The indie scene in recent years has been bringing more and more creative and interesting projects, and among them, LightSup! stands out, a cooperative action game that has already attracted the attention of players at numerous global gaming events such as Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, and SXSW Sydney. Behind the game is the Thai indie team BugBlio Studio, a group of developers who want to prove that a small studio can create something big on a global scale.
We spoke with Matt, Boom, and Jay, members of BugBlio Studio who are behind the LightSup! project, about the studio's development and the game's inception.
1. For those who may not be familiar with your studio, who are BugBlio Studio, and what's the story behind the studio's creation?
Matt: BugBlio Studio is an indie game studio based in Thailand, founded by a group of friends who share a deep passion for creating meaningful and fun experiences through games. We started from a very small, remote-first team, working together online because we believed talent and passion matter more than location.
Our goal has always been to build games that feel warm, collaborative, and memorable, something that reflects both our culture and our personal experiences as developers. LightSup! is really the embodiment of that journey. So we just... started. Named it Bugblio, a weird name, we know, we love it, and decided that whatever we built, we'd own the vision fully.
Boom: And I think what makes us a little different is that we actually care about the next generation, too. Matt teaches game design/production at Bangkok University, and that spirit of "if you figure something out, you share it" runs through everything we do. It's not just about shipping games. It's about what we're contributing to the scene.
Jay: From a business perspective, we also wanted to prove that a Thai indie studio can operate professionally on a global level—both creatively and operationally. So BugBlio is not just about making games, but building a sustainable studio.
2. How large is the team of BugBlio Studio?
Jay: Currently, our core team is around 10–15 people, supported by freelancers and collaborators depending on the project phase.
Boom: We keep the core team lean yet highly collaborative, enabling us to move fast while maintaining quality.
Matt: Every single person on this team carries real ownership over what they do. That's not something we say for show; it's how we actually work. And I think it shows in the final product.
3. Where did the idea for LightSup! come from? Was it an original concept, or were you inspired by other games
So the honest answer is, it came from our just wanting to play it ourselves. We love co-op games. Like, genuinely, that's how we hang out. But we kept running into this thing where either the game was super casual and after an hour, you kind of run out of reasons to come back, or it was brutally hard, and the moment you brought someone new in, they had a miserable time. And we were just sitting around one day going, "Why doesn't this exist? The thing that's fun from minute one but still has depth three weeks later?" And then we looked at each other and went, "Okay, I guess we're making it." The visual style came pretty naturally, too. We're all big fans of cel-shaded art and of characters that have this warmth and expressiveness. We wanted something that felt
4. How long has LightSup! been in development, and how close are you to the finished product?
We started back in 2022, so we'll be at about 4 years by the time we ship. And yeah — it's been a journey. laughs
We took LightSup! to Devcom, Gamescom, Tokyo Game Show, and SXSW Sydney, ran some demos on Steam, collected a ton of player feedback, and went back to iterate. Each showcase taught us something real that changed the game in some way.
Right now? We're genuinely close. The PC build is done. We're in the final porting and certification phase for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. We're running our final rounds of structured playtesting to make sure everything feels exactly the way it should. It's that exciting-terrifying feeling of being almost there.
5. What does LightSup! bring to the genre that players haven't seen before?
The way I think about it, there's a gap in the co-op action space that nobody's quite filling. Games that are approachable AND deep. Not one or the other.
But beyond that, what I'm most proud of is how the co-op itself feels. In a lot of games, playing with friends means you're just doing the same thing, but simultaneously. In LightSup!, the way characters interact with each other — the abilities, the energy system, the way you can set each other up for big moments — it creates these emergent, unscripted moments that you genuinely can't plan for. A run with four people playing well together just feels different from anything else. And that feeling is what we were chasing from day one.
Oh, and people consistently bring up the art style. At every single showcase, it's one of the first things players mention. We put so much love into that world, so that always makes the team really happy to hear.
6. We have played the demo version of the game, and we saw some pretty interesting and unique characters, weapons, and abilities. Walk us through the creative process behind designing them.
Okay, this is genuinely one of my favorite things to talk about.
So our rule — and we hold each other to this pretty firmly — is that we design the person before we design the kit. Who are they? What do they want? What's their deal? And only once that's clear do we start thinking about what abilities would feel natural for that character to have.
Because the moment you go ability-first, you end up with something that plays well in isolation but feels hollow. Players sense it. They can tell when a character is just a collection of cool moves versus someone with an actual soul.
The art and design teams are really intertwined in our process too. A character's weapon silhouette, their color palette, how they move — all of that communicates personality before a single ability description is ever read. And then we put it in front of real players and watch what happens. Some things that look amazing on paper completely fall apart the moment someone else is in the room with you. That's when the real design work begins.
7. LightSup! supports up to four players, will that affect solo players in terms of the difficulty of the game?
Solo players, we see you and we've got you!
The game scales based on how many people are playing. Encounters, enemy behavior, resources — it all adjusts so that going in alone doesn't feel like the game is punishing you for not having friends available that day.
But I'll be honest with you — the experience is different. Co-op has this wonderful messy energy that solo just can't replicate, and I don't want to pretend otherwise. But solo play has something co-op doesn't, which is this sense of full control and focus. Some of our testers actually prefer it for that reason. We designed both modes to be genuinely satisfying on their own terms.
8. How long can players expect the main story to be, and will there be any side content to explore along the way?
A focused playthrough of the main story is somewhere around 10 to 15 hours depending on how you play and what difficulty you're on. But honestly, with the roguelite elements baked into the design, the real number for players who want to dig in is way higher than that — because each run feels meaningfully different.
And yes, there's side content. Unlockable characters, alternate ability builds, little story details tucked away in the world for players who like to look around. We really wanted to reward the curious ones. The players who stop and look at everything — there's stuff in there for them.
9. When can players expect LightSup! to officially launch?
August 20, 2026. That's our date. We've been working toward it for a long time and we are so ready to finally let people in.
10. Which platforms will LightSup! be available at launch?
PC on Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5 — all at the same time. No staggered launches, no "coming soon to other platforms." Everyone gets it on the same day, which felt really important to us.
11. What price point can players expect when LightSup! releases?
We haven't locked in the final number publicly yet, but what I can tell you is we've thought hard about it. We want the price to feel fair — fair for the content we're delivering, and fair for the players in every market we're launching in. We'll announce it closer to August. But trust us, we're not trying to make anyone feel bad about picking it up.
