Five independent game developers have formed Nova Assembly, a cooperative structure designed to weather industry turbulence by pooling resources, sharing expertise, and eventually launching their own publishing operation.
The group includes Sad Cat Studios (developing Replaced), Unfrozen (Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era), Weappy (This Is the Police), VEA Games (Nikoderiko: The Magical World), and Game Garden (Farmdale). Each studio retains full creative independence and remains operationally separate, but the alliance lets them function as a financial and technical backstop during development cycles.
Denis Federov, founder of Unfrozen and incoming CEO of Nova Assembly, framed the arrangement as a way to leverage hard-won expertise without sacrificing the creative autonomy that drives competitive games. "The formation of a single holding structure bringing together five commercially successful and highly promising game studios will not only enable creators of ambitious gaming projects to share invaluable expertise accumulated over years of experience, but will also allow for more efficient and strategic use of shared resources," he said.
The timing reflects growing anxiety across the industry. Layoffs have rippled through major publishers and studios over the past year, forcing smaller developers to operate on thinner margins. Nova Assembly's model addresses this directly: if one team launches a successful title, it can provide financial backing to another studio mid-development, eliminating the pressure to make "ruinous compromises" to stay solvent.
Beyond cash flow, the group plans to share technical talent and toolsets. A studio stuck on a specific programming challenge can borrow a specialist from a sister company rather than hiring externally. Tools developed by one team, like a dialogue editor or optimization technique, become available to all five studios.
Weappy co-founder Ilya Yanovich, named Creative Director, emphasized the human element of the partnership. "In a world where we increasingly give over control to algorithms, we're uniting with like-minded people to reinforce the human element: to exchange human ideas, offer each other human support, and make human decisions together." The group's public statement acknowledged that game development is inherently isolating and risky, but that shared burden makes creative risk-taking more feasible.
The cooperative's long-term goal is to establish an in-house publishing arm. The studios currently work with external partners but want direct control over marketing, release strategy, and audience communication. Building their own label would let them maintain that autonomy while scaling up operations.
Replaced launches April 14 on PC and Xbox, with day-one availability on Game Pass. Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era enters Early Access on April 30. Both titles have playable demos available now on Steam. The Secret Life of Goldman, the third title mentioned in the announcement, has not yet been assigned a release window.
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