Sleeprunner Studios: Three Different Genres in Three Games

From Indie to AAA: On a regular basis, we have a look at a studio from the German-speaking development scene. This time: Sleeprunner Studios from Bayreuth. The five-person team at Sleeprunner Studios in Bayreuth, demonstrated their skills last year with Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship - Remastered. Now it's time for their own projects, and they're tackling all kinds of genres.

In February 2020, Sebastian Kühn, Josef Buchner, Andreas Moder and Johannes Monsch founded Sleeprunner Studios in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth. But what is sleeprunning? "It's sleepwalking, but faster! There is no deeper meaning behind the name, it just sounded cool," Johannes Monsch told GamesMarkt. The four had already worked together as a team during their studies, carrying out a number of projects at the University of Bayreuth, particularly in the 'Media Studies and Media Practice' course. So they had a lot of practical experience and cooperation.

"Even though none of us started our studies with the aim of becoming self-employed, we noticed that we function very well as a team and theoretically cover all the basic roles. Together with the preparation provided by the university, some of our internships (e.g. with the Pixel Maniacs in Nuremberg) and the great Funding opportunities in Bavaria through the FFF (FilmFernsehFonds), we had a good foundation for effectively thinking about starting a business," Monsch said. They started out with another co-founder and 3D artist, Aaron Beller, but after a year and a half of being self-employed, he decided to take a different path.

In 2022, a fifth partner comes on board: Tim Keil, who is both a co-partner and a technical artist. "Since we were founded, we have completed a few smaller projects and a funded prototype with Downfall Hearts. However, the biggest step for us has now been to complete the first commercial release: Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship Remastered [in 2024]." The next big step for them was to move into their first own office space in mid-2024, which was made possible with the help of the Game Innovation Lab and the Oberfrankenstiftung.

All the Sleeprunners have been working from home for a number of years, and while this has worked well as they have improved their project management and built up company wikis and knowledge bases, they are convinced that having their own office will increase productivity in the long term. At the moment, the team consists of five people. "However, we also occasionally have freelancers and we also have space for internships." The company is primarily focused on game development, but is open to similar projects using the Unreal Engine. "Fortunately, we are currently able to dedicate most of our efforts to game development," Johannes Monsch said.

Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship - Remastered was released in June 2024 in partnership with Aesir Interactive, who developed the original game released in 2017, and publisher Mindscape. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the remaster features improved graphics, updated nature scenes, new lighting and weather effects, new character details and reworked animations, as well as new achievements and a photo mode. The game follows the story of the book and film series about young horse whisperer Mika and the stallion Windstorm (Ostwind in German).

"As a studio, we developed a large part of the remaster independently, like the complete world revamp, the systems overhaul, and most of the new 3D assets. However, Aesir Interactive contributed some essential parts like technical support, QA, as well as some 3D art and cinematic work for some of the trailers. Aesir Interactive and Mindscape also took care of the marketing aspects. The Steam reviews and YouTube Let's Plays are mostly positive, and even after the release we were able to provide a few patches to ensure everyone has the best experience with the game." - Johannes Monsch 3D Artist and Co-Founder

In November 2024, the Winter Wonderland DLC followed, again in collaboration with Aesir Interactive, featuring a winter wonderland, new main and side missions, missions such as sledding and snowballing, and more.

The studio is located in Bayreuth, north of Nuremberg, and according to them there is an active local game development scene, although it is still growing and needs to grow further. "In the last few years alone, many game studios have been founded in the local area and at least 16 of them are still active. This is certainly due to the support and preparatory function provided by the University of Bayreuth. In the Bayreuth Media Studies department, for example, there is the Game Innovation Lab, which does an excellent job of networking students, game studios and the local industry, as well as holding events that can generally make the transition from studying to working life easier."

In addition to Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship - Remastered, several other commercial games developed in Bayreuth were released in 2024, such as Fireside from Emergo Entertainment and Passing By from Studio Windsocke. "However, we are sure that Bayreuth can establish itself as an economically sound games location if politics recognize and foster the potential."

After Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship - Remastered and the Winter Wonderland DLC, they are working on new projects that have not yet been publicly announced. Their goals for the next three years are to sustain, grow and start developing their own games. "With prototypes for Downfall Hearts and Trail of Toads ready, we are currently seeking a publisher to support their development." Trail of Toads is a colourful 3D platformer / collectathon and Downfall Hearts is a 3D roguelike dungeon crawler with melee combat set in an ever-changing dungeon. Horses, toads and dark dungeon adventures. The five-person team is certainly not limited to one genre, and is always willing to try new things.

Short Portrait

Sleeprunner Studios
Wacholderweg 19
95445 Bayreuth
Germany
www.sleeprunnerstudios.com/
hello@sleeprunnerstudios.com
Founded 25 February 2020
Number of employees: 5