Bellows Apply as a design partnerApply

For indie studios of 1 to 20

Your game's backend.
Your players' world.

Bellows is a backend for indie online games that also builds your players' wiki, maps and Discord bot from the same data. Add an item once, and the game, the wiki and the bot all know about it.

Apply as a design partner See what works today

Working today The Playtest Kit, for Unity. 2027 Accounts, saves, leaderboards, live ops and the Player Hub.

The Bellows Studio Console's Overview for Ironwake: players online now, players over 30 days, retention by install week, the Player Hub and the next game night.
Your studio's side: the Console
A page in Ironwake's Player Hub: the Weathered Crossbow, changed in 1.5.0, with its stats and where it's found on the map.
Your players' side: the Hub

Ironwake is a game we made up to show Bellows working. Every screen on this page is the real thing, running on Ironwake's made-up data.

0%

revenue share, and no per-install fee. Ever.

24 months

price lock from your game's first invoice

12 months

notice before any service ends, with your data yours to take

Working today

Playtests that tell you when a build is ready

Give testers an invite code. The Unity package records each session: what they did, where it crashed, how it ended. It asks your survey at a natural pause, and it keeps working when the connection doesn't. The Console shows every session's timeline and checks the build against the gates you set.

  • Invite codes for each build, with notes, limits and an end date
  • Crashes caught, even after a pulled plug, and reported on the next launch
  • In-game surveys: yes or no, scales, choices and testers' own words
  • Gates such as "no crash in the first hour, 97% of sessions" or "came back the next day, 35%"
  • Testers can download or erase their data, as UK GDPR expects
The Console's Playtest screen: 31 of 48 testers played, 44 sessions, 4 crashes, 1 of 4 gates passing, and what testers said.
C# · Unity 2021.3 or latergg.bellows.sdk
using Bellows.Playtest;

var playtest = BellowsPlaytest.Start(new PlaytestOptions
{
    ClientKey = "bk_pub_…",        // safe to ship in a build
    Build = "1.6.0-beta.3",     // what the Console files sessions under
});
playtest.Join(inviteCode, testerName);
playtest.BeginSession();
playtest.Log("wreck_cleared", ("seconds", 402.5));

BellowsSurvey.ShowIfDue();          // at a natural pause: a results screen, the menu

The platform

Everything a live indie game needs

One SDK and one Console for the online side of your game. Here's what each part does, and where it stands.

"2027" is our first release, the Launch Kit, which we're aiming to have in a private alpha in the spring and out by the end of June. Those are targets, not promises. SDKs: Unity today; Godot 4, TypeScript and a REST API are planned for the first release, Unreal later.

In the demo

Your players get a home, built from your own data

Most indie games end up with a fan wiki that goes stale a patch later. Bellows builds your game's Hub from the catalogue you already keep, and rebuilds it every time you publish a change.

  • A page for every item, with search, written straight from your catalogue
  • Rename an item and its old address sends people to the new page, for good
  • Take one out and it keeps a page saying when it left, so old links still land
  • You decide whether it's listed on MetaForge's sites, which have 3–5 million visitors a month

Ironwake's Hub has 177 pages, built from one catalogue. Its map and its patch notes show what comes after the first release; the map was painted by code for the demo.

Ironwake's map in its Player Hub: the Drowned Coast, with towns, lighthouses, wrecks and bosses marked and a filter panel.

In the demo

Run the live game from one place

Post news, make codes, change remote config and plan game nights from one Console, with every change in an audit log that says who made it. From the first release, each one reaches the game, the Hub and Discord in one action.

  • Remote config that's typed and range-checked, with flags for a share of players
  • Maintenance mode with the message players see
  • Player support: look anyone up, grant, ban, export their data
  • Roles, so support can help players without touching config

The Console's live ops screens are built and save everything. Games read them from the first release.

The Console's Remote config screen for Ironwake: its keys, their values, and the history of changes.

How it works

From first playtest to live game, on one SDK

  1. Add the package

    Unity 2021.3 or later. Start it once in your bootstrap scene, and your build records playtests.

    Working today

  2. Invite testers

    Make an invite code for a build in the Console. Sessions, crashes and survey answers arrive as they play.

    Working today

  3. Decide what ready means

    Set gates on what testers do and say. The Console tells you, build by build, whether you're there.

    Working today

  4. Launch on the same SDK

    Accounts, saves, leaderboards and live ops arrive in the same package, and your Hub builds itself.

    2027

Pricing

Priced for indie games, with the promises in the contract

Bellows will have a free tier to start on, and paid tiers for when your game grows. We'll publish prices once our load tests confirm what Bellows costs to run, and design partners hear them first. These terms come with every tier:

Design partners

Build it with us

We're looking for a handful of studios to shape Bellows before its first release.

What you get

  • The Playtest Kit now, and each part of the Launch Kit as it lands
  • Hands-on help wiring it into your game
  • The Indie tier free until the end of 2029, set out in a short partner letter
  • A featured slot on MetaForge when your game launches on Steam

What we ask

  • A call a month, and honest feedback
  • A short case study after launch, which you approve before anything is published

Who it suits

Teams of 1 to 20 making an online PC game: co-op, survival, extraction, PvP or social. Unity today, and Godot teams should talk to us too. Anywhere from prototype to early access.

What would you use first? optional

We use this only to reply to you and to plan Bellows, and delete it after two years at most. How we handle it.

FAQ

Questions studios ask

Can I use Bellows today?

The Playtest Kit works today with Unity, and design partners get it first. Accounts, saves, leaderboards, the economy, live ops in your game and the Player Hub make up our first release, the Launch Kit. We're aiming for a private alpha in spring 2027 and a release by the end of June 2027. Those are targets, not promises.

Which engines does it support?

Unity 2021.3 or later today, on every platform except WebGL for now. A Godot 4 SDK, a TypeScript SDK and a plain REST API are planned for the first release, and Unreal after that. If you're on Godot, we'd especially like to hear from you.

Who owns my game's data?

You do. Your studio is the data controller, and Bellows processes data for you under a data processing agreement that we sign before any player data arrives. You'll be able to export all of it whenever you like, and to export or delete any one player's data.

Is Bellows part of MetaForge? Does it datamine games?

Bellows is made by MetaForge. Where a studio doesn't publish data, MetaForge's sites datamine it. Bellows is the alternative: your game sends its own data, we use only that, we'll put that in the contract, and you control every page of your Hub.

What will it cost?

There'll be a free tier to start on, and we'll publish the paid tiers' prices once our load tests confirm our costs. Whatever the figures, every tier comes with the terms above: no revenue share, a 24-month price lock, a spend cap you set, viral-month forgiveness and 12 months' notice. Design partners get the Indie tier free until the end of 2029.

What happens if Bellows shuts down?

You'd get 12 months' notice before any service ends, and your data is yours to export at any time, not only then.

Can I see it working?

Yes. Every screen on this page is the real Console and Hub, running on Ironwake, a game we made up for demos. Tick "happy to talk" on the form and we'll walk you through it.

Make the online side the easy part

Bellows is being built now, with studios like yours.

Apply as a design partner