Evening Star
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 2018
- Employees
- 11-50
- Offices
- 3
About Evening Star
Evening Star is an independent boutique game development studio founded in late 2018 and publicly introduced in February 2019. Its founders previously collaborated on Sega’s Sonic Mania and Sonic Mania Plus, bringing experience in platformer design, engineering and art to a studio focused on original games. Those earlier titles belong to the founders’ development history and predate the company’s establishment.
Based in Los Angeles, with integrated operations in London and Melbourne, the studio develops games for PC and consoles. Its work combines retro influences with modern 3D presentation, emphasizing momentum, physics-based movement and expressive traversal. Its capabilities cover game design, engineering, artistic direction, level design and audio, alongside the development of proprietary engines and production tools.
Original games and technology
The studio released its debut original intellectual property, Penny’s Big Breakaway, in February 2024 through publisher Private Division. Available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the 3D platformer centres on kinetic movement and yo-yo traversal. The project brings together the team’s platforming background and its approach to stylized, non-photorealistic graphics.
Proprietary technology is a central part of Evening Star’s development work. The company owns and develops Retro Engine and the Retro Software Development Kit (RSDK), supporting both game production and selective commercial engine licensing. Its technology combines 2D pixel-art functionality with a modern 3D rendering pipeline, allowing the studio to develop tools around its own creative and technical requirements.
Beyond its original games, the supplied research credits Evening Star with engine licensing and technical contributions to Sonic Origins. The studio continues to develop original projects using Retro Engine v7, maintaining a business that combines game creation with in-house engine and tools development.
More about Evening Star
Founders and leadership
The report identifies the five founders in these roles:
- Dave Padilla — CEO and Executive Producer.
- Christian Whitehead — Creative Director and Lead Engine Architect.
- Hunter Bridges — CTO and Game Director.
- Tom Fry — Art Director.
- Brad Flick — Design Director.
Technology milestones
Christian Whitehead originally authored Retro Engine in 2008. Ownership of the engine and RSDK was assigned to Evening Star in 2019. The studio initially used the names Star Engine and StarSDK for its separate 3D technology developed between 2019 and 2024. Following registration of the Retro Engine trademark in 2024, it unified the technology naming: the engine behind its debut game was retrospectively designated Retro Engine Version 6, with development merging into Version 7.
Operating model
The studio was built around remote collaboration from its inception, enabling its international team to work across multiple time zones. In September 2024, it announced a reduction of six developers amid wider games industry disruption.
Notable credits
3 creditsOffices
Where Evening Star is based
- 312 E 1st St Ste 200, Los Angeles, CA 90012, USALos Angeles, California, United States
Los Angeles office
HeadquartersCorporate headquarters and primary US physical office.
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Melbourne office
Australian regional operations hub led by Christian Whitehead.
- C/O Dragon Argent Limited, 3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2RE, UKLondon, England, United Kingdom
London office
Integrated UK regional operating branch through Evening Star Limited. The supplied address is its registered office.
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