The Studio
Barely Playable Games
Two people and some very questionable physics.
Barely Playable Games is a very small independent studio building character-forward games with a deliberately scrappy indie production style. Blade Baes is our current title.
Physics creates opportunities; skill exploits them.
Blade Baes started as a browser combat toy, not a cast of characters. The physics came first: pull-back launch, momentum you can steer but never simply override, and collisions honest enough that a loss always has a reason. Only once that felt good did we let the Baes carry the fantasy — and the rule stuck: a personality has to change how a fighter actually plays, not just how she talks.
What we're building toward
The free browser Open Alpha exists to answer a cheap, measurable question: do strangers replay, pick favorites by name, share clips, and ask for more? If it does, that's the signal to move to a production engine, commission full character art, and build Blade Baes into the premium Steam release we're aiming for — five mechanically distinct Baes today, an expanding international roster tomorrow.
How we work
Blade Baes is human-directed and AI-assisted. Game design, mechanics, creative direction, curation and implementation are human-led. Some prototype and exploratory character art is AI-assisted while we validate the game — production character art is being commissioned as the project earns further investment, starting with Ash as the art-pipeline benchmark. Read the full AI disclosure.
Support the runway
The commercial plan is a free Open Alpha, a premium full release, and optional expansions — not real-money gacha, even with a collectible cast. When a Barely Playable Games Patreon opens, it funds visible production work: character commissions, voice acting, animation and key art. Not a second job, not a subscription to bespoke rewards — just the runway.