Small Studio, Big Ambitions

ByteString Games Studio is a small independent game studio, and the game development arm of JC Hills, LLC, based in Mendon, Illinois. We design and build original games that players can pick up and enjoy anywhere, on any screen they already own.

Who We Are

ByteString Games Studio was founded by two brothers who grew up with a controller in hand and never quite put it down. What started as a shared hobby of taking games apart to see how they worked turned into a studio built on a simple idea: make games that are genuinely fun to play, treat players fairly, and finish what we start. We are not a large publisher and we do not want to be. We are a focused, hands-on team that cares about the small details that make a game feel good to hold.

Everything we make is created under JC Hills, LLC, our parent company. From the first sketch of an idea to the final build we submit to a store, the concepts, art direction, and design decisions are our own.

What We Believe

Good games respect the person playing them. That belief shapes how we design. We aim for controls that feel right within the first few seconds, difficulty that rewards learning instead of punishing it, and progression that feels earned rather than squeezed out of the player. We would rather ship a smaller game that feels polished and complete than a bigger one that feels hollow.

We also believe games should meet players where they are. Not everyone wants to download a large install or own the latest hardware, so a selection of our titles run right here in the browser, and our mobile games are built to feel at home on the phone that is already in your pocket.

How We Build Our Games

We build in Unity, which lets one small team ship the same game across the browser, Android, iOS, and Windows without rebuilding it from the ground up for each platform. Our process is heavy on iteration: we prototype an idea quickly, play it, throw out what is not fun, and keep sharpening the part that is. A game is not done when the features are in; it is done when it feels right.

Like most modern studios, we also make use of contemporary tools, including AI, to help with some parts of production. Those tools help us move faster, but the creative direction, the game design, and the decisions about what makes each title worth playing are ours. Every game we release starts as an original concept from the studio.

Where You Can Play

What We Are Working On

Right now we have two mobile titles live on Google Play. Ocean Burst: Deep Sea Match is a bubble shooter set in a glowing bioluminescent ocean, and Runic Cascade is a match puzzle game that takes you down through ten ancient realms. You can find both, and everything else we release, on our Google Play developer page. An Apple App Store release is planned to follow.

You can already play Jetpack Jaydo: Virus Invasion in your browser on this site, and we have more in the workshop, including a dark fantasy title called Thornveil. To read how each game plays and pick up some strategy, visit our game guides.

Get In Touch

Have a licensing inquiry, a bug to report, or just want to say hello? We read our email and we like hearing from players.