The problemThree milestones paid, and you still cannot play the game on your phone.
In shortYou can hire Pixel & Oak as your game developer for browser, phone and multiplayer games. Every project starts with a playable prototype of the core loop, from $4,000, so you can play it on your own phone before paying for the full game. Our own four games, including a Unity multiplayer tank game, are live on pixelandoak.com.
Most people who want to hire a game developer already have the idea and a budget that will not stretch to a studio. The risk is paying for months of menus, art and systems before anyone knows whether the core of the game is fun. That is how projects end with three paid milestones and nothing you can play on your own phone.
We start every game with a playable prototype of the core loop, in a browser you can open on any phone, and price the full game from what the prototype shows. Our own games are live on this site: Freight Fight, a Unity multiplayer tank battle; Glow Hop, a neon tap game; Map Pop, map and flag quizzes; and Imposter, an online party game in English and Spanish. Haider Ali directs the AI agents that build them and plays every build before it ships.
Maintained by Haider Ali, Founder & CEO · Updated
What people tell us before they hire a game developer, often after a project that went wrong.
Without a build you can play, nobody can tell whether the game is fun, and the budget goes into menus, art and systems for a core loop that may not work.
What we doA playable prototype of the core loop in 3–5 weeks, sent as a link you open on your own phone, with the rest of the scope decided from how it plays.
A demo on the developer's own computer hides crashes, slow loading and controls that fail on the phones and browsers your players actually use.
What we doEvery milestone is a build hosted at a link, tested in phone and desktop browsers, and approved only after you have played it yourself.
Quotes range from a few thousand dollars to six figures, and "a game like Subway Surfers" can mean a weekend prototype or years of work by a large team.
What we doA fixed price for the prototype, then an honest estimate for the full game once the prototype shows how much content and polish it really needs.
Dedicated game servers bill every month whether anyone plays or not, and reconnects, cheating and room management can cost more than the game itself.
What we doThe lightest server model the game allows. Our two multiplayer games run their rooms on Cloudflare servers billed by use, and Freight Fight places each room near its players.
Developers sometimes reuse assets they do not own or keep the project files, and you find out when a store, a publisher or a rights holder asks.
What we doEvery asset is listed with its license, and the project files, code, builds and accounts are in your name. Original characters and names only, never another company's.
We would rather tell you now than take the project and disappoint you.
| Prototype from | $4,000 for a playable prototype of the core loop |
|---|---|
| Prototype timeline | 3–5 weeks, played on your own phone |
| Full game | Quoted from the prototype, as fixed-price stages |
| Platforms | Desktop and phone browsers; app-store builds on request |
| Engines | Unity for 3D and bigger worlds, plain web code for light, fast-loading games |
| Multiplayer | Rooms by code, bots and reconnects, on servers billed by use |
| What you own | Project files, code, assets with their licenses, builds and accounts |
| Who builds it | Haider Ali directing AI agents. He plays and signs off every build |
| Proof so far | Four games of our own, live on this site |
Worth knowing: Every game we have shipped so far runs in a web browser, on desktop and on phones. We have not yet released a game on the App Store, Google Play or Steam, so a store release would be our first, and the quote will say so. Published budget figures for games vary widely and mostly come from studios selling the work; one 2026 guide admits its ranges have no published sample size.
The one thing players do over and over, playable in a browser, with placeholder art.
Rules, controls, progression and what each later stage adds, written down before production.
Free CC0 asset packs, bought assets or custom models, every one listed with its license.
Keyboard and mouse on desktop, and touch controls sized for thumbs on phones.
Rooms joined by code, bots to fill empty seats, reconnects and server checks against cheating.
Effects and music from licensed libraries, with volume and mute settings players can find.
Automated tests for the game rules and frame-time checks on desktop and phone builds.
Hosting with the right compression, a page that loads fast from a shared link, and store builds when needed.
