Move fast & Make Games
Our Mission
Our mission is to break down the barriers between technical and creative—to build an environment where great ideas aren't held back by technical complexity. We want to empower our developers to do more with less, so they can spend their time creating, not firefighting.
Who We Are
World Makers is a UK-based independent game studio specialising in online multiplayer and long-running live services. With a lean team of around 20, we design, build, ship, and operate cross-platform immersive social games.
How We Work
Our lean team is intentional—backed by a decade of tooling and infrastructure that lets us go from idea to playable in days, not months. We self-publish on PC and console, iterate relentlessly, and build on real player feedback. We’re constantly striving to close the gap from idea to release.
What We’re Making
Since 2016 our debut franchise Deceit, a pioneer in online social deduction, has drawn over 20 million players across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Still evolving today, Deceit has been a long standing exploratory project that has straddled multiple genres and received over 500 game updates. Our learnings from Deceit have been invaluable in building our powerful pipelines and processes that will underpin all of our future projects.
Since 2019 we’ve been exploring how to bring our first massive-scale game to market. This really started coming together in 2021 when World Makers evolved into a VC-backed studio with the support of Makers Fund. Following $7m of investment, MVX is being unveiled in 2026.
James Thompson is the founder and CEO of World Makers. He began his career in games development at 16, building an AI client for RuneScape that reached millions of players and generated seven-figure revenues. He then joined Jagex, the team behind the game, and obtained a first in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
At Jagex he developed player analytics and behaviour systems, banned millions of cheating accounts, and was instrumental in the launch of Old School RuneScape in 2013 — still one of the most successful MMOs in the world. It's also where he met the people who would go on to become World Makers' founding team.
In 2016, that team left to build their own games. They created Deceit, worked with Improbable on metaverse technologies, grew into a cross-platform developer, and built the tools and infrastructure that underpins the World Makers mission.
OUR BOARD
James Thompson
Herman Narula
Archie Stonehill
Curtis Urbanowicz
Jay Chi