Captain Coral
Builds our games and website.
Eight arms, eight jobs, and still asks Mikolaj if the kettle is big enough.
Player 1 and Player 2
Our story
We're Matt and Mikolaj, a dad and his son, and we make games together. Let us tell you how it started, how a game gets made at our house, and why we do it.
Watch our story
45 seconds, from the kitchen-table question to our two games. It has music but no talking, and the chapters below tell the same story.
Chapter 1
It started with a question
"What if a garden gnome robbed a whole house, one kettle at a time?"
Mikolaj asked it at our kitchen table. Dad laughed. Then he grabbed a pencil and took notes.
Before long the gnome had a Big Cousin to carry the loot, a cat flap to sneak through, and a man of the house who checks every room. That idea became Gnome Heist, our first game.
Chapter 2
Mikolaj directs. Dad builds.
Mikolaj is the director. He has the ideas, decides what's funny (and what's too hard), and tests everything until it breaks.
Dad is the builder. He turns the ideas into a real game with the Godot engine, with help from AI tools for the code and the art. More than 1,500 automated tests check that everything still works every time we change something.
Then we argue about how big the kettle should be. Every time.
Meet our helpers
We have two AI helpers. They're computer programs, not people, so we gave them cartoon faces and names to keep track of who's doing what. Matt and Mikolaj tell them what to build, check everything they make and make every decision.
Professor Hoot
Builds our Feedback HQ, tests things and helps on the website.
Writes down every bug Mikolaj finds. It's a very long list.
When Mikolaj finds a bug, he pops it on our feedback board and picks a helper to fix it. Nothing goes live until Dad says yes.
Chapter 3
Then everyone plays it
A game isn't finished until somebody else has played it. Mikolaj goes first. Then friends have a go while we watch what breaks, what's too hard and what makes them laugh.
We fix it. We play it again. We keep going until the kettle is exactly the right size.
Chapter 4
Player 1 and Player 2
The best bit? Playing it together. In River Rations two keepers share one screen, and heists with friends are on their way to Gnome Heist. So on our sofa we really are Player 1 and Player 2.
That's our logo, too: Big Star is Dad and Little Star is Mikolaj. And yes, that's a gnome with a kettle on the shelf.
Chapter 5
Why we do it
Because making something together is the best game there is.
Mikolaj's notebook is full of ideas. Seeing one turn into a game you can hold in your hand, then watching somebody laugh at the bit he dreamed up, never gets old.
So we make the games we'd want to play together: funny, a bit sneaky and a little bit silly.
Our games
Studio facts
- Who we are
- Matt (Player 1) and his son Mikolaj (Player 2)
- Where
- London
- Our games
- Gnome Heist (coming soon) and River Rations (coming soon)
- Made for
- iPhone, iPad and Android
- Made with
- The Godot engine, with help from AI tools
- Company
- MD Digital Productions Ltd, trading as Mikolaj Studios
Say hello
Got a question, an idea for Mikolaj or a bug for Dad to fix? Write to us at hello@mikolajstudios.com. We'd love to hear from you.
Grown-ups can also follow along on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X and TikTok, where we're @mikolajstudios.