All four are free to play on this site, so you can judge the work before you write to us.
| Browser game | App-store game | |
|---|---|---|
| How players start | Tap a link and play in seconds | Find it in the store, install, open |
| Sharing | Send a link, even to the same room | Send a store link, then wait for the install |
| Store cut on sales | None | Usually 15–30% to Apple or Google |
| Review before release | None; update any time | Store review for each version |
| Size in practice | Small, so it starts fast on a phone | Larger downloads are normal |
| Good for | Promotions, quizzes, party games, quick multiplayer | Games people return to daily, with offline play |
A game can start in the browser and move to the stores later. Planning for both from the start is cheaper than porting it afterwards.
The engine follows the game: Unity for 3D and bigger worlds, plain web code when every kilobyte counts.
Unity 6 with URP and C#; WebGL and Canvas with TypeScript for light browser games
WebSocket rooms on Cloudflare Durable Objects, with bots and reconnects
Blender, CC0 asset packs such as Kenney, licensed sound libraries
Unity Test Framework, Vitest, headless browser play-tests, frame-time traces
Not sure whether a custom game is what you actually need? Send over what you are trying to fix and we will tell you straight — including if a smaller job would do it.
Ask us first →A one-page description of what players do, how they win and what makes them play again.
A browser build of the core loop in 3–5 weeks, for a fixed price. You play it before deciding anything else.
Levels, art, sound and multiplayer in fixed-price stages, each one a build you can play.
Hosting, store submissions if needed, and updates priced as stages of their own.
AI agents from our Engineering, Quality & Security and Design & Film divisions do the work, in parallel. Haider Ali, founder and CEO, agrees the plan with you and signs off everything before it reaches you.
Real work that uses the same skills. Every card links to something you can open and inspect yourself.
Our Unity tank battle for desktop and phone browsers: online rooms joined by code, bots, four maps, power-ups and touch controls.
Browser game · WebGLA neon tap game with its own WebGL renderer and challenge links that replay a friend's exact course. Its code is about 43 KB compressed.
Browser game · quizMap and flag quizzes for 197 countries and seven regions, built from public-domain map data and tested for accurate taps on small screens.
Online party gameA word party game in English and Spanish: pass one phone around, or play online in rooms of up to 16 people joined by a four-letter code.
With us, a playable prototype of your core loop starts at $4,000 and takes 3–5 weeks. The full game is then priced in fixed stages from what the prototype shows. Published 2026 estimates for small independent games run from about $30,000 to $250,000, depending mostly on team size and how much content the game needs.
A prototype is a rough, playable version of the one thing players do over and over, with placeholder art. It answers the most expensive question first: is this fun? If it is not, you have spent a few weeks instead of the whole budget, and you can change the design while changes are still cheap.
We can make an original game in the same genre, sized to your budget. Big hit games are built over years by large teams, and their names, characters and art belong to their owners, so we never copy them. A prototype shows what your version of the idea needs.
Yes. Freight Fight and Imposter, both live on this site, have online rooms that friends join with a short code. Freight Fight adds bots to fill empty seats and places each room on a server near its players. We choose the lightest server setup your game allows, so you are not paying for idle servers.
Browser games start from a link in seconds, need no store review and pay no store commission, which suits promotions, quizzes and party games. App-store games suit games people return to every day and play offline. A game can start in the browser and move to the stores later if we plan for it from the start.
Yes, for 3D games and bigger worlds. Freight Fight is built in Unity 6 and runs in desktop and phone browsers. For light games where loading speed matters most, plain web code is smaller and starts faster, which is how Glow Hop and Map Pop are built.
You do. The project files, source code, builds, store accounts and every asset license are in your name. Assets come from free CC0 packs, bought licenses or custom work, and each one is listed so a store or publisher can check it.
Not yet. All four of our games are browser games, playable on desktop and phones. A store release of your game would be our first, and we will say so in the quote and build the time for store review into the plan.
Tell us about your business and we'll design a custom homepage concept within 48 hours — free, no strings attached.