Sickhead Games, LLC

Type	Limited liability company
Industry	Video games
Founded	October 2002; 23 years ago (2002-10)
Founders	Tom Spilman Russell Fincher
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas , United States
Products	ARMED! Stardew Valley (port) Celeste (port) Slay the Spire (port) Space Invaders Deck Commander
Number of employees	5–10
Website	www.sickheadgames.com

Sickhead Games, LLC is an American independent video game developer based in Dallas, Texas. The studio was founded in October 2002 by Tom Spilman and Russell Fincher and specializes in porting, remastering, and co-developing games for consoles and PC, in addition to producing its own original titles. Titles it has ported or co-developed include Darkest Dungeon, Stardew Valley, Celeste, and Slay the Spire.

Sickhead's early work centered on the Torque engine before the studio shifted its focus to MonoGame, an open-source framework it has helped steward while also developing its own original games. It released its first original title, ARMED!, in 2013, and the following year began porting console versions of independently developed games, starting with TowerFall Ascension and Octodad: Dadliest Catch. Over the following decade, the studio ported dozens of independent titles to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile platforms, while also producing HD remasters of older console and PC games such as Grandia and ExZeus.

Alongside its ports and remasters, Sickhead continues to release original and licensed titles, including Space Invaders Deck Commander (2024) and the Jaleco Sports Series (2025–present), a line of revived classic NES, SNES, and Famicom sports games.

History

Sickhead Games was founded in Dallas, Texas, in October 2002 by Tom Spilman and Russell Fincher. In its early years the studio worked with the Torque series of game engines, later shifting its focus to MonoGame, an open-source framework that lowered the barrier for indie developers bringing their games to consoles.^[1]

In 2013, the studio released its first original title, ARMED!, a multiplatform turn-based strategy game for mobile devices and Windows. The following year, Sickhead began porting indie games to PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One, starting with TowerFall Ascension^[2] and Octodad: Dadliest Catch.^[3]

The studio went on to port several further indie titles, including Darkest Dungeon,^[4] Stardew Valley,^[5] Axiom Verge,^[6][7] and Slay the Spire, with support later expanding to Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms.

Alongside its ports of contemporary indie games, Sickhead has updated classic console and PC games from the 1980s through the early 2000s to run on modern systems, including ExZeus, Enclave, and Grandia. The studio released Space Invaders Deck Commander in 2024 with Rock It Games and Taito,^[8] and began reviving classic NES, SNES, and Famicom Jaleco sports titles the following year.

Games developed

References

External links

• Sickhead Games website
• MonoGame website