Blind Squirrel Games 15-Year Retrospective Series

Part 4: Fifteen Years of Building, Learning, and Looking Ahead

As Blind Squirrel Games celebrates its 15th anniversary, the past few years have marked a period of bold transformation and resilience. From expanding BSG’s global footprint with the acquisition of Distributed Development in Colombia to balancing its legacy of ports and remasters with ambitious creative ventures, the studio has embraced change while staying true to its roots.

We’ve navigated new challenges in mobile development, pushed boundaries with original IP like Cosmorons, and strengthened our role as a trusted partner on major titles. Along the way, leadership philosophies have evolved, culture has endured, and the BSG vision for the next 15 years remains as ambitious as ever. Here’s a look at the pivotal decisions, lessons learned, and aspirations that define Blind Squirrel Games today… and for fifteen more into the future.

Expanding Globally: Why Colombia, Why Now

In early 2025, Blind Squirrel Games acquired Distributed Development, rebranding the group as Blind Squirrel Games Colombia. The decision capped several years of deliberate expansion beyond the U.S., following the New Zealand studio and Austin studio build-outs.

“We saw a need to continue our global expansion… Colombia was identified as having a really strong engineering population that was mostly untapped as far as US game development companies were concerned,” said Chief Development Officer Matt Fawcett. But it wasn’t a simple buy and rename; it was the culmination of a test-and-prove relationship, and a strategic bet on talent, proximity, and resiliency.

“We worked with them for about a year… and then decided they were the right kind of team to acquire. They had some talented engineers and a small staff of artists.” stated Chief Executive Officer and Blind Squirrel Games founder, Brad Hendricks. Blind Squirrel’s first collaboration with the Colombia team was on Age of Darkness, a year-long engagement that allowed both sides to vet culture, capability, and delivery before taking the next step. From the development leadership’s vantage point, Colombia offered more than cost advantages: English-fluent engineers, time-zone alignment with U.S. teams, and a pipeline of technically impressive graduates.

Brad frames Colombia within a broader post-COVID recalibration: remote pipelines worked for co-development projects, but rapid iteration in full development suffered when teams weren’t co-located. The studio’s guidance shifted: bring full-dev iteration back in-office while keeping co-development flexible.

Today, BSG Colombia has grown well beyond its original size, participating across service lines and poised to play a larger role on upcoming projects.

Balancing Ports/Remasters with Creative Work

Ports and remasters are in Blind Squirrel’s DNA. They require discipline, tools, and the kind of engineering muscle memory that lets teams move confidently across hardware constraints. At the same time, BSG was increasingly asked to lead original creative work, from creature design in the Amazon MMORPG New World to full-development engagements and mobile adaptations.

So, how do you balance bread-and-butter services with creative opportunities? “It’s not so much a balancing act as a stepping stone… full development requires different skill sets and more design risk compared to ports and remasters.” States Chief Financial Officer Steve Sardegna. “That question is exactly why we created three different service lines… so we can appropriately address co-development, ports/remasters, and full development.”

Blind Squirrel formalized three service lines (Co-development, Ports & Remasters, and Full Development) so each can have tailored processes, leaders, and success metrics. The studio’s creature design work on New World highlighted the studio’s ability to integrate into an existing live ecosystem, delivering ambient and enemy creatures that balance combat readability with world-building, while also expanding our full-development capabilities in animation systems, AI behaviors, and content pipelines, proving we can drive creative outcomes while respecting live-ops realities.

You Got Games On Your Phone?: Expanding into Mobile

Work on iOS titles like Warframe and original mobile projects such as The Dragon Prince: Xadia represents AAA-grade mobile development, encompassing deep optimization, input redesign, UI legibility, content streaming, and live-ops considerations. “Moving a PC game to phones requires a lot of skill… artwork and memory optimization are critical. It’s not something you hand to a typical porting shop,” Brad states.

From these experiences, the development team honed several mobile development skills: design for scale across screen sizes and performance envelopes from the outset, segment service lines so teams can focus without constantly switching modes, and position expertise clearly so partners understand that BSG can deliver both rapid ports and complex adaptations.

Original IP: Cosmorons

The BSG commitment to original IP continues with Cosmorons, a co-op futuristic arcade shooter. Creatively, it’s the team’s opportunity to show the world what they can do, unencumbered by NDAs and third-party approvals.

Matt Fawcett describes Cosmorons as triple-I in scope (indie-sized focus with AAA polish) born from hard-won lessons on Drifters, mentioning, “…smaller scope, focused experience, and no ongoing server costs so it can be played in perpetuity.”

With a unique planetoid-gravity gameplay hook, Cosmorons is a more refined, arcadey evolution, deliberately using a stylized art approach to accelerate development while preserving clarity and fun. The business reality of original IP is high-risk, high-reward. Meanwhile, Cosmorons functions as a proving ground for our full development methodologies: processes refined since Drifters, teams trained to lead rather than follow, and a product BSG can showcase as their own.

##Looking Ahead: Partners, Philosophy, and the Next 15 Years

Today, Blind Squirrel stands as a versatile and trusted partner across co-development, ports and remasters, and full-development projects, contributing to upcoming titles like State of Decay 3 while continuing to expand its creative and technical capabilities. The leadership - anchored in clear goals, empowered teams, and thoughtful delegation -ensures we can navigate complex projects, multiple studios, and live ecosystems with confidence.

Blind Squirrel’s leadership philosophy emphasizes hiring talented people, giving them direction, and “moving obstacles out of the way… adaptability is key,” as Sardegna puts it. Leaders have also learned the importance of delegation, evolving from micromanaging to macromanaging, or, “empowering people to make decisions,” Hendricks describes. With a balance of discipline, innovation, and trust in their people, the studio is well-positioned to tackle both ambitious creative endeavors and technically demanding adaptations.

The company’s culture remains a defining strength, consistently casual, collaborative, and built on accessibility, transparency, and connection. Matt Fawcett highlights that they have “always had a casual working relationship; no office politics, no rigidity,” with leaders staying approachable across locations and informal touchpoints keeping teams aligned and engaged. This ethos reinforces the company’s ability to deliver high-quality work while keeping teams motivated and empowered.

What does the next fifteen years look like for Blind Squirrel Games? Looking to the future, Fawcett emphasizes the desire to remain forward-looking and resilient, ensuring they are “not caught out by big changes in the industry.” And the studio’s secret to lasting fifteen years in a notoriously challenging industry? “Be transparent, learn from mistakes, and keep improving,” Brad Hendricks states. Collectively, the Blind Squirrel team agrees on a few key takeaways: deliver on time, on budget. Cultivate long-term relationships. Be decisive when things get tough. And take care of your people - fairly, straightforwardly, and with trust.