Black Salt Games, the studio behind the hit title Dredge, has taken a bold step by founding a fresh development house called Team Trifold. In tandem with this launch, the company also unveiled a new white‑label publishing arm named Saltworks Entertainment. Saltworks is designed to act as a shared services hub, delivering production, marketing, quality assurance, localisation, audio, business operations, and publishing support to three co‑located studios in Christchurch, New Zealand: Black Salt Games itself, the newly formed Team Trifold, and fellow Kiwi indie developer Disc 2 Games. While each studio will retain full creative autonomy, they will benefit from a common pool of expertise and infrastructure, allowing them to focus on their individual visions without the overhead of building separate back‑office functions.
According to Nadia Thorne, executive producer at Black Salt Games, the decision to fund Team Trifold’s debut effort, Nothing Lost, is directly tied to the commercial triumph of Dredge. "The success of Dredge gave us the confidence and resources to back a new team that shares our values," Thorne told GamesIndustry.biz. She also highlighted the advantage of New Zealand’s Game Development Sector Rebate, a government‑backed incentive that provides cash flow relief to qualifying studios.
This rebate has been a stabilising factor for Team Trifold, enabling the small team to concentrate on polishing Nothing Lost rather than worrying about immediate financial pressures. Over the past summer, companies that accessed the rebate collectively saw revenue rise by 17 % to a total of $829 million, underscoring the program’s impact on the local industry. Sustainability sits at the heart of Saltworks Entertainment’s multi‑studio strategy.
Thorne explained that the company believes small, ambitious indie teams that target a broad range of hardware can weather market fluctuations more effectively than larger, hardware‑centric developers. By linking the three studios under one roof, Saltworks can share best practices, technical infrastructure, and operational support while ensuring that no single studio outgrows its intended scale.
This collaborative model is intended to keep each team nimble, creative, and financially resilient for the next five years and beyond. Team Trifold itself is a tightly knit trio: artist‑writer Jed Uy, production and QA lead Wilson Teo, and programmer Carl Johnson. Each member brings years of experience across the spectrum of game development, from indie projects to contract work for larger publishers. Uy reflected on the lessons learned throughout his career, emphasizing the importance of iteration, rigorous playtesting, and a deep empathy for the player’s experience.
"We always start with solid design pillars that guide every creative and technical choice," he said. "Details will shift constantly, but the core vision never wavers." Teo echoed this sentiment, noting that validating the core gameplay loop through extensive playtesting and internal debate is essential. He added that staying true to the established design pillars is the compass that keeps the project on track, especially when navigating the crowded roguelike landscape. Nothing Lost draws inspiration from the early‑2000s anime Shaman King, which explored concepts of life after death and supernatural abilities.
The team aims to "turn the roguelike loop on its head" by making death not just a setback but a central driver of progression. Uy described the game’s unique mechanic as a "multiplicative death‑based crafting system" that rewards players for the genre’s most dreaded moment—dying.
This approach transforms failure into a meaningful resource, encouraging players to experiment with risk and reward in new ways. Beyond Shaman King, the developers tap into a rich tapestry of cultural mythologies represented by the team’s diverse backgrounds. These influences help shape a premise that feels both fresh and resonant, offering a wholesome yet thrilling experience. Teo pointed out that while the roguelike market is saturated, success hinges on clear communication of the game’s design intent.
"Players naturally resist losing," he said, "so we must articulate why death is integral to our gameplay and how it fuels advancement." The partnership with Saltworks also means that Team Trifold can lean on shared QA pipelines, localisation expertise, and marketing channels, ensuring that Nothing Lost reaches a global audience without the typical indie bottlenecks. The collaborative environment fosters cross‑studio knowledge exchange, allowing the trio to learn from the successes and challenges of Black Salt Games and Disc 2 Games.
In summary, Black Salt Games’ creation of Team Trifold and the supporting Saltworks Entertainment label represents a strategic effort to nurture sustainable indie development in New Zealand. By pooling resources, leveraging governmental incentives, and championing a design philosophy that embraces death as a constructive mechanic, the team is poised to deliver a compelling new entry to the roguelike genre. Nothing Lost promises to challenge conventional expectations, offering players a fresh perspective on failure, iteration, and the ever‑enticing loop of risk and reward.