Our story
Tired of waiting for permission
We started Frame Story because we were tired of watching brilliant people burn out in studios that forgot why games matter.
Why “Frame Story”?
A story within a story
A frame story (also called a frame narrative or framing device) is a literary technique where an outer narrative sets the stage for one or more inner stories. Think of it as a story that contains other stories, like opening a book to find another book inside.
Classic examples include One Thousand and One Nights, where Scheherazade tells tales within tales to survive each night, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, where layered narrators reveal the story from multiple perspectives.
We chose this name because it reflects what we do: we build the frame (the studio infrastructure, tools, and support) so that the creators inside can tell their own stories. Every game that comes out of Frame Story is a story within our story.
We grew up on games that trusted players to feel, think, and explore. Games like Inside, Journey, Little Nightmares, and Hollow Knight proved that small teams with strong vision could create experiences that rival anything from the biggest studios.
But the industry makes it hard. Brilliant people burn out chasing someone else's vision. Creative voices get buried under corporate priorities. The magic that made us fall in love with games gets lost somewhere between the pitch deck and the shipping deadline.
Frame Story exists to fix that.
The collective
A studio that works for you
Creative Pods
Semi-autonomous game teams that decide what to build, who to work with, and how to build it. Full creative autonomy within a shared ecosystem.
70/30 Revenue Share
Creators receive 70% of net revenue. The studio retains 30% for operations and reinvestment. Your game, your reward.
Shared Backbone
Frame Story handles incorporation, legal, accounting, publishing ops, tooling, and funding pathways, so you can focus on making your game.
Own Your Work
This isn’t a publisher deal. You own your game, your IP, and your creative decisions. We’re the infrastructure, not the gatekeeper.
The founders
Who we are
Anthony Perez Alfaro
Creative Director
Game producer and audio expert with 6+ years across AAA and indie titles. Led teams on projects including Skydance’s Behemoth VR. Drives Frame Story’s artistic vision, game design, and audio production.
Adam Marks
Director of Operations
Operations strategist with a Berklee College of Music background. Builds the internal systems that help teams scale with clarity and efficiency. Manages Frame Story’s legal, business, and organizational infrastructure.
Jon Martin
Director of Product
Product strategist with a background spanning design, ceramics, photography, and technology. Leads product strategy, technology decisions, and launch planning at Frame Story.
Advisors
Guided by veterans
Jason Shankel
Game Development Advisor
Veteran game developer, engineer, and filmmaker with 30+ years in the industry. Spent 14 years as a Senior Software Engineer at Maxis/EA alongside Will Wright, prototyping game engines for AAA titles including Spore. Later worked at Will Wright’s Syntertainment and Stupid Fun Club, and held CTO roles at Modumate. Credits span Roblox, FableLabs, and independent film.
Chong Ahn
Industry Advisor
Head of Games, Growth & Monetization at Meta. Previously CEO at Endless Studios, where he built a games-based learning metaverse, and held Head of Studios and VP of Product roles at Mythical Games. Earlier led product management at EA and held director positions at Scopely, NCSOFT, and Take-Two Interactive.
Iris Zhang
Engineering Advisor
Software engineer with 8+ years of experience across Netflix, Riot Games, and Microsoft. Currently a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix Games. Previously led engine and gameplay engineering teams at Riot Games on League of Legends. Columbia University M.S. in Computer Science.
The collective
The team
Engineering
Bradley Tidwell
Lead Engineer
Full-stack game engineer handling everything from GUI systems to server-side infrastructure. Manages technical onboarding and has held tech lead positions across game and enterprise projects.
Ryan Davidson
Technical Designer & Gameplay Programmer
Technical Designer and Gameplay Programmer who loves to bridge the gap between disciplines. Currently spearheading the early development of a smaller (and yet to be announced) Frame Story title.
Art
Britney Winthrope
Art Director & Concept Artist
Art director and concept illustrator specializing in character design and visual direction. Credits include The Dragon Prince, 3D Bitmoji at Snap, and VR experiences. Leads interdisciplinary creative teams across novel platforms.
Wilmar Arroyave
Lead Artist
Environment and prop artist specializing in hard-surface modeling and game-ready assets. Leads Frame Story’s 3D art production pipeline.
Sheldon French II
Lighting Artist
Defines Cluck’s mood and visual identity, authoring the lighting bible, color script, and time-of-day moments so emotion reads at a glance.
Tomas Gomez Estrada
Texture Artist
Environment and prop artist with a Full Sail game art degree and a master’s in AAA environments and props from Voxel School. Credits include Plants vs. Zombies 3.
Reeves Swartout
VFX Artist
Motion designer and VFX artist based in Burbank specializing in main titles, trailers, and character animation. Currently at Paramount Pictures Studios.
Matthew Noble
3D Props & Objects Modeler
Contributing to Frame Story’s 3D art production.
Matt Watson
Junior Artist
Contributing to Frame Story’s visual art and creative production.
Animation
Justin Cichon
Character & Effects Animator
Brings a love of experimentation and storytelling to every project. With experience spanning studios like Titmouse, Soup 2 Nuts, and MinoMonsters, Justin has worked on Emmy-winning shows, mobile games, commercials, and independent films.
Andrew Kim
Concept Artist & Animator
Contributing to Frame Story’s visual art and creative production.
Design
Kevin Paskowski
Level Designer
Game designer with 14 years of professional game industry experience spanning game design, UI/UX, art production, and 2D/3D art. Previously a Producer at Zynga, with credits at Jam City, Team Tiger Games, Captain.tv, SomaSim, Storm8, and MobilityWare.
Bennett Jobling
Game Designer & Writer
Game designer and writer with a decade of experience in level, systems, narrative, and UX design for mobile and VR. Lead Designer on Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Credits on Oxenfree 2 for level design, puzzle design, and narrative.
Jon Mendez
Product Designer
Multidisciplinary creative leader with 15+ years of design experience across tech, entertainment, and gaming. Previously Senior Product UX/UI Designer at Irreverent Labs and Creative Director at Summer Design Studio.
Kevin
Designer
Contributing to Frame Story’s design work.
Sound & Music
Kyle Riccio
Senior Sound Designer
Sound designer and re-recording mixer with 10+ years in post-production and 600+ TV episodes. NYU Steinhardt graduate. Credits include Rick & Morty, BoJack Horseman, Ad Astra, and The Night Agent.
Emily Hopkins
Game Composer
Electroacoustic harpist and composer with 750K+ YouTube subscribers. Credits include Star Wars Outlaws and DreamWorks’ Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken. Blends classical harp training with modern synthesis and effects.
Russ Fro
Game Composer
Composer and orchestrator with credits on Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and EA Sports Madden. Founded VI-Control, one of the largest online communities for music composers. Holds an M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Chichester.
Meggie-Elise
Voice Actor
Professional voice actor with 8+ years of experience in ADR, animation, commercials, and video games. Credits include SPY x FAMILY, Genshin Impact, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, and Detective Conan.
Standing on the shoulders of
Studios we admire
Thatgamecompany
Journey, Sky
Playdead
Limbo, Inside
Supergiant Games
Hades, Transistor
Annapurna Interactive
Publisher of meaningful indie games