Anvil Reign home
About the studio

By players.
For players.

Anvil Reign is two friends who are real gamers. One is the designer, the other is the dreamer. Together we forge excellence and make games by players, for players.

How it started

Anvil Reign began with ROACH and Pickle, two players who wanted more chances to play. It started the way a lot of good things do: two friends, a lot of games, and one problem that kept coming up. Everyone loves a great tabletop campaign. Nobody can get the whole group in one room on the same night.

Pickle, the dreamer, asked the question that started everything: what if the Game Master was always there? Not a chatbot that makes things up, but a real Game Master that knows the rules, rolls real dice and remembers your world. ROACH, the designer, set out to build it. That became Fate & Ember.

Then the same thing happened again, this time in the middle of League matches. Every game has that moment: you're back at the shop, the enemy team is pulling ahead, and you have seconds to pick the right item. ROACH wanted the answer at a glance, with a reason worth trusting. That became Counter Forge.

We're still building, testing and listening as each idea becomes a game. Two games in, the pattern was clear. We don't make games because a spreadsheet told us to. We make the games we wanted and couldn't find, and we make them the way players would.

Placeholder When and where it started.

Photo slotROACH and Pickle, or your setup on game night

Together we forge excellence and make games by players, for players.

ROACH & Pickle
The Anvil Reign emblem: a crown above an iron anvil
The name

Why Anvil Reign

Anvil Reign is about building your own kingdom, your own world and your own legacy. Put simply: you forge the world you want to rule.

The anvil

Creation

Where raw material becomes something meaningful, just as players turn ideas into characters, adventures and worlds. It stands for the work, the imagination and the foundation.

The crown

Reign

To reign is to rule. Here it means the player's freedom to shape the adventure: choose a path, build something and decide what matters. It's what you build toward.

The ember

The spark

The molten glow along every edge of the mark. Every adventure starts with a spark.

The crew

The designer
& the dreamer

Every game here comes from both of them. One sees it, the other makes it real.

R

ROACH

The designer

ROACH turns ideas into games you can actually play. ROACH designs the systems, builds every version and runs the test rounds. Every tester report gets read, and the fix usually lands in the next build.

Brings to the forge

  • Game design and systems
  • Building and shipping every version
  • Running the tester crew

Favorite games

  • DayZ
  • SMITE
  • League of Legends
  • ARK
  • Arma
  • GTA
  • Resident Evil
  • 7 Days to Die
  • Apex Legends
  • DCS
  • Star Wars: KOTOR
  • Valheim
"I've starved on the coast in DayZ, held the line on horde night and flown jets in DCS. I've died a thousand deaths in other people's worlds. Now I forge my own."ROACH
P

Pickle

The dreamer

Pickle sees the game before it exists: the worlds, the moments, the "what if" that makes you want to play. Fate & Ember started as Pickle's idea, and Pickle is still one of its toughest testers, pushing every build to feel more like a real night at the table.

Brings to the forge

  • Big ideas and new worlds
  • The player's point of view
  • Testing every build hard

Placeholder Favorite games and a line in Pickle's own words

And our testers

The alpha crew

A small group of friends and players who get every build first, break it in ways we never expected, and tell us what to fix. Their names go in the update notes, because they earned it. Ask testers before naming them here

How we work

How a game
gets forged

The same five steps for every game and every update.

  1. 01

    Dream

    Pickle brings the idea: a world, a moment, a "what if" worth playing.

  2. 02

    Design

    ROACH works out the rules and systems that make it fun and fair.

  3. 03

    Forge

    We build it for real, fast, so it can be played and not just pictured.

  4. 04

    Test

    Real players get it first. Their reports decide what we fix next.

  5. 05

    Ship

    A new version, with plain-words notes on what changed and who helped.

What we believe

Rules of
the forge

I

Players first

We're players too. If we wouldn't want to play it, it doesn't ship.

II

Testers have a voice

Every report gets read. Testers shape the games and get thanked by name.

III

Honest games

Real dice, real reasons. No fudged rolls, no made-up advice.

IV

Respect your time

Jump in fast, pick up where you left off, play when it suits you.

V

No extra hoops

You shouldn't need a pile of accounts and sign-ups to play a game.

VI

Keep shipping

Small updates, often. The game gets better every week you play it.

The road so far

From spark
to studio

  1. The spark

    An idea at the table

    Pickle imagines a Game Master that's always ready to play.

  2. Fate & Ember

    The first adventure

    ROACH builds the first playable version: an AI Game Master, real 3D dice and a character sheet that keeps itself.

  3. Fate & Ember

    The alpha crew

    Friends start testing. New builds land week after week: fishing, maps inside places, custom skills and a Game Master that plans ahead. Now at Alpha 0.34.

  4. Counter Forge

    A second game

    Counter Forge grows out of our own League matches and goes into private testing.

  5. Studio

    Anvil Reign

    Two games, one studio, one promise: forge your legacy. This site is where it all comes together.

Contact

Talk to the forge

Press, partnerships, bug reports or just saying hi.

Email us Press kit

Placeholder Studio email and press kit link come once the name and domain are set.