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Ember Lab

Games & Interactive
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1
Founded
2009
Employees
11-50
Offices
1

About Ember Lab

Ember Lab is an independent games and interactive studio founded in 2009 by brothers Mike and Josh Grier. Based in Orange, California, the company combines a background in character animation, visual effects, and cinematic storytelling with full-cycle video game development and publishing.

The studio began as a boutique digital-content and animation house, producing character-driven advertising campaigns, visual effects, and cinematic shorts. Its earlier work included campaigns and promotional animation for The Coca-Cola Company, Hisense, and Major League Baseball, as well as the Coca-Cola collaboration Crabs and Penguins. Self-funded animated projects such as Dust and Majora's Mask: Terrible Fate helped establish the team's visual storytelling and character-development approach.

Games and interactive work

Ember Lab later moved into standalone game development, building on its animation and cinematic experience to create narrative-driven adventure games. Its debut full-length title, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, launched in 2021 for PlayStation and Windows PC before expanding to Steam and Xbox platforms. The game received Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards 2021, along with an Annie Award for Character Animation in a Video Game.

The studio is currently developing Kena: Scars of Kosmora, a sequel that expands the world, elemental combat systems, and cinematic storytelling established by Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Capabilities

  • Full-cycle video game development and publishing
  • Action-adventure gameplay mechanics and systems
  • Stylized 3D character and environmental animation
  • Cinematic production, narrative design, and real-time visual effects
  • Commercial character animation and branded-content production

Ember Lab's work spans console and PC interactive entertainment, digital animation and visual effects, and advertising media. Its production history includes animation services for Act 3 Games' The Fidelio Incident alongside its original games and earlier commercial work.

More about Ember Lab

Leadership and production evolution

  • Mike Grier is the co-founder, Chief Creative Officer, and Director; Josh Grier is the co-founder, Chief Operating Officer, and Producer.
  • The studio transitioned its internal game-development pipelines from Unity to Unreal Engine, building on its prior animation and cinematics experience for its narrative-driven interactive work.

Notable credits

6 credits
  • Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  • Kena: Scars of Kosmora
  • Majora's Mask: Terrible Fate
  • Dust
  • The Fidelio Incident
  • Crabs and Penguins

Offices

Where Ember Lab is based

1 location

  • Headquarters / Main Studio

    Headquarters
    557 West Maple, Orange, CA 92868, United StatesOrange, California, United States

    Headquarters and main studio housing core game direction, programming, technical art, 3D animation, finance, and production.

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