Amateur Ballistics

AmateurBallistics

Target-oriented
game production.

Aim less.
Shoot more.

Live on day fourteen
Judged on fifteen

Amateur by name.
Unreasonably measured.

Pull back. Let go. It gets logged.

Shots
00
Hits
00
Accuracy
—

amateur

/ˈamətə/ noun

  1. Made for the love of the game.
  2. Bold, daring, disruptive.
  3. Reckless with ideas, ruthless with numbers.

ballistics

/bəˈlɪstɪks/ noun

  1. Study of flight, and what they hit.
  2. Target-oriented. Fire, measure, correct, fire, shoot.
  3. Knowing exactly where it landed, and why. Not a feeling. Detailed coordinates.

The industry aims for three years and hopes. We pick the target before the game, build it to a professional standard in two weeks with tools most studios haven’t heard of, and let the numbers decide what lives. They are rarely wrong. We are rarely offended.

The thesis.

Four things we believe
The industry will, eventually

  1. 01

    Target before game

    Every game starts as a number we intend to move: an audience, a retention curve, a bar to clear. The idea shows up second, and it auditions.

  2. 02

    Rate of fire beats careful aim

    A three-year project is one data point, and an expensive one. We would rather have a distribution. Small bets, built properly, fired often, each one teaching the next where to aim.

  3. 03

    Curious where it counts

    The process is professional, and so is the finish. Building got cheap enough to be curious, so the strange ideas get made, and made well. The safe ones can find another studio.

  4. 04

    Data from the first shot

    We don’t wait for launch to look. Every project is read from day one, and the ones with a real chance of landing get the focus. The rest get cut early, founders’ favourites first.

  1. Game 1 · Week 2Long. Noted.
  2. Game 2 · Week 4Short. Noted.
  3. Game 3 · Week 6Close. Interesting.
  4. Game 4 · Week 8Hit. Scale it.
Fig. 1Ranging shots. Them: one game in three years. Us: one every two weeks to a month.Four games, eight weeks, one catching on.

Fourteen days, idea to store.

The industry still plans in years. New tools made that optional, so we rebuilt the studio around two-week cycles. Same quality bar. Same ammunition. Far more shots.

  1. Day 0

    Point

    Set the target first: an audience, a metric, a bar to clear. Data picks the genre. Taste picks the rest, and taste is not up for a vote.

  2. Days 1–3

    Prototype

    Playable by day three, or it’s dead. Either way, cheaper than a meeting about it.

  3. Days 4–11

    Build

    An AI-native pipeline and the newest tools that actually work, held to a studio-grade bar. The toolchain is whatever shipped last Tuesday. We don’t wait for the conference talk.

  4. Days 12–13

    Wire

    Store page, analytics events, the target in writing. Instrumented before it’s pretty. Pretty is a day-thirteen problem.

  5. Day 14

    Ship

    It goes live, finished. Ready is a feeling. Day fourteen is a date.

  6. Day 15 onwards

    Read

    Retention, engagement, cost to find a player, all read against the day-zero target. Then a verdict. No appeals.

Then the numbers vote.

The reading starts on day zero, not after launch. The projects likeliest to land get the focus. Every verdict gets followed, including the ones we don’t like. Especially those.

Scale
It clears the bar. More budget, more content, more of our time, and a quiet nod.
Fix
It’s close. It gets another two weeks, not another year.
Kill
It isn’t close. We keep the code, skip the funeral and are firing again the same afternoon.
Simulated launchesThe real one has more tabs

Currently in the air.

Small games, built fast and built properly, each one aimed at something specific. Newest first. The data decides which ones get another two weeks. We just reload.

The screens below are artist’s impressions, drawn live by your browser. The buttons are not. Every game here is playable right now, which is more than most studio sites can say.

Artist’s impressionRendered live

AB—004 Latest

Last Extraction

The city fell. You’re the cleaning crew.

Zombie ops in a city that ended badly. Each mission is ten to twenty rooms, a flashlight, and no idea what is behind the next door. Start in the parking levels. Work your way up to the Brute. He is expecting you.

Genre
Room-clearing shooter
Platform
Mobile
First target
The Brute
Status
Live
Play Last Extraction

Artist’s impressionRendered live

AB—002

Road of Ruin

The hero walks right. Everything else objects.

A pixel fantasy auto-battler. You choose the build and the bad decisions; he handles the walking. Survive the days, meet the boss, come back with a better idea. He keeps walking either way.

Genre
Auto-battler RPG
Platform
Mobile
Status
Preview build
Play preview

Artist’s impressionRendered live

AB—001

Trade Rush

Wall Street, one thumb.

A trading game that lives inside Telegram. Real market data, pretend money and a light dusting of corporate satire. Buy, sell, regret, repeat. No licence required.

Genre
Arcade trading
Platform
Telegram mini app
Status
Live
Play Trade Rush

Easy to reach.
Hard to hit.

Publishers, platforms, investors, or anyone with a faster way to make games. Write to us. We reply within a reasonable trajectory, faster if you bring a target.

hello@amateurballistics.com

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