Sundog

Sundog is a Polish game development studio established in 2021 and legally incorporated in September 2022. The company is headquartered in Białystok, Poland. Sundog was founded by a team of four industry veterans: Narrative Director Aleksandra Bieluk, who has six years of experience in creating game narratives; Creative Director Mateusz Błaszczyk, with a decade in game development; Art Director Carlos Castañon, who has been in the industry since 2008; and writer Zbyszko Fingas, who is also a board member of the Olga Tokarczuk Foundation. A significant co-founder providing creative oversight is Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, whose work serves as a foundation for the studio's flagship project.

The studio operates within the entertainment software industry, focusing on the development of role-playing games (RPGs) for PC and consoles. Sundog's business model centers on creating and selling these games. The company secured initial funding of 1.48 million PLN (approximately $337K USD) in early 2023 from private investors to develop a prototype. More recently, in late 2024, the studio was awarded a substantial grant of nearly 17 million PLN (around €3.9 million) from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP). This funding is allocated to a project for developing a system to create non-linear RPGs with psychologically coherent characters using Unreal Engine 5, a technology that will be central to their upcoming game.

Sundog's premier product is "Ibru," a detective RPG based on Olga Tokarczuk's 2006 novel, "Anna In in the Tombs of the World". The game is set in a science-fantasy world that distinctively merges ancient Sumerian mythology with cyberpunk aesthetics. It is designed to be an immersive, first-person perspective experience that allows players to explore its unique world. The studio aims to produce meaningful experiences by combining strong storytelling with gameplay that is accessible to both dedicated gamers and more casual players.

Keywords: game development, RPG, PC games, console games, Polish gaming, Olga Tokarczuk, Ibru, Unreal Engine 5, narrative-driven games, indie games, video game studio, Sumerian mythology, cyberpunk, detective RPG, science-fantasy, character-driven games, entertainment software, game design, creative development, venture-backed gaming