Digital Kingdom

What Digital Kingdom does

Digital Kingdom is a Swiss game studio and interactive experience agency founded in 2013 and based in Vevey, Switzerland. Operating as Digital Kingdom Sàrl (a Swiss limited liability company) with a multidisciplinary team of approximately 9 members, the studio pursues a dual business model: (1) custom serious game and interactive experience development for institutional clients including museums, government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofits; and (2) proprietary indie game publishing led by Swordship, an arcade rogue-like released in December 2022 on PC and consoles via publishing partner Thunderful Games.

The studio's core technology stack is built on the Unity game engine (including LWRP/URP and HDRP pipelines), supplemented by Blender 3D modeling, Substance Painter for texturing, and Git version control with a specialized Unity-Git workflow. Digital Kingdom has developed a distinctive three-phase concept study methodology (analysis, concept definition, and de-risking through prototyping) and produces experiences across PC, consoles, mobile (iOS/Android), VR headsets, web, and tactile tablets. Technical specializations include AR/VR development, 3D-to-2D illustration pipelines for museum content, and AR calibration techniques for mobile performance optimization.

The company serves museums (Alimentarium/Nestlé Foundation, Science Museum Tokyo, Musée romain de Lausanne-Vidy), government and public safety clients (Police Cantonale Vaudoise, GILAI, Canton de Vaud), educational institutions (EPFL, University of Lausanne), and nonprofits (Croix-Rouge Vaudoise, Association Patouch). Revenue derives from project-based professional services fees for custom development work, supplemented by one-time indie game sales through Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. The go-to-market combines direct B2B sales for serious game mandates, event-driven visibility at gaming festivals (Gamescom, Numerik Games, Pax East), and content marketing through their website and YouTube channel. The studio operates without external venture funding and has received non-dilutive support from Pro Helvetia and Canton de Vaud creative games initiatives.

Name

Digital Kingdom

Legal name

Digital Kingdom Sàrl

Website

https://digitalkingdom.ch

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Digital Kingdom is a 9-person Swiss game studio in Vevey that develops serious games and interactive experiences for museums, government, and educational institutions, and publishes its own indie game IP (Swordship) via Thunderful Games across PC and consoles.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Custom Game Development & Interactive Experience Design

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Indie Game Studios (MPAFAAAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

VR/AR Game Publishing & Distribution (MPAFABAK)

Keywords

• Game development services
• Interactive experience design
• Serious games development
• VR/AR experience creation
• Indie game publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Vevey

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Custom Game Development Services: Project-based development of serious games, interactive experiences, and custom game solutions for museums, cultural institutions, government agencies, and educational organizations.
2. Indie Game Publishing: Development and publishing of proprietary indie game IP (Swordship) through platforms including Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. Revenue generated from game sales with Thunderful Games as publishing partner.
3. AR/Mobile Application Development: Development of smartphone and tablet applications for iOS and Android, including museum guide apps and educational games published on App Store and Google Play.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Digital Kingdom is a Swiss game development studio that designs and develops custom interactive experiences, serious games, VR/AR applications, and proprietary video games. The company provides end-to-end development services through three phases—Study & Concept, Production, and Deployment & Follow-up—for museums, cultural institutions, government agencies, and educational organizations. Additionally, it publishes its own indie game IP (Swordship) through Steam and console platforms via publishing partner Thunderful Games.

Product overview

Digital Kingdom is a Swiss game studio and interactive experience agency offering a portfolio of custom game development services and proprietary game products. The company provides three core services—Study & Concept, Production, and Deployment & Follow-up—covering the full project lifecycle from analysis through deployment with ongoing maintenance. Their proprietary games include Swordship (an indie arcade rogue-like), NoWay! (a narrative game for children), and various museum/exhibition games. For clients, they develop serious games, VR/AR experiences, and interactive training applications tailored for museums, cultural institutions, healthcare organizations, and government agencies. Projects span multiple platforms including PC, consoles (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox), VR headsets, mobile (iOS, Android), web, and tactile tablets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Etude & Concept (Study & Concept) Three-phase study service for prospective clients including context analysis, needs identification, approach evaluation, concept proposals with budget estimates and initial planning, and refinement or prototyping of critical points before full production.
• Production Game and interactive experience production service organized to deliver playable versions quickly for user testing, with projects advancing through iterative development until mature enough for deployment.
• Déploiement & Suivi (Deployment & Follow-up) Deployment and follow-up service providing complete documentation, staff training, multi-platform deployment, on-site installation, and long-term support with annual maintenance contracts.
• Swordship Arcade rogue-like shoot'em up where players pilot a fast, fragile ship delivering maritime containers while evading enemies. The ship has no weapons; players use enemy behavior to survive. Released on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox via Thunderful Games publishing.
• NoWay! Narrative point-and-click game for children aged 9-13, helping players discover stories of characters overcoming violence, bullying, and social pressures through interactive multiple-choice stories. Emotions influence gameplay and player capabilities. Planned for 2026 release.
• Portail vers le passé VR experience depicting major archaeological discoveries from Pully across three historical periods—Roman banquet, Neolithic funeral ceremony, and medieval children speaking Latin. Created in partnership with Archéolab, University of Lausanne, and Swiss National Science Foundation.
• AL 2049 Management game where players create a food ecosystem in the Alimentarium building in a post-apocalyptic future, balancing health, well-being, and energy for a team of 30 people across museum rooms. Uses image recognition for physical museum unlocking. Targets secondary school visitors.
• Let's Help Together Cooperative multiplayer game illustrating Croix-Rouge vaudoise's values and actions. Players help neighbors in a building by visiting lonely people, shopping, or babysitting. Features an elevator piloted by one player requiring constant communication with other players.
• Tranquility Base Cooperative AR escape game where one player is in a lunar base and another is in ground control. Players must repair an oxygen system with cut communications. Uses augmented reality for immersive environments, available in English and Japanese.
• Le Potionarium Mobile smartphone treasure hunt game set in the Alimentarium museum garden. Players collect ingredients to make potions and discover fantastic creatures. Targets children 8-12 with additional content for older players.
• Histormaticien Interactive quiz presenting three IT training orientations for the Groupement Romand de l'Informatique. Features progressive difficulty, cinema and video game references, and original soundtrack.
• Formation Digitale GILAI Web@AI 3.0 Interactive training application for GILAI's Web@AI software used by Swiss disability insurance offices. Features 1,400 interactive captures and 21 exercises in French and German. Deployed to over 2,500 users with a 7.3/10 satisfaction rating.
• Made Visible VR VR road safety prevention experience for Police Cantonale Vaudoise. Simulates three Swiss environments (city, mountain, lakeside) with behavioral psychology integration. Includes turnkey prevention kits deployed for use by police prevention units in schools, fairs, and exhibitions across Swiss cantons.

