thorncell
Game studio · Helsinki

From gamers to gamers.

An AI-powered game studio building multiplayer games that are effortless to jump into, better together and rewarding for years.

Discover our games Why we exist
The studio

Bringing the fun back to gaming.

Thorncell makes games for everyone, not only the hardcore. Worlds that welcome you in on day one and still surprise you years later.

Built to be played for years

Our games grow with their players. As your skills deepen, so does the content, with new ways to play and new goals always within reach.

Better together

Most of our titles are multiplayer, with co-op that is fun and effortless from the very first session. Invite a friend and you are playing in seconds.

Low-latency by design

We take pride in our multiplayer technology. It is engineered from the ground up so every match feels instant and every input lands exactly when it should.

Made for everyone

Easy to learn, rewarding to master and suitable for players aged 8 and up. Atmosphere and wonder, never gore.

Reinventing game design with AI.

AI sits at the core of how we design, build and test. Combined with lean, agile processes, it lets us move from idea to playable in days, learn from every playtest and keep evolving our games long after launch.

Our ambition: to be the most agile game studio in the world.

  • AI-powered game makingTools and workflows that multiply what every creator can build.
  • Agile by defaultShort cycles, fast decisions and constant iteration.
  • Infrastructure-grade engineeringNearly two decades of operations, start-up and infrastructure experience behind every server and every match.
Games

Our titles

Merge Raiders

A tactical sci-fi shooter. Raid robot-held space stations, merge loot up through the rarity tiers and extract with your haul. Build a raider that looks like you.

Low-latency multiplayer built from the ground up. Team up with friends and family and save Earth!

MULTIPLAYER · CO-OP · iOS & ANDROID · AGES 8+

Join the playtest
COMING SOON Project 02 A classic game with a completely new twist, built for multiplayer.
COMING SOON Project 03 Something completely new and story-driven, with the depth of a 90s classic.
A note from our founder

“Games used to be pure fun, and we almost always played them together. We want to bring that joy back to gaming, for everyone.”

I have been a gamer since I was three, back in the days of the early Macs and PCs. What stayed with me most is how much fun those games were, and how often we played them side by side.

For nearly two decades I have worked in growth companies, building the parts of technology that have to work every single time. I built a round-the-clock operations center from zero, ran support teams across four countries, managed telecom and cloud infrastructure, and today lead IT, security and AI adoption for a 900+ employee group.

Thorncell is where those two sides meet. A great multiplayer game is a promise to its players: it is there when you want to play, it feels instant, and it keeps getting better for years. That takes solid engineering, lean teams and smart use of AI. I know how to build that, and I know how it should feel to play.

Portrait of Valtteri Komulainen Valtteri Komulainen Founder, Thorncell LinkedIn
Newsroom

Latest news

OCTOBER 2026 PRESS RELEASE

Thorncell launches as a new game studio in Helsinki

Founded in October 2026, Thorncell is a Helsinki-based, AI-powered studio creating multiplayer games built to be enjoyed for years, with effortless co-op and low-latency play for players of every level.

About the founder: Valtteri Komulainen is a lifelong gamer who has spent his career in growth companies, building and running the systems players never see but always feel: 24/7 service operations, cloud platforms that cannot go down, multilingual support teams and secure, AI-enabled workflows. He has held leadership roles at Groupon and LeadDesk and has co-founded companies in Finland and India.

Contact

Say hello.

hello@thorncell.com