Black Salt Games, the studio behind the hit title Dredge, has taken a bold step by founding a new development house called Team Trifold. This move coincides with the launch of a white‑label publishing arm named Saltworks Entertainment, which will serve not only Team Trifold but also Black Salt Games itself and fellow New Zealand indie developer Disc 2 Games.
All three entities share a single roof in Christchurch, New Zealand, yet each retains full creative autonomy. Saltworks Entertainment is marketed as a collaborative hub that pools expertise across a wide range of disciplines—production, marketing, quality assurance, localisation, audio, business operations, and publishing. By centralising these services, the three studios can focus on their own artistic visions while benefiting from shared infrastructure, reduced overhead, and a common support network.
The arrangement is designed to keep each team lean, preventing any one studio from outgrowing the resources it actually needs. The financial backbone of Team Trifold’s inaugural project, Nothing Lost, comes directly from Black Salt Games. Executive producer Nadia Thorne explained to GamesIndustry.biz that the funding is a direct result of the commercial triumph of Dredge. In addition to private capital, the studio is tapping into New Zealand’s Game Development Sector Rebate, a government‑backed incentive that provides cash flow stability for developers.
Over the past summer, companies that qualified for the rebate collectively saw revenues climb 17 % to a total of $829 million, underscoring the program’s impact on the local industry. Thorne emphasised that sustainability lies at the heart of Saltworks Entertainment’s multi‑studio strategy. “We believe that small, ambitious indie teams that target modest hardware specifications can form a resilient model for the next five years and beyond,” she said.
“By linking these studios, we can share knowledge, facilities, and support without forcing any single team to expand beyond its natural scale.” Team Trifold itself is a tight‑knit trio: artist‑writer Jed Uy, production and QA lead Wilson Teo, and programmer Carl Johnson. Each member brings years of experience across the full spectrum of game development, from indie projects to larger work‑for‑hire contracts. Uy reflected on a lesson that has guided his career: the importance of constant iteration, rigorous playtesting, and an unwavering focus on the player’s experience. “It’s essential to set solid design pillars and measure every creative and technical choice against them,” he noted.
“Details will shift, but the core vision must remain non‑negotiable.” Teo echoed this sentiment, highlighting the necessity of validating the core gameplay loop through extensive internal testing and discussion. “Staying true to our design pillars is paramount,” he added, stressing that the loop must be both compelling and clearly communicated to players. Drawing inspiration from the 2001 anime *Shaman King*, Team Trifold aims to subvert the traditional roguelike formula by treating death not as a punishment but as a central progression mechanic. Uy described their approach as a “multiplicative death‑based crafting system that actually rewards the most unpleasant aspect of the genre.” The team believes that by re‑imagining death as a catalyst for growth, they can offer a fresh, rewarding experience that stands out in a crowded market.
The concept also taps into a broader tapestry of cultural mythologies represented by the team’s diverse backgrounds. Uy explained that the anime’s portrayal of life after death, coupled with the supernatural abilities it unlocked, resonated deeply with him. “When you combine that with the varied mythic traditions each of us brings to the table, you get a premise that feels both sensational and wholesome.” Teo acknowledged that the roguelike space is saturated, but he argued that success hinges on clear communication of the game’s unique design pillars and loop.
“Players naturally resist losing,” he said. “Our job is to make it obvious that dying is an intentional, rewarding part of the experience, not a flaw.” Beyond the core mechanics, Nothing Lost will feature a robust crafting system that evolves with each death, allowing players to collect remnants, spirits, or otherworldly materials that can be forged into new tools, abilities, or narrative fragments.
This loop encourages experimentation: each failure becomes a learning opportunity, and each subsequent run feels both familiar and freshly altered by the items gathered. The development team also plans to integrate a dynamic narrative that reacts to the player’s mortality. Story beats will shift based on how often and in what ways the character perishes, creating a personalized tale that reflects the player’s unique journey through the game’s world.
This approach aligns with the studio’s commitment to iteration; narrative branches will be tested extensively to ensure they feel meaningful rather than arbitrary. From a technical standpoint, Nothing Lost is being built with scalability in mind, targeting modest hardware specifications to maximise accessibility. By avoiding reliance on cutting‑edge graphics or complex physics, the team hopes to reach a broader audience, including players on older consoles and low‑end PCs.
This design philosophy mirrors Saltworks’ broader vision of resilient, hardware‑agnostic indie development. In terms of audio and localisation, Saltworks will provide in‑house support to ensure that the game’s soundscape and translations meet international standards. This collaborative model allows Team Trifold to focus on core gameplay while benefiting from professional localisation pipelines, ensuring that cultural nuances are respected across different regions.
Overall, the formation of Team Trifold under the Saltworks Entertainment umbrella represents a strategic effort to nurture sustainable indie creation in New Zealand. By leveraging shared services, government incentives, and a clear design philosophy that reimagines death as a mechanic for growth, the studio aims to deliver a distinctive roguelike experience that both honors its inspirations and pushes the genre forward. Nothing Lost is slated for release in the next 18‑24 months, and the team remains committed to transparent communication with its community throughout the development cycle.