# Dusk Studios

> Dusk Studios is an independent, AI-native game studio. It uses AI across engineering, art, world-building and tooling so a small team can build large online worlds. Its first game, Duskmere, is a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG played in the web browser, now in early beta.

Website: https://duskstudios.net
Founders: Joe Grech (Co-founder & CEO) and Jakub Kovář (Co-founder & CTO)
Contact: hello@duskstudios.net (players, press, partners, hiring)

## Duskmere (the studio's first game)

- What it is: a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG that runs in the web browser. One persistent, shared world of quests, skilling, combat and sea voyages, inspired by the classics of the genre and played with WASD.
- Status: early beta, playable now and updated often. First public build: July 2026.
- Price: free to play, no download needed.
- Platforms: web browser, plus an optional desktop launcher for Windows and macOS.
- Play: https://duskmere-game.com
- Developer and publisher: Dusk Studios

## Development timeline

- 2026-07-07, First light: the first public build, a low-poly island with a quest-giver and a fishing pond.
- 2026-07-08, The gates of Lightshire: the first city, with a walled market plaza, a bank and player trading.
- 2026-07-12, The Storybook update: a full visual overhaul with painted textures and WASD movement.
- 2026-08-09, Lightshire at dusk: real-time lighting, lamplit streets and chimney smoke.
- 2026-09-21, Sky, haze and distance: a WebGPU renderer with painted skies, atmospheric haze and long view distances.
- 2026-10-22, Storms over Stormfen: weather and surf on a new native engine written in Rust, in testing. The live game server moved to Rust on 2026-10-23.

## Team

- Joe Grech, Co-founder & CEO. Grew up playing RuneScape and World of Warcraft and always dreamed of building an MMORPG. Founded Dusk Studios to do it with a small, AI-native team; leads the studio and Duskmere.
- Jakub Kovář, Co-founder & CTO. Has played multiplayer games since the 1990s and worked in AI since GPT first appeared, helping companies turn it into scalable products. Joined Joe the day after discovering Duskmere.

## How the studio works

- AI at every layer: AI is used behind the game (code, content pipelines, tools, testing), not as a gimmick inside it.
- Ship early, build in public: games go to players early and are shaped by what players do; progress is shared in devblogs.
- Worlds that persist: one shared world, long-lived characters and places that change with the community.

## Links

- [Dusk Studios home](https://duskstudios.net/)
- [Duskmere: play free](https://duskmere-game.com)
- [Duskmere gameplay trailer (MP4)](https://duskstudios.net/media/duskmere-trailer.mp4)