Defragmentation (2025)

About

Defragmentation is a fast-paced shooter inspired by glitches, lasers, and abstract art that is set in a gloomy minimalistic world.

It is a first in the series of shorter game experiences that we create during our internal game jams. This game is a product of three days spent together — for at least twelve hours a day, we were brainstorming, experimenting, and building, and this process never stopped even during our breaks. The result of this productive time is a 15-minute game prototype that we are happy to share with you.
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Influences

Defragmentation combines a distinct visual language with a tight gameplay of an isometric shooter.

The sombre world of the game is inspired by beloved games — Kentucky Route Zero and Inside — and the work of the artist Simon Stålenhag. It is a place full of melancholic atmosphere that seems to exist outside of a specific time and location. An abstract urban environment of this world is alienating and isolated, and the character is almost always seen in a confined space.

This static world is invaded by glitchy figures that threaten to turn it into a colourful chaos. The inspiration for this characters comes from abstract art, such as paintings of Gerhard Richter, and from our digital systems and the process of disk defragmentation that gave a name to the game we’ve created.

A main character is an abstract human-like creature. The cubic shapes of the character and the enemies they fight is coming from the work of Antony Gormley. Reduced to abstractions, the characters become a continuation of the isometric world around them and make the story into a universal narrative.
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_{Powerful interactions of light and darkness as seen in the work of artists working with new media art and light installations / United Visual Artists, Parallels, 2014}

_{Colourful glitches cutting through the stagnant world of the familiar / Jules de Balincourt, Blind Faith and Tunnel Vision, 2005}

_{Nordic sci-fi landscapes imagined by Simon Stålenhag became another source of inspiration for the world of Defragmentation / Simon Stålenhag, The Labyrinth book, 2021}

_{Minimalist work of De Stijl movement informed the forms and proportions for the architecture of the game / Centre Pompidou, De Stijl. 1917-1931, 2010}

_{Cities turned into abstract compositions based on motion and colour inspired the visual language of ‘invaders’ in the game / Anton Repponen, Time Stretched series, 2022–2025}

_{Abstract yet unmistakably human figures by Anthony Gormley / Anthony Gormley, Second Body exhibition, 2015}

Gameplay

The base mechanic of the game is quite simple — the main character shoots the glitchy enemies that permeate their world. Some of them can be taken down with one shot, and some are bosses that need to be fought for longer.
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To fight the invaders, the character has two actions — shooting and dashing. Their weapon is not a literal gun. Rather, they are equipped with a flashlight that helps them navigate the dark world around. Whenever the enemy gets in a cone of light, the player presses the button and ‘shuts’ the lit area, turning it into a narrow laser beam and destroying their adversary.

The player can also dash through the space to escape the enemies. The enclosed environment of the game is designed to obstruct the camera view, creating an uncertainty about the position of the opponents. A dash is a way to escape the dangerous situations when they happen unexpectedly close and to add more pace to the game.

Making-of

The game is a result of our first studio game jam that happened in June 2025 on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Ten people from around the globe flew into the meeting place, and four more people from the team were connected to the work process remotely.

Artists, developers, animators, spatial, and sound designers — every member of the team worked closely with each other, and new ideas were born in this creative cooperation at any given moment. While everyone focused on their part of the work, they also participated in collective brainstorms and suggested thoughts for the other parts of the game. A lot of people from the team saw each other in real life for the first time, but everyone was quick to dive right into the working process.

Over the course of three days, we managed to create a working prototype that we were happy with. Moving across the production pipeline with a fantastic speed, we locked in the ideas for the visuals, mechanics, and sound early on, and the rest of the time was spent bringing this vision into life.
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The creative freedom and productivity of this short period inspired us to repeat this process a couple of times a year. Similar to Pixar shorts, the smaller games like this help us try out new ideas and experiment with genres and gameplay that we are not usually considering for our main project. The experience of making Defragmentation actually helped us to bring fresh ideas for The Great Filter and change the way we organise our team.

In the future, we aim to continue bringing similar smaller games to life as a part of our Microcosm initiative — experimenting and knowing more about each other in the process of making.