Moon Studios

Moon Studios is an independent Austrian video game developer founded in 2010 by Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol. Formally incorporated as Moon Studios GmbH in Vienna, the company works as a remote-first studio, assembling a distributed team of artists, engineers, and designers rather than operating traditional large development campuses.

The studio is known for hand-crafted visual direction, iterative gameplay polish, and original intellectual property. Its work spans action-platformers, Metroidvania design, and action role-playing games, combining stylized 2D and 3D art, animation, responsive combat, and carefully refined progression systems.

Notable games

• Ori and the Blind Forest (2015), a hand-painted action-platformer developed in partnership with Microsoft Studios
• Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (2016)
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020), the follow-up to the original Ori game
• No Rest for the Wicked (2024 Early Access), an original mature action RPG
• Warsoup (2010–2011), an early RTS/FPS-hybrid prototype

The Ori series established Moon Studios as a notable developer of cinematic, art-led platform games. Ori and the Blind Forest combined orchestral music, platforming, and illustrated environments, while Ori and the Will of the Wisps expanded that approach with a larger world and further refined movement and combat.

Moon Studios later introduced No Rest for the Wicked, a top-down action RPG built around deliberate combat and detailed hand-crafted environments. After the game entered Steam Early Access, the studio bought back its publishing and intellectual-property rights from Take-Two Interactive's Private Division in March 2025, retaining operational independence and control of the title.

Development approach

The studio provides full-cycle game development, original IP creation, game design, and distributed-production tooling. Its remote operating model supports collaboration across an international team while maintaining a focus on craftsmanship, visual detail, and repeated gameplay iteration. Moon Studios serves the PC and console games market, including Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch audiences.