Introducing Strange Hat Studios

Today I am announcing Strange Hat Studios, my solo independent game development studio, founded in 2024. After working privately for a while, I’m ready to start sharing what I’ve been building. This post is the first of many to come about the studio and its debut game.

I’ve always been the kind of player who takes the scenic route. I vividly remember the trek from Whiterun to Ivarstead on my first playthrough of Skyrim, when I kept wandering off to see what lay in the forests beyond the (relative) safety of the road. After numerous dances with death and a few new side quests under my belt, I finally arrived in Ivarstead with a sense of accomplishment that fast travel could have never given me.

I’m a longtime dungeon master, and worldbuilding has always been my favorite part of the craft. Creating a setting is rewarding in its own right, but it takes on a second life once players actually get their hands on it; they start poking around and asking questions, and before long the world becomes partly theirs. After around ten years as a hobbyist game developer alongside my career in software, starting this studio is a way for me to pursue that passion through my own games.

Those interests also shaped the studio’s three foundational design pillars: immersion, storytelling, and exploration. A world feels real when its details hold up to scrutiny, when its history can be read in its environment, and when players feel compelled to explore. I believe that curiosity should always be rewarded, and that discovery means more when it comes with some risk.

When it came time to decide on the direction for my debut title, that balance between risk and reward is what I kept coming back to. After spending late 2024 and much of 2025 exploring ideas and building prototypes, I began preliminary work in January 2026, and development officially kicked off in June.

It’s still early, but I can say this much: it’s a single-player, semi-open-world RPG with extraction elements. Over the past few years, I’ve grown to enjoy the high-stakes combat of games like Escape From Tarkov and Dark and Darker, as well as the exploration and storytelling of games like Skyrim. I want to bring those aspects together in a PvE game for players who like venturing into danger to uncover a story on their own terms.

I’ll be formally announcing the game before the end of the year. If this sounds like your kind of game, or if you’d just like to stay in the know, join the community on Discord or sign up for the newsletter to be the first to hear when it’s official.

Until next time,

Simon
Founder & Developer