Kitfox Games

An independent studio that also publishes

Kitfox describes itself as an independent Montreal-based game studio dedicated to developing and publishing only the highest quality games. It is run by its co-founders Tanya X. Short and Xin Ran Liu, working with a small team the studio lists by name on its about page. The company adds that it has a soft spot for exploring and discovering intriguing worlds, and that unity around creating those worlds is what holds the team together.

The two sides of the business matter. Kitfox makes games of its own and also acts as publisher for outside teams, and its Steam company page groups both, calling them titles it has published or developed. That dual role is unusual for a studio of its size: the same small group has to judge other people's projects as well as finish its own, and that shapes everything it releases.

The values the studio states

Kitfox's about page lists four values: being professional artisans, always learning, being courageously creative, and pursuing mastery. The wording is its own, and it uses it to explain how the team treats players as well as one another. It frames risk-taking as a requirement rather than a luxury, which fits a catalogue whose games rarely repeat the shape of whatever came before them.

The same page credits its early backers with unusual directness. It thanks Execution Labs, saying the incubator is almost entirely responsible for the studio existing at all, and the Canada Media Fund for helping finance Moon Hunters. Unity is named as the engine provider. Naming supporters this openly is uncommon in the industry, and it hints at how small, improvised and dependent on outside help the studio's beginnings were.

The games Kitfox develops and publishes

Kitfox's own catalogue runs from the dating-sim dungeon crawler Boyfriend Dungeon to the deduction game Lucifer Within Us. It developed both itself, and it published the mythic strategy titles of the Six Ages series, which were made by the studio behind King of Dragon Pass. The list mixes its internal work with games it only brings to market for other people.

Among the titles it publishes are the deep space salvage sim Ostranauts, the long-running roguelike Caves of Qud and the famously intricate Dwarf Fortress. The range runs from a light dog photography game to a decades-old simulation project with a devoted following. Kitfox presents the collection as worlds that are different every time, which is a fair description of the shelf.

Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists

The studio's recent publishing release is Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, a tactical narrative game built by A Sharp, the designers of King of Dragon Pass and Six Ages. Kitfox published it, and in it players recruit four heroes who descend into a series of underworlds to carry out contracts for a mysterious client known as the Ambassador. The game blends mythology with a surreal, storybook tone.

The structure is a gamebook. Each job changes, and roughly 280 dynamic encounters can be met in different ways depending on the skills the party brings. The anthology was written by eight authors and illustrated by hand, with each underworld given its own palette and threats. A single run takes around an hour, and the studio says no generative AI was used in making it.

How the studio talks about its games

Kitfox uses the language of exploration rather than of franchises. Its storefront blurb invites players to stay curious and promises to lead them to undiscovered games. The pitch is aimed at people who want something unfamiliar rather than another sequel, and the studio keeps that tone across its publishing and development work alike, inviting players to follow it rather than buying a single known brand.

That stance fits the catalogue. A player who liked the studio's dating sim is not obviously the same person who wants a hardcore space salvage simulation, yet both carry the Kitfox name. The studio bets that curiosity, not one genre, is what holds its audience together, and it selects the projects it develops and publishes to fit that bet, even when the genres barely overlap.

Quick facts

Independent game studio based in Montreal, Canada, developing and publishing titles. Run by co-founders Tanya X. Short and Xin Ran Liu. Backed in its early years by Execution Labs and the Canada Media Fund, and built on the Unity engine. It publishes as well as develops, and says it seeks out intriguing worlds and values courage and craftsmanship over safe repetition.

Recent publishing release: Thousand Hells: The Underworld Heists, made by A Sharp. Other titles under its banner include Boyfriend Dungeon, Lucifer Within Us, Caves of Qud, Dwarf Fortress and Ostranauts. The studio frames its output as worlds that change each time they are played, and it spreads its bets across several genres rather than specialising in any single one, which is the point of the way it presents itself to players.

Games

• Boyfriend Dungeon
• Lucifer Within Us
• Moon Hunters
• Shattered Planet

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