Black Salt Games, the studio behind the hit title Dredge, has announced the formation of a fresh development house called Team Trifold, which will operate under a newly created white‑label publisher, Saltworks Entertainment. Saltworks is designed to act as a shared services hub, offering production, marketing, quality assurance, localisation, audio, business operations, and publishing support to three co‑located New Zealand studios: Black Salt Games, Team Trifold, and fellow indie developer Disc 2 Games. While the three companies share facilities and resources, each will retain full creative autonomy.
According to Nadia Thorne, executive producer at Black Salt Games, the company is financing both the development and the publishing of Team Trifold’s inaugural game, Nothing Lost, leveraging the commercial momentum generated by Dredge. Thorne also highlighted that the venture benefits from New Zealand’s Game Development Sector Rebate, a government‑backed incentive that provides financial stability to emerging studios. Over the past summer, companies that tapped the rebate collectively saw revenue rise by 17% to reach $829 million, underscoring the program’s impact on the local industry.
Thorne explained that sustainability lies at the heart of Saltworks Entertainment’s multi‑studio strategy. "We believe small teams creating ambitious indie experiences that don’t rely on cutting‑edge hardware can form a resilient model for the next five years," she said.
By linking the three studios, Saltworks aims to pool expertise, share infrastructure, and provide mutual support without forcing any single studio to outgrow its natural size. Team Trifold is a tight‑knit trio consisting of artist‑writer Jed Uy, production and QA lead Wilson Teo, and programmer Carl Johnson. All three bring extensive experience from various tiers of the game industry, having worked on both original IPs and contract projects.
Uy emphasized a lesson that has guided his career: the importance of relentless iteration, thorough playtesting, and a deep sensitivity to the player’s perspective. "Establishing solid design pillars is essential; every creative and technical choice must be measured against those pillars," he noted. While individual details may shift frequently, the core vision remains non‑negotiable.
Teo echoed this sentiment, stressing that validating the core gameplay loop through rigorous internal testing and feedback is crucial. He added that staying faithful to the established design pillars is the key to delivering a coherent experience.
Inspired by the 2001 anime series Shaman King, Team Trifold intends to "turn the roguelike loop on its head" by making death a central progression mechanic rather than a mere setback. Uy described their approach as a "multiplicative death‑based crafting system" that rewards players for the genre’s traditionally unpleasant aspect of dying.
He explained that Shaman King’s portrayal of life after death and the supernatural abilities it unlocks resonated with him, and that the team’s diverse cultural mythologies further enriched the game’s premise. This blend of influences helped them craft a concept that feels both fresh and emotionally resonant. Teo acknowledged that the roguelike market is saturated, but argued that success hinges on clear communication of the game’s design intent. "Players naturally resist losing, so we must explicitly convey that death is an integral part of the experience," he said.
By framing death as a source of empowerment and crafting opportunities, the team hopes to differentiate Nothing Lost from more conventional roguelikes. Beyond the core loop, Nothing Lost will feature procedurally generated environments, a robust crafting system that evolves with each death, and narrative threads drawn from the team’s varied mythological backgrounds. The developers plan to incorporate adaptive difficulty that scales with player skill, ensuring that each run feels challenging yet fair.
Audio design will draw on traditional instruments from the creators’ respective heritages, adding an extra layer of cultural authenticity. Saltworks Entertainment will handle the publishing side, providing marketing strategy, community outreach, and distribution channels across major platforms. The shared services model allows Team Trifold to focus on polishing gameplay, narrative, and visual identity without being bogged down by administrative overhead. In summary, Black Salt Games’ launch of Team Trifold under the Saltworks banner represents a strategic effort to nurture sustainable indie development in New Zealand.
By pooling resources, leveraging government incentives, and embracing a bold design philosophy that reimagines death as a catalyst for growth, the trio aims to deliver a compelling, innovative roguelike experience with Nothing Lost, targeting both hardcore fans of the genre and newcomers intrigued by its fresh take on failure and reward.