STUDIO

SugarPunch Games is an independent game studio based in the UK, currently run by just one person: me.

Hi! I'm Kate. Engineer, gamer, published board game designer, baker, mum, and the person behind the majority of the lines of code, puzzles, and questionable dialogue options you'll find in my games.

I create narrative-driven games with memorable characters, meaningful choices, and plenty of little details for curious players to discover.

How it all started

I grew up in Hungary and have always loved games. In fact, they were the reason I chose to study Computer Science at university. Even though I had never written a line of code before.

Back then, Hungary had several well-known game studios that I dreamedof working for. Unfortunately, by the time I graduated, most of them had disappeared. Instead, I found myself building websites and desktop applications because that's where the work was. I enjoyed solving technical problems and learned a huge amount, but it was never quite the career I'd imagined.

In 2013 I moved to London, where I found more opportunities and spent some more time developing business software. By then I'd accepted that becoming a professional game developer probably just wasn't going to happen.

Then I met my husband.

He had followed the path I'd originally hoped to take, and made a career in game development. He encouraged me to stop assuming it was too late.

I tried.

For months I applied for game development jobs, but without professional experience in the industry I couldn't get anyone to take a chance on me. Ironically, I had too much experience doing the "wrong" kind of programming. I was apparently "too Microsoft" and not enough C++.

Eventually I reached a simple conclusion:

If nobody was going to hire me to make their games... I'll just make my own.

So I left my job, started working on an idea I'd been carrying around for some time, and that became the beginning of what would eventually become Sugarpunch Games.

Learning by making games

Like many indie developers, I learned far more by making games than by reading about them.

I entered numerous game jams to develop the skills that I need for game development. One of those game jam entries turned out to have much bigger potential than any of us expected. Rather than leaving it behind, the team decided to continue developing it.

That project was Behind the Beyond.

Over time, life inevitably got in the way. Most of the original team had other full-time jobs, while this became my full-time focus. Today the studio is once again a solo endeavour, although I regularly collaborate with talented freelance artists and other specialists whenever a project calls for it.

Details matter

One thing you'll quickly notice if you play my games is that I love rewarding curiosity. If you try something unusual, there's a good chance the game has a response prepared.

Wanna talk to a lamp? There's probably a line of dialogue for that.

If you try every option instead of rushing ahead, you might just discover a joke, a character moment, or a small piece of world-building. Most players won't experience every single line I've written. And that's perfectly fine. The important thing is that the world feels alive, characters react naturally, conversations flow, and every interaction helps build atmosphere.