ONE MORE LEVEL

The masked protagonist of Ghostrunner lives dangerously. Their single hit point means a single mistake can be the difference between life and death in levels that present as daunting gauntlets, sprinkled with trigger-happy enemies waiting to cut your life short. “It’s an interesting dynamic. Yes, you’re gonna achieve a lot, you could topple the regime, you can defeat everyone if you’re good enough. But at the same time, at each and every moment, you’re just one step away from failure.” For a second, we almost forget that narrative designer Jan Gasior is talking about Ghostrunner, rather than the journey of its creators. Well, regime-toppling aside.

After the poor commercial performance of its first original game, God’s Trigger, Kraków-based developer One More Level found itself walking a knife edge. However, a willingness to experiment, and to try its hand at everything from work-for-hire gigs to selling game bundles and publishing, has helped the studio carve a path through the volatile world of game development.

Game director and board member co-founded One More Level in 2014 along with two others: a colleague at Nimbi Studios,, and a developer from hidden-object creator Tap It Games. At that time Ratusznik was inspired by the rise of independent developers such as ’s Team Meat. “We really thought that we can be part of this movement, that we can find our place,” he explains. “It wasn’t about making money during that time, because in Poland there were almost no investors, no private investors or any financial help [for game developers] during that time – it was all starting during 2014.”