Three people, one room, one game at a time
New Fires Studio is a small independent games studio in Nakameguro, Tokyo.
We started the studio in April 2024 after the three of us had worked together on contract for about a year and realised we preferred each other's company to our clients'. The studio exists to make one game at a time, finish it properly, and then see whether we still have anything left to say.
We are not raising money. We are not hiring. We are not going to stretch one game into a franchise. These are not virtues — they are the shape of a deliberately small operation, and we know it costs us things.
The team
Lin Harada
Lin draws every asset in Ember Line, from the chapel's keystone to the shape of Caro's cello case. She studied illustration in Osaka and spent six years as an in-house artist at a larger studio you have heard of. She does not want to be named there.
Ito Saeko
Ito composed the score for Ember Line on her grandmother's piano. She recorded the cello parts in a rented studio in Setagaya over four weekends in autumn 2025. She is the person in the studio most likely to tell you the game needs more silence.
Tomoya Kuroki
Tomoya wrote the engine. He had other work lined up in February 2024 and turned it down on a walk home. He builds his own mechanical keyboards and refuses to explain this hobby to anyone.
Where we are
The studio is an apartment on the fourth floor of a building above a 7-Eleven in Nakameguro, Tokyo. We have two desks, one pair of speakers, and a very small refrigerator. Lin's dog, Umeshu, comes to work most days. He does not contribute to the game.
How we work
We ship to a beta branch every Friday. We play each other's work on Monday morning over coffee. We do not crunch. When someone is tired or stuck, we go for a walk along the Meguro river, which is two minutes away and has changed our minds about many things.
Ember Line has been in active development for 24 months as of this writing. We expect another 6 to 8.
Contact
General: hello@newfires.org
Press: press@newfires.org
Business: business@newfires.org (publishers, porting houses, festival curators)
We answer all three within two business days. If you do not hear back, please write again — Japanese spam filters are enthusiastic.
Thank you for reading. — L, I, T / April 2026