette are now reused on client casual titles, shortening UI turnaround.
- Login, world-map and store screens are produced in-house without external illustrators.
- Becomes the studio’s proof that we can originate a product, not only execute someone else’s brief.
Have a similar production coming up?
Tell us the scope and the date. We will tell you what it takes — honestly, including what we would not promise.