Original Bug Games
"We're just a bunch of people who really love games â and one of us really loves bugs."
Our Story
Original Bug Games started the way most good things do â a group of people who love games decided to make one.
The Name
Our founder just really likes bugs. It stuck. And honestly, so did we. Simple as that.
The Mission
We're not trying to be the biggest studio in the room. We're trying to make the kind of game we wish already existed.
The Drive
Something fast, something weird, something that respects your time and rewards your curiosity.
What We're Making
In a world where nature and technology live in perfect harmony, not everything buried stays buried.
Project Gardener is set in a utopian, Solar Punk world. Green energy, clean environments, healthy food, and sustainable living are all in abundance as technology lives in harmony with nature. Yet, this did not come without a few skeletons in the closet.
E.D.E.N. (Expanded Development Entwined with Nature) - is one of the few companies prominent enough to be considered a megacorp after being the forerunner in harmonising nature and technology. Their experiments created countless plant monstrosities buried under the city. Desperate to save face, EDEN hires "pest control" - officially coined as Gardeners; to weed out the threat.
Movement-First Combat
Every weapon is a movement tool. A shotgun that propels you backward. Guns discarded mid-air for a shockwave launch. Speed is survival.
Contract-Based Speedrun Loop
Complete Contracts. Get rated on efficiency. The faster you clear, the higher your standing. Every second counts.
Strategic Environments
Weapons placed to encourage optimal routes. Creep slows you down, but you can clear a path or find one that already exists.
Solarpunk World, Dark Secrets
Clean energy. Sustainable living. And buried beneath the city, plant monstrosities that should have died years ago.
Beneath The Surface
Project Gardener carries themes that go deeper than the Overgrowth.
The expectations of society and what it means to just try and live within them.
The desire of wanting nothing more than to simply exist and be allowed to live.
How despite doing everything right, it can still all go wrong in the end.
The pursuit of personal gain at the expense of others makes a for-profit system inherently flawed.
Corporate powers always prioritize themselves over everything else; even when the world is watching.
Sometimes the bugs aren't in the code. Sometimes they're the whole point.
How We Work
A few things we hold onto no matter what.
Games Should Be Fun First
Everything else is secondary. If it's not fun, we go back to the drawing board.
Every Bug Is A Feature Waiting To Happen
We embrace the unexpected. Some of the best ideas come from things going wrong.
Small Teams Make Big Ideas
We need the right people who care about what they're making, not the most people.
Players Are Part Of The Process
We make games for people who love games. Their experience is never an afterthought.