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JDOG Studios

Our values

Six values guide how we design, how we communicate and how we intend to grow the studio.

Accessibility first

Consider different player needs from the earliest stages of design.

Accessibility is cheapest, most effective and most elegant when it shapes a design from the start. Controls, menus, feedback and difficulty are much easier to make flexible when flexibility is planned in, rather than retrofitted once systems are already locked down.

For us, accessibility first doesn’t mean accessibility only. It means asking who could be excluded at the same moment we ask what will be fun, and treating both questions as part of the same creative job.

In practice

  • Raising accessibility questions in early concepts and prototypes, not only before release.
  • Treating barriers we find as design problems to solve, not edge cases to defer.
  • Learning from established guidance and, above all, from disabled players themselves.

Inclusivity

Welcome players regardless of ability or background.

Players come to games with different bodies, minds, histories, languages, budgets and equipment. Inclusivity means building experiences and a community where people feel expected, not merely tolerated.

It also means recognising that disabled players are not one group with one set of needs. Two players with the same condition may want completely different things, and many players benefit from options without identifying as disabled at all.

In practice

  • Offering choices rather than assuming a single right way to play.
  • Using clear, respectful language in everything we publish.
  • Making it straightforward for anyone to tell us when something excludes them.

Innovation

Explore technology and alternative interaction methods to reduce barriers.

Many barriers in games are not inevitable. They come from assumptions about how people hold a controller, how quickly they react or how well they can see and hear. Technology gives us room to question those assumptions.

We want to explore alternative input methods, adaptive systems and smarter defaults where they genuinely help people play, and to be honest about what is experimental and what is proven.

In practice

  • Prototyping alternative ways to perform demanding actions.
  • Designing systems that can adapt to different input devices and play styles.
  • Sharing what we learn so it can be useful beyond our own work.

Creativity

Produce imaginative experiences with strong artistic and gameplay identities.

Accessible should never mean bland. We want to make games with personality, ambition and memorable worlds, games people choose because they’re great, not only because they’re accessible.

We see accessibility as a creative constraint in the best sense. Designing for many ways of playing pushes us towards clearer ideas, stronger feedback and more interesting mechanics.

In practice

  • Holding our art, audio and design to a high bar alongside accessibility.
  • Keeping depth and challenge, while removing barriers that add nothing.
  • Making space for experimentation in early development.

Integrity

Communicate honestly and act responsibly.

Trust matters, especially to players who have been let down by accessibility promises in the past. We will describe what we’re doing accurately, including what isn’t finished and what we haven’t managed yet.

Acting responsibly also means respecting players' time, money and data, and taking feedback seriously when we get something wrong.

In practice

  • Never overstating accessibility features or claiming standards we haven’t verified.
  • Being clear that this studio is at an early stage.
  • Responding openly to criticism and correcting mistakes.

Sustainable development

Build a studio culture that respects wellbeing, realistic workloads and responsible growth.

Good games are made by people who are able to do their best work over the long term. Crunch and unrealistic expectations burn people out and often make games worse.

We want JDOG Studios to grow at a pace it can sustain, with realistic scopes, healthy working practices and a culture that is itself accessible to the people working in it.

In practice

  • Scoping work honestly and planning for realistic timelines.
  • Treating the wellbeing of everyone involved as part of quality.
  • Growing only in ways that keep our principles intact.

Let’s talk about more accessible games

Whether you’re a player with feedback, a developer, an accessibility specialist or someone exploring a collaboration, we’d like to hear from you.

Get in touch