Sinnstudio FAQ

Since its initial launch in 2020, Swordsman has undergone a remarkable evolution. Initially released as a story-driven arena-based title, Swordsman has seen the introduction of twelve major updates, each contributing to its growth and enhancing the player experience.

Some of these significant updates include the introduction of the pirate faction, the integration of hand-to-hand combat mechanics, the creation of a dedicated training ground, and the implementation of a brand-new combat system with custom motion capture technology. Additionally, we've added various gameplay modes, held engaging contests, introduced new factions, weaponry, and seasonal updates, diversified combat types, and launched a competitive mode where users can test their skills in combat training challenges.

As Swordsman continued to gain traction and succeed, we reciprocated by reinvesting in the title. This ongoing development has been our way of expressing gratitude to the dedicated community that believed in our ability to build upon the solid foundation laid on launch day.

Originally, Swordsman was inspired by our love for medieval fantasy, games like Chivalry and For Honor, and movies like Lord of the Rings. VR allows us to embody characters we could never be, do things we could never do, and see places we could never see.

We wanted to immerse players in that medieval fantasy, and VR was the ultimate way to do this. Despite Swordsman’s immediate success, we never stopped chasing this dream. To this day, we’re still working on exciting new games and technologies to bring that vision ever-closer to life.

Before the release of Swordsman, we set several key goals to shape our vision. First and foremost, we aimed to validate our XR design philosophy, demonstrating that immersive, physically engaging experiences could captivate audiences. Our ambition was to release Swordsman across all major XR platforms, achieving top-selling status and creating a dedicated community with whom we could shape the future of XR gaming.

Since its launch, Swordsman has remarkably achieved top-selling status across every XR platform it's available on. It boasts an active player base of over 70,000 monthly users and has fostered a vibrant community, with over 50,000 members across various social platforms. Originally conceived as a proof of concept, Swordsman has far exceeded our initial expectations.

First and foremost, we have a deep belief in the potential of XR technology. To truly harness its power, we spent extensive time studying user preferences and the driving forces behind immersive experiences. What we discovered was that the most engaging experiences often occur when users are up close and personal with the content, where their body becomes the input, fostering a greater sense of interaction and presence compared to traditional button-based inputs.

With this understanding, we set out to find an experience that perfectly aligned with our vision. That's when we realized that melee combat was an ideal fit. It's a genre that demands both physical and mental engagement, tapping into our innate drive for competition. Melee combat allows users to satisfy their natural curiosity for this primal form of competition, making it an exciting and dynamic choice for our specialized focus in XR gaming.

We founded Sinn Studio in 2017, driven by the shared childhood dream of creating and delivering a remarkable game. However, during that time, the XR industry faced challenges, and it seemed like the world had lost interest in this exciting technology. Undeterred, we made a risky decision to invest our savings into the studio.

From 2017 to 2019, we released a couple of XR games, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of our users' preferences and needs. These early titles didn't achieve the success we had hoped for, requiring us to invest more and more into the studio.

In 2019, on the brink of closing our studio, we gathered the courage to give XR one more chance. After this moment we began the development of Swordsman (VR). As fate would have it, on the very day Swordsman (VR) was set to launch, our studio was on the verge of bankruptcy.

To our surprise, right after launch Swordsman (VR) quickly emerged as a top-selling title. This remarkable success not only saved our studio but also catapulted us into the forefront of the XR gaming industry. The journey from near closure to becoming a platform best-seller has defined Sinn Studio's incredible story, and it continues to inspire our dedication to crafting exceptional XR gaming experiences for our incredible community.

The best thing about XR is the freedom it offers players. This is simultaneously a blessing and a curse. The more control a player has over the experience, the less control developers have. Unlike traditional games, XR development is a truly 3-dimensional problem. Our approach to XR development has two core pillars:

1. Complexity: in XR, the player’s body is the input. How they move their body is often more important in gameplay than what buttons they press on their controllers. Taking the complex, 3-dimensional nature of XR and designing gameplay with intuitive rule-sets is a key focus in our philosophy.
2. User Experience: community has always been our greatest strength. We use gameplay analytics, user feedback, and playtesting to iterate and improve on our assumptions. This is especially important in XR, where the number of possible things a player can try is nearly endless.