We make games you play side by side.
Shiverbug is an independent studio in Middlesbrough. We’re making Out of Water, a split-screen platformer for two: one turtle, one seagull, one sofa. We also lend our artists, designers and programmers to other studios.
Co-development
Short on hands? Borrow ours.
The people making Out of Water also make art and code for other studios: concept art, stylised and hard-surface 3D, level design and gameplay programming, in Unity or Unreal and in your pipeline.
Concept art
Characters, creatures, props and places, drawn to explain how something plays as well as how it looks.
Stylised 3D
Environments, props and characters with clear shapes and a lot of personality.
Hard surface
Vehicles, weapons and mechanical props, modelled accurately from reference.
Design and code
Level design, game and narrative design, and gameplay programming.
Lately
All the newsHeading to the North East Game Dev Meetup
Meet the team, ask about co-dev services and most importantly talk about games.
The first version of this website went live
Twelve designers, artists and programmers in North East England, still on a mission to bring family gaming night back to the sofa.
Backing the Boro
Shiverbug studios is backing the Boro and proud to call Middlesbrough our home!
So far
We started in 2025. This is what has happened since, oldest first.
Three Teesside University graduates, Lewis Mennim, Ryan Hughes and Garrett Windus, set up Shiverbug Studios Ltd in Middlesbrough.
Picked as one of 21 teams for Tranzfuser 2025, the government-funded programme for new graduate studios, with Teesside Launchpad as our local hub.
Took our prototype, then called Koopa and Kiko, to ProtoPlay in Dundee, and came home as the Tranzfuser 2025 Public Vote Winner.
ProtoPlay, Dundee. The certificate says the most votes of any Tranzfuser team. Joined Game Republic, the games industry network for the North of England.
Started the game again in a fresh Unity 6 project, the one that became Out of Water, and gave the studio a new logo and a mascot: Shana the Shiverbug, the moth on every page of this site.
Told the world what the game is about. A turtle, a seagull and five stolen gems.
Put Out of Water in front of players at the Odyssey video games and toy festival in Harrogate.
The first of our Teesside interns joined the team.
Seven of us went down to Develop:Brighton.
Brighton seafront, between talks.
The shiverbugs
Artists, designers, programmers and a narrative designer, most of us from Teesside University. Every profile on this site is written by the person it’s about.
