We build combat that hits back.
NovaBattleJournal.blog is a two-room studio above Kirkgate Market designing battle systems, prototyping vertical slices, and running playtests for indie teams across the UK.
A studio that ships, and writes about how.
Founded on frame data, not slide decks
We started NovaBattleJournal in 2019 after shipping two brawlers on Steam. Every enemy, hitbox, and cancel window gets logged in a public battle journal so our clients can see exactly why a fight feels the way it does.
Small on purpose, fast by design
Four people, one Leeds studio, no account managers. You talk to the developer building your mechanic. Most vertical slices leave our door in six to eight weeks with a signed-off feel document and clean, commented Unity or Godot source.
Playtesting is the product
We run a rolling pool of 40+ local playtesters recruited from Leeds game jams. Every combat change is put in front of real hands within 48 hours, and the recordings and heatmaps come back to you inside the journal.
Four steps from pitch to playable.
Discovery call
A free 45-minute call to pin down the fantasy of your game — what should landing a hit feel like? We leave with a one-page combat brief and a fixed quote.
Greybox prototype
Within two weeks you get a playable greybox of the core loop: movement, one enemy, one weapon. No art, all feel. We iterate here until the timing sings.
Vertical slice
We dress the prototype into a shippable slice — VFX, hit-stop, audio hooks, and a tuned difficulty curve — with everything documented in your battle journal.
Handover & devlog
You receive commented source, a feel bible, and a published devlog entry. We stay on a two-week support retainer so nothing breaks after handover.
Pick the build that fits your studio.
Combat Systems Design
Full melee and ranged combat frameworks with input buffering, cancel windows, hit-stop, and hurtbox tooling. Delivered as a documented Unity or Godot package your team can extend without us.
- ✓Input buffering & coyote timing
- ✓Designer-editable frame data tables
- ✓Hit-stop, screen-shake & VFX hooks
From £6,800 · 6–8 week build
Studios that trusted us with the fun part.
“Nova rebuilt our sword combat in five weeks and it finally feels dangerous. The frame-data tables meant our own designer could keep tuning after they left.”
“The two-week prototype sprint got us the vertical slice we pitched to our publisher. We signed the deal off the back of that greybox.”
“Their playtest recordings showed us players never understood our parry. One tweak later, retention on the tutorial jumped. Worth every pound.”
“Working with a studio that documents everything in a public journal is a first for us. Onboarding a new coder took a day, not a month.”
Questions we get before the first call.
Which engines do you work in?+
We build primarily in Unity (C#) and Godot 4 (GDScript and C#). We've also shipped tooling for custom C++ engines. If you tell us your stack on the discovery call, we'll confirm fit before quoting.
Do we own the code you write?+
Yes, entirely. On final payment you receive full commercial rights and a clean Git history. The only thing we keep is the right to write about the general techniques in our public devlog, never your art or story.
How are your prices structured?+
Prototyping sprints and playtest rounds are fixed-price so you know the cost up front. Larger combat-system builds are quoted as a fixed scope after the discovery call, invoiced in three milestones across the build.
Can you work with a team outside Leeds?+
Absolutely. Most of our clients are remote across the UK and we run everything over shared builds and video. Our playtester pool is Leeds-based, but sessions and footage are delivered to you online.
What are your studio hours?+
The studio at 25 Kirkgate is staffed Monday to Friday, 9:30am to 6:00pm. We answer async messages within one working day and hold client calls in the afternoons.
Do you offer support after handover?+
Every build includes a two-week support retainer to fix anything that surfaces once your team integrates it. After that we offer an optional monthly retainer for ongoing tuning and new mechanics.
Tell us about the game you're building.
Send a few lines about your project and we'll come back within one working day with next steps or a discovery-call slot.
- Phone
- +44 113 244 1187
- [email protected]
- Studio
- 25 Kirkgate, Leeds LS2 7DR
- Hours
- Mon–Fri · 9:30am–6:00pm