We build worlds worth getting lost in.
FalconPlayBase is a Carlton studio crafting atmospheric exploration and survival games for PC and console — contour-built terrain, reactive weather, and stories you carve for yourself.
A small studio with tall summits in mind.
Twelve developers work out of a converted warehouse on Victoria Street, a short walk from the Lygon Street cafés and the University of Melbourne. Since 2016 we have shipped four titles and grown a community of players who care about slow, deliberate worlds.
We stay small on purpose. Every ridgeline, weather front, and campfire conversation is hand-tuned by the same team that designs the systems underneath them — no outsourced content, no filler biomes.
From contour lines to launch day.
A five-stage route we have refined across every title. Timelines below are typical for a co-development or full-production engagement.
- 1
Concept & Worldbuilding
3–5 weeksWe map the terrain first: the fiction, the elevation of tension, and the loop that keeps players climbing. You leave this stage with a pitch deck, mood board, and a paper design of the core systems.
- 2
Vertical Slice Prototype
6–8 weeksOne playable region built to shipping quality so we can feel the game in hands, not slides. We stress-test the fun before a single dollar goes into full production.
- 3
Production & Systems
4–9 monthsTerrain generation, survival mechanics, AI, and audio come together in fortnightly builds. You get access to every internal build and a shared roadmap you can steer.
- 4
Playtesting & Balance
OngoingWe run moderated sessions with real players from our Carlton test lab, then tune difficulty curves, pacing, and readability against the data we gather.
- 5
Launch & Live Support
Day one onwardStore pages, certification, patch pipelines, and the first season of updates. We stay on for at least ninety days after release to keep the launch stable.
Systems built for wandering.
Hover a card to see how each pillar shapes the way our worlds play.
Procedural Contour Terrain
Every ridge is generated, never repeated.
Our in-house terrain engine drives geometry from real elevation curves, so cliffs, valleys, and switchback trails feel authored even when they are generated fresh for each save.
Reactive Weather & Survival
The mountain decides the difficulty.
Temperature, wind, and moisture feed a survival layer where a sudden squall can turn a routine hike into a fight for shelter. No two expeditions read the same forecast.
Adaptive Original Soundtrack
Music that breathes with the climb.
Composed in-house and layered live, the score swells with altitude and thins to a single held note when you are exposed and alone above the tree line.
Grey blockout to shipped vista.
Drag the handle to compare our early greybox prototypes against the final shipped scenes.
Shipped
BlockoutRidgeline: Ascent
A solo mountaineering survival game. Nintendo Switch & PC, 2023 — 78 on OpenCritic.
Shipped
BlockoutTidewatch Hollow
A coastal exploration mystery set across a shifting archipelago. PC & PlayStation, 2021.
Questions from studios and players.
Search the topics below — production, budgets, platforms, and studio visits.
Yes. Co-development is roughly half of what we do, whether that means owning a vertical slice, building a terrain or weather system, or embedding with your team through production. Co-development engagements start from A$18,000 per month depending on team size.
A complete original title from concept to launch typically runs from A$220,000 for a focused, single-region experience. We scope transparently after the prototype stage so you are never signing a blank cheque, and we bill against agreed fortnightly milestones.
We ship on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. We handle certification and store setup for each platform in-house, so you do not need a separate porting partner for launch.
Absolutely. We host studio visits and playtests by appointment at 113 Victoria Street, a few minutes from Lygon Street. Email us to book a time — our test lab runs moderated sessions most Thursday afternoons.
You do, unless we agree otherwise up front. For client projects the intellectual property and source assets are yours on final payment. For our own original titles we retain and self-publish the IP.
A vertical slice takes around two to three months. A full production usually spans four to nine months after the prototype is approved, plus a ninety-day live-support window once the game is out.
Tell us about the world you want to build.
Send a note and one of our producers will reply within two business days. For studio visits and playtests, mention your preferred week.
113 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053
Carlton, Victoria — Victoria Street at the Lygon Street end