Five indie studios form Nova Assembly, pool resources while staying independent

Five indie studios have linked up under Nova Assembly, a developer-led holding company built to pool expertise, technology and funding while leaving each team free to make its own games. The group already has 10 projects in development, a sign that this is more than a branding exercise and a real attempt to build scale without a traditional publisher takeover.

The lineup brings together Unfrozen, Sad Cat Studios, VEA Games, Weappy and mobile specialist Game Garden. Nova Assembly’s open letter said the studios came together “not to homogenize,” and pledged that each one will keep developing its own independent ideas. That is the key difference from a buyout: the member studios are not being folded into one label or losing the identities tied to Iratus: Lord of the Dead, Replaced, Nikoderiko: The Magical World, This Is the Police and Game Garden’s long-running mobile output.

Denis Fedorov, who founded Unfrozen and now serves as Nova Assembly’s CEO, said the structure should make shared resources more efficient and provide stronger strategic support in a difficult market, without cutting into the creative independence that keeps the studios distinct. Weappy co-founder Ilya Yanovich is serving as creative director, giving the holding both business and creative leadership from inside the group rather than from an outside publisher.

For players, the appeal is straightforward. Nova Assembly is talking about a central support system for marketing, distribution and direct communication with audiences, plus the ability to share “absolutely everything that can be shared,” including technology and funding. That could mean steadier release planning, stronger store visibility and fewer gaps between a studio’s creative work and the business side that gets games into players’ hands.

The scale behind the move is already notable. One report put the group’s combined projects at more than 3 million wishlists and over 10 million video views, numbers that would be hard for smaller studios to generate alone. Game Garden said it has been making mobile games since 2009, Weappy was founded in 2015, and VEA Games, also founded in 2015, is based in Limassol, Cyprus, giving the holding a shared corporate base across otherwise separate teams.

The first release tied to the new structure is Sad Cat Studios’ Replaced, which Thunderful and Sad Cat Studios moved to April 14, 2026 in February. Steam still lists that date, and the delay was framed as extra time to get the retro-futuristic action platformer exactly right. Nova Assembly’s members also already have outside backing, with all five reportedly in GEM Capital’s portfolio, while Unfrozen’s Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is being published by Ubisoft and Hooded Horse. That mix suggests Nova Assembly is not replacing outside partners so much as giving midsize studios a sturdier center of gravity for the next stretch of the business.