Black Ice Studios

Black Ice Studios is an independent video game developer and publisher founded in 2014. Based in Montreal, the studio works with a distributed team on PC games that combine tactical multiplayer combat, persistent strategy and interconnected virtual economies. Its development capabilities span game design, systems balancing, Unreal Engine development, environment and character art, and virtual economy engineering.

The studio's principal creative setting is Ashes of Mankind, a science-fiction universe built around the dystopian crater-world of Ortus. Its two interconnected games approach that setting from different perspectives: individual extraction missions and large-scale industrial strategy. The company restructured and expanded around the intellectual property in 2021.

Tactical combat and industrial strategy

Citadels, previously titled Ashes of Mankind: Citadels, is a hardcore tactical PvPvE extraction shooter developed and published by the studio. Built with Unreal Engine, it sends 12 squads of three players into the Citadel's vertical sectors. Tactical combat and high-risk loot decisions shape the extraction experience, with players balancing the potential rewards of a run against the danger of losing their equipment.

EMPIRES, also known as Ashes of Mankind: EMPIRES, is a browser-based 4X strategy MMO built around a persistent industrial economy. Players establish corporations and manufacture arms, equipment and supplies. Its economic architecture connects production in EMPIRES with demand from extraction runners in Citadels, linking strategic production decisions to the equipment consumed in combat.

This relationship between the two games makes systems design and economic balancing central to the studio's work. Its technical capabilities also include smart-contract engineering, blockchain integration and AI-assisted narrative and voice pipelines. These support a development approach that combines conventional multiplayer game production with connected economic systems.

As of October 2026, the studio remained active, with Citadels undergoing closed beta testing and receiving development updates alongside continued work on EMPIRES.