i.FIRST TENET
Think different. Play different.
Most games are about getting better. We want to make games about noticing differently — about whatever the player walked in already carrying. 不同地想。也不同地玩。
A hiatus ‖ from
a suffocating
world.
我們希望為這個令人窒息的世界,帶來一段休止符。
無論你是誰,身在何處,處於怎樣的境地 —— 請先深呼吸,並反思我們作為人類的存在,讓地球成為所有生命更好的家。
— Hiatus Productions VOL. 01 ‖ 2026 — MMXXVI CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
HIATUS is an indie cultural studio. We make video games and research outputs that raise social questions‖ and create social awareness.
We started in 2017 in a shared apartment in Jyväskylä, with a single shelf of books and no funding. We are still mostly four people. We are still mostly unfunded. We treat that as a feature — small studios can take their time.
Our work tends to look like printed pamphlets pressed into your hand on a busy street: quiet, deliberate, slightly literary, occasionally dissident. We don't think games need to shout. We don't think they need to win. We think they can be hiatuses.
Why hiatus
A hiatus is a pause. It is also the small, vulnerable gap in a long thing — the gap between two notes, between two days, between the inhale and the exhale. Games are good at filling gaps with noise. We are interested in games that keep the gap.
The studio's strongest sentence is the one we ration most carefully: "a hiatus from a suffocating world." We don't say it twice in the same paragraph. We don't put it on a t-shirt. We let it appear, in pencil, on the back of a tide table.
What we make
Two kinds of things — long, slow video games (currently Stories Adrift), and small research outputs that read like printed essays. Both are released as quietly as we can manage. Both are bilingual: English and 繁體中文, always.
Who we make it for
For readers who have grown a little tired of being players. For players who have grown a little tired of being shouted at. For anyone, anywhere, in any situation — keep calm and breathe.
FOUR TENETS ‖ THE STUDIO'S
What we believe.
我們相信的四件事。
ii.SECOND TENET
The pause is the work.
Whitespace is content. Silence is feedback. A four-second breath is not "loading" — it is the game getting out of the way. We design pauses on purpose, and never apologise for them. 停頓本身就是作品。
iii.THIRD TENET
Bilingual by default.
English and 繁體中文 ship at the same time, always. Neither is the translation. Both are the original. Where they diverge, we keep both. 英文與繁體中文,同時出生。
iv.FOURTH TENET
And — ask questions.
Our games end with a question, not an answer. So do our essays. So does this paragraph: where are you reading this from, and what does the world look like out your window today? 而且 —— 多問問題。
THE STUDIO ‖ FOUR PEOPLE
Who we are.
我們是誰。
N° 01 ‖ DIRECTION
Chris Q. H. Zhang
narrative · code · espresso
張啟豪 ‖ 主理
"writes more than he ships."
N° 02 ‖ VISUAL
Mei Watanabe
visual design · plates · halftone
渡邊 美 ‖ 視覺
"prints things
on actual paper."
on actual paper."
N° 03 ‖ AUDIO
Asa Lindqvist
music · field recording · piano
林奎斯特 ‖ 音樂
"records the wind, mostly."
N° 04 ‖ RESEARCH
Wei-Lin Chao
research · editorial · 中文
趙韋琳 ‖ 研究
"asks the second question."
HOW WE WORK ‖ FOUR STEPS
A slow practice.
慢的工作方式。
01.QUESTION
Start with a question, not a pitch.
先有問題,而不是企劃。
Every project begins with a question we are personally annoyed by. If we can answer it in a meeting, it doesn't become a project.
02.READ
Read laterally.
橫向地閱讀。
Three months of reading wide before any prototyping — fiction, fieldwork, archive. The reading list ships as a printed pamphlet at launch.
03.PROTOTYPE
Prototype on paper, then in Godot.
先紙上原型,再進入 Godot。
Mechanics that don't work as a board-game stencil don't get written into code. Most prototypes die at the kitchen table.
04.RELEASE
Release quietly. Then keep reading.
安靜地發行,並繼續閱讀。
We don't court launch hype. We send a quarterly dispatch, sign each game with the date, and start the next reading list the same week.
SHELF ‖ INFLUENCES
What we are reading.
書架上的事。
FICTION & POETRY ‖
- 2024The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction — Ursula K. Le Guin
- 1995The Rings of Saturn — W. G. Sebald
- 1985The Lover — Marguerite Duras
- 2017記憶之野 — 賴香吟
RESEARCH & ESSAY ‖
- 2018How to Do Nothing — Jenny Odell
- 2019Burnout Society — Byung-Chul Han
- 1981Ways of Seeing — John Berger
- 2022島嶼DNA — 陳耀昌
Write us. Slowly.
We answer email in batches, twice a month, in the evening. We are bad at social media and proud of it. If you write us a letter, we will write you one back.
EMAIL ‖ PREFERRED
hello@hiatus17.studio
— answered in batches, evenings.
→
ITCH.IO ‖ GAMES
hiatus17.itch.io
— vertical slices, free chapters, devlogs.
↗
DISPATCH ‖ QUARTERLY
Read the field notes.
— four times a year, always in serif.
→
POST ‖ STUDIO
PL 35, FI-40014 Jyväskylä
— letters, postcards, occasional gifts.
→