Anti-Hero Studios meets Fateless Podcast

There’s something oddly reassuring about meeting another studio and instantly realising you’re chasing the same thing: games that players actually talk about after they put their phone down. In this Fateless podcast, Simon and Sham sit down with Bryce and Frank from Anti-Hero Studios, two ex-Supercell devs building a mobile-first extraction shooter designed around high-stakes loot runs and unpredictable player behaviour. Betrayals, revenge, “we could all win but I want your bag,” the whole lot.

If you’re following Godforge because you love community-driven development and systems with depth, this episode hits a familiar note. Different genre, same energy: build with players, test early, and chase memorable moments over spreadsheet optimisation.

Anti-Hero Studios is founded by Bryce and Frank, both previously at Supercell. Frank worked on Brawl Stars, while Bryce was art director on Clash Royale and later helped build the marketing team in Helsinki. Their shared goal is simple to say, hard to execute: make mobile multiplayer feel truly social again, closer to the kind of interaction you’d expect from PC and console games.

Simon’s story of meeting them at an industry dinner is peak “small world” energy. The Fateless origin story gets repeated down the table, everyone leans in, and by the end it becomes obvious: these studios are basically “brothers from another mother,” aligned on community, playtesting, and building games players recommend to friends.

The most important theme in the conversation is values. Frank talks candidly about growing up on PC and console games, shifting to mobile life, and feeling disappointed by how much of mobile design became UA and metrics driven.

You know the vibe:

• fake ads that don’t match the real game
• rewarded acquisition loops that train players to play for incentives, not fun
• design built around retention targets rather than innovation
• “optimise the funnel” thinking replacing “make it awesome” thinking

Anti-Hero isn’t anti-data. They’re anti-building a game where the data becomes the product. Their pitch is basically: make a game players want to play, and marketing becomes a community story, not a deception engine.

Bryce frames extraction as the “next wave” that could rival battle royale, but with stronger stakes. In battle royale you drop in with nothing and leave with nothing. Extraction flips it: you enter with gear you might lose, fill your bag with loot, and every second you stay increases risk. Extracting becomes a choice under pressure.

The studio’s belief is that the genre is special, but traditionally too hardcore (Tarkov is the obvious reference point). Their challenge is to simplify without flattening, make it approachable on mobile, while keeping the tension that makes extraction feel different from everything else.

This is where Anti-Hero gets really interesting. They’re not just copying an extraction loop. They’re leaning into the messy social behaviour that happens when players have agency.

In their game, you can:

• team up and disband on the fly
• choose to cooperate, avoid fights, or go full kill-on-sight
• betray teammates for loot
• build revenge stories because players remember what you did

Frank makes a key point: in extraction, you don’t need other players to lose for you to win. The goal is getting out with loot. That makes betrayal feel like a personal choice instead of a forced rule and that’s exactly where the best stories come from.

Anti-Hero has been playtesting with the community from the earliest “rectangles in Unity” days. At first it was every month or two. Now it’s trending toward weekly, because they’re honing the core.

They’re measuring things like:

• do players come back multiple days in a test window?
• are social moments actually happening (teaming, revenge, repeat play)?
• can new players reach the fun quickly without needing deep genre knowledge?
• does loss feel like “stakes” or “frustration”?

They’re focused on proving the loop is fun before worrying about monetisation. That’s a very Fateless-like philosophy, and it’s why the conversation feels so aligned.

The big risk with extraction is churn when players lose a stacked bag. Anti-Hero’s playtest data suggests something surprising: dying isn’t necessarily the quitting trigger. Successful extractions, though, strongly correlate with players continuing to play because the reward feeling is huge.

To prevent “I’m broke, I’m stuck” spirals, they’re building a meta progression layer where:

• materials collected feed crafting
• gear provides power but can be lost
• there’s also permanent progression you never lose
• skill trees create growth without exponential veteran dominance

They also care a lot about “play with your friend” design. Veterans can help new players gear up faster, and the systems encourage that mentorship loop. That’s smart long-term design: early game is about growth, late game becomes about mastery and contribution.

The funniest moment is the “dev squad hunt.” A top-ranked Brawl Stars player starts dominating their playtests, so five devs coordinate an ambush… only to discover in the replay that a random opportunist (using a fake famous username) actually got the kill by betraying the target mid-fight. It’s the perfect example of social emergence working exactly as intended.

To wrap, Simon asks the classic Godforge question: what mythic figure would you add?

• Frank leans toward mischievous trickster gods, fitting his “troll at heart” vibe.
• Bryce jokes that aliens built the pyramids, so add an alien, and also suggests sirens/mermaids for that dangerous, alluring mythology energy.

This episode is basically two studios bonding over the same obsession: build games that create stories, not just sessions. Anti-Hero’s mobile extraction angle is bold, but the philosophy is familiar to anyone following Godforge: test with the community, chase fun first, and design for the moments players can’t stop talking about.