Pocket first
Every system is designed for a single thumb and a noisy train. Console instincts, phone constraints.
Studio
A compact team that ships for the median handset.
ValoAppDevelopment is independent. Designers, engineers, and live-ops in one room — remote-first — building original games for Android and iOS. We stay on a title after launch week.
01/Stance
Four rules we do not negotiate.
Two stores, one game
Android and iOS launch together. Parity is a promise, not a roadmap slide.
Mid-range is the spec
Beauty that only runs on flagship silicon is a demo. We budget for the median handset.
No dark loops
No stamina gates, no fake wait-it-out economies. Players can leave and we want them to come back anyway.
02/Capabilities
What we actually build.
01
Native Android
Kotlin, Play Billing, and performance budgets for the devices people actually own — not just the ones in launch films.
02
Native iOS
Swift, Game Center, and App Store review as a craft. Same day, same build family as Android. No second-class port.
03
Live operations
Seasons, economies, and content pipes a small team can actually run. The game should still feel authored on week forty.
04
Thumb-first systems
One-handed sessions, honest difficulty, no energy-timer dark patterns. If it does not feel good on a commute, it does not ship.
03/Method
From a week of discovery to two live storefronts.
01
Discover
A week in the fantasy, the thumb, and the session length. We kill ideas that need a tablet.
02
Prototype
Playable on both stores in weeks, not quarters. If the feel is wrong, we know before art locks.
03
Vertical slice
One complete loop: onboarding, session, reward, return. Mid-range frame time is a feature, not a later pass.
04
Ship & run
Soft launch, two storefronts, live-ops from day one. We stay on the title after the launch week noise.
Work with the studio
Original IP, a port with standards, or live-ops on a title that already has players.