Moon Studios (2010)
The Austrian Studio that Redefined Metroidvanias with Ori and Created a Distributed AAA Model
Founded in 2010 in Vienna by Austrian cinematic artist Thomas Mahler and Israeli software engineer Gennadiy Korol, Moon Studios is a celebrated independent studio that operates as a globally distributed, remote-first collective. Winning prestigious Game Awards and BAFTAs for Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the studio revolutionized 2D platforming aesthetics and tight precision mechanics.
The Virtual Studio Revolution and Painterly Animation
Rejecting the overhead of a brick-and-mortar office, Mahler and Korol assembled elite talent across over 40 countries communicating entirely online. Partnering with Microsoft Studios, they re-engineered the Unity engine to support hand-crafted multi-layered parallax art, fluid physics animation, and Gareth Coker's stirring orchestral score, producing the timeless emotional journey of Ori.
Branching into Action-RPGs with No Rest for the Wicked
Following the commercial triumph of the Ori duology, Moon Studios partnered with Take-Two's Private Division to launch No Rest for the Wicked in 2024. Fusing dynamic painterly art with deliberate, stamina-based Souls-like isometric combat, Moon Studios proved that remote distributed engineering could match and surpass traditional corporate AAA studios in both visual splendor and gameplay depth.