Quantifiable outcome

• 90% container delivery rate in Swordship alpha testing with 134 players across 3,500 games
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Sandro Dall'AgliominorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026External game designer collaborating on NoWay! narrative game project for Association Patouch.
• GameLab UNIL-EPFLminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Academic partnership for Lausanne 1830 project, providing student production team and research collaboration with historians and archivists.
• Thunderful Games (formerly Headup)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 January 2021Thunderful Games serves as publishing partner for Swordship, handling marketing, distribution, and sales on PC and console platforms (Steam, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox). Headup was initially signed before being acquired by Thunderful Group. Partnership enables international retail presence and industry visibility.
• Sandro Dall'AgliominorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021External game designer collaborating on Swordship project alongside Digital Kingdom team.
• TKN StudiominorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2021Local Vevey woodworking partner for custom pinball hardware fabrication.
• Pro Helvetia / SwissgamescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Pro Helvetia provided mentorship program support through Swissgames Showcase, connecting Digital Kingdom with industry mentor Jason Della Rocca. Program helps Swiss game studios with commercial aspects, pitch presentation, and international industry connections.
• Swiss Made Game LeagueminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2020Partnership for showcasing Swordship at Herofest event during Swiss Made Game League evening featuring pro-players and Swiss indie games.
• Numerik Games FestivalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Festival facilitated partnership between Digital Kingdom and Croix-Rouge Vaudoise for Let's Help Together game development. Festival encourages creator-organization collaborations.
• Jason Della RoccaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Industry mentor assigned through Swissgames Showcase program to coach Digital Kingdom on commercial and marketing aspects of Swordship.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• KO_OP: Montreal micro-studio behind GNOG and goodbye volcano high, working on both indie titles and commissioned creative work. Comparable size and dual indie-plus-client business model.
• Playdead: Danish studio behind Limbo and Inside with a similar small elite-team profile publishing on PC and consoles. Comparable on scale, multi-platform indie publishing, and award-driven reputation built over years.
• Amanita Design: Czech indie studio behind Machinarium and Botanicula, similarly small and artist-driven, publishing distinctive games across PC and console. Direct comparable on indie title style, team scale, and craft-driven publishing approach.
• Cardboard Computer: Small narrative-focused indie studio (Kentucky Route Zero) publishing across PC and consoles. Comparable on team size, narrative/storytelling craft, and indie multi-platform release strategy.
• Preloaded: UK-based studio building serious games, VR/AR experiences and educational games for institutions and broadcasters. Strongest direct parallel for Digital Kingdom's services side (custom serious games for museums, government, education).
• Innersloth: Tiny indie studio behind Among Us, illustrating how a very small team can scale a single hit into a multi-platform global release. Comparable in team size and indie publishing on Steam and consoles.
• Two Lives Left: Small indie studio with mobile games and VR/AR experiments, focused on tactile and stylus-driven interfaces. Comparable in micro-studio scale and appetite for AR/AR experimentation outside the blockbuster tier.
• Mountains: Small indie game studio behind Florence, publishing through a major external partner (Annapurna Interactive). Comparable to Digital Kingdom in size, single-feature focus, and reliance on a single flagship game plus external publishing.

Broad incumbents

• Niantic: Large mobile AR platform operator (Pokémon GO, Ingress) with serious AR tooling for education and tourism. Comparable AR/VR capability focus but vastly larger scale and platform-driven rather than bespoke-studio model.

Others

• Thunderful Games: Publisher (formerly Headup) that publishes and distributes Swordship and a wide indie catalogue across PC and consoles. Most relevant ecosystem participant — partner, not competitor — that signals distribution reach.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/dkingdomCH

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Digital Kingdom