Black Salt Games, the studio behind the hit title Dredge, has announced the formation of a fresh development house called Team Trifold, accompanied by a newly created white‑label publishing arm named Saltworks Entertainment. Saltworks will act as a shared services hub, offering production, marketing, quality assurance, localisation, audio, business operations, and publishing support to Team Trifold, Black Salt Games, and fellow New Zealand indie developer Disc 2 Games.
All three entities occupy the same Christchurch office building, yet each will retain full creative autonomy. According to Nadia Thorne, executive producer at Black Salt Games, the company is directly financing Team Trifold’s inaugural project, Nothing Lost, capitalising on the momentum generated by Dredge’s commercial success. "We also benefit from New Zealand's Game Development Sector Rebate, which gives Team Trifold the stability to focus on making Nothing Lost as strong as it can be," Thorne explained to GamesIndustry.biz. Data released over the summer indicated that studios leveraging the rebate collectively boosted revenue by 17% to reach $829 million, underscoring the financial advantage of the scheme.
Thorne stressed that sustainability lies at the heart of Saltworks Entertainment’s multi‑studio strategy. "We believe small teams making ambitious indie games that don't require the latest and greatest hardware can be a really resilient model for whatever the next five years brings.
By connecting these studios, we can share experience, infrastructure and support across teams without any one studio growing beyond what it actually needs," she said. This philosophy aims to keep development cycles lean, flexible, and resilient to market fluctuations. Team Trifold is a tight‑knit trio consisting of artist‑writer Jed Uy, production and QA lead Wilson Teo, and programmer Carl Johnson. Each member brings a wealth of experience from various levels of the industry, ranging from original IP work to contract‑based projects.
Uy reflected on the lessons learned over his career: "The enduring lesson that we all carry forward to this day is the importance of iteration and playtesting, as well as the value of being sensitive to the end‑user's needs." He added that establishing solid design pillars is essential, noting that while specific details may evolve, the core vision must remain immutable. Teo echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the necessity of validating the core gameplay loop through rigorous playtesting and internal discussion. "Most importantly, we stay true to our design pillars," he said. Both developers agree that a clear, consistent design framework is crucial for navigating the crowded roguelike market.
Inspired by the 2001 anime series Shaman King, Team Trifold seeks to "turn the roguelike loop on its head" by making death a central driver of progression rather than a mere setback. "A multiplicative death‑based crafting system that actually gives a reward for the most unpleasant part of the roguelike genre," Uy described. The team draws on a blend of cultural mythologies from its members, alongside Shaman King’s depiction of life after death and supernatural abilities, to craft a premise they describe as both sensational and wholesome. Teo highlighted the communication challenge inherent in a genre where players typically resist losing.
"It really comes down to how we communicate and reinforce our design pillars and core game loop. Players resist losing, so we need to clearly explain our design intent that dying is part of the game," he noted. By framing death as a mechanic that unlocks new crafting options and narrative threads, the studio hopes to reframe player expectations and make each demise feel purposeful rather than punitive.
Beyond the core concept, Nothing Lost will feature a layered crafting system that scales with each death, offering increasingly complex items and abilities that reflect the player's accumulated knowledge. The developers plan to integrate procedural generation with handcrafted narrative beats, ensuring that each run feels fresh while still contributing to an overarching story. This hybrid approach aims to satisfy both traditional roguelike enthusiasts and newcomers seeking a more story‑driven experience.
Saltworks Entertainment will provide the logistical backbone for these ambitions, handling everything from localisation into multiple languages to ensuring that the game meets the technical standards of various platforms without requiring cutting‑edge hardware. By pooling resources across three studios, Saltworks hopes to reduce overhead, accelerate development timelines, and maintain a high level of polish. In summary, Black Salt Games’ new venture represents a strategic move to nurture small, ambitious indie teams within a supportive ecosystem.
Team Trifold’s focus on reimagining death as a rewarding mechanic, combined with the shared expertise offered by Saltworks, positions Nothing Lost as a potentially groundbreaking entry in the roguelike space. The collaborative model underscores a broader industry trend toward sustainable, community‑driven development that leverages local incentives and shared infrastructure to produce innovative gaming experiences.