What Tlön Industries does

Tlön Industries is a privately held video game development studio founded in 2019 and headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a team of 11-50 employees. The company focuses on building deep narrative experiences layered on top of system-oriented gameplay, with its debut title Per Aspera (released 2021) combining Mars terraforming base-building mechanics with interactive storytelling driven by an AI character named AMI. A second unannounced project is in active development.

Per Aspera is built on the Unity Engine and distributed globally as a one-time premium purchase through Steam, GOG, and Humble Bundle, with the studio also offering remote and hybrid roles across programming, design, art, and community. The go-to-market motion is product-led: the studio drives discovery and retention through an active community presence on Twitter, Discord, YouTube, Facebook, and Steam Community, supported by a dedicated community developer function and earned media from major gaming publications. The company has accumulated notable industry recognition, including a DICE Awards 2021 Best Simulation/Strategy Game nomination and multiple 2021 wins at the BIG Festival (Best Game Latin America, Best Game International, Best Gameplay) and EVA 2021 (Best Game, Best Design, Press Award).

Revenue mechanics are based on upfront digital game sales with no disclosed subscription, in-game purchase, or live-service monetization, and no funding rounds, institutional investors, or M&A activity have been disclosed. The studio is founder-led by Damian Hernaez (Director of Development) and Javier Otaegui (Game Director) and operates with a small, distributed team structure, with strategic intent to scale through a second title while maintaining the award-validated quality bar of its first release.

Name

Tlön Industries

Legal name

Tlön Industries Inc.

Website

https://tlon.vg

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Tlön Industries is a privately held Buenos Aires-based game development studio that builds narrative-driven strategy and simulation games, serving global PC gaming consumers through its debut title Per Aspera and a second unannounced project.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Buenos Aires

HQ country

Argentina

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Video Game Sales: One-time purchase model for video games distributed digitally through Steam, GOG, and Humble Bundle platforms. Players buy complete games upfront rather than subscribing or paying for in-game purchases.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Tlön Industries develops and publishes PC video games. Its debut title, Per Aspera, is a Mars terraforming simulation that lets players control an AI named AMI to transform the Red Planet through base-building mechanics combined with interactive storytelling. The studio is also working on an unannounced next project.

Product overview

Tlön Industries is a game development company focused on deep narrative experiences in dynamic system-oriented games. Their portfolio includes Per Aspera, a published Mars terraforming simulation game featuring an AI character (AMI), and an unannounced next project currently in development. The company is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and aims to create world-class games combining interactive storytelling with base-building mechanics.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Per Aspera Per Aspera is a Mars terraforming simulation game for PC players in which the player controls AMI, the world's most sophisticated AI, to transform the Red Planet into a habitable world through city/base-building and interactive storytelling mechanics.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature1 record

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Haemimont Games: Bulgarian developer of the Tropico series and Surviving Mars; Surviving Mars in particular is a near-category overlap as a city/planet-building simulation with strategic and narrative layers.
• 11 bit studios: Polish game developer of Frostpunk and This War of Mine, both blending systems-driven gameplay with strong narrative and ethical decision-making, conceptually the closest larger indie peer to Tlön's narrative-plus-simulation thesis.
• Klei Entertainment: Canadian developer of Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included, both of which combine base-building, systems survival, and strong narrative tone - closely aligned with Per Aspera's hybrid approach.
• Ndemic Creations: UK-based indie developer of Plague Inc., a small studio that turned a single strategy/simulation concept into a global hit franchise - a relevant analogue for a small team executing on a single strategy IP.
• Wube Software: Czech developer of Factorio, a small-team strategy/simulation studio that has sustained a long-running, critically adored systems game - a benchmark for what a focused, small indie strategy studio can achieve.
• Mohawk Games: Small studio behind Old World, a 4X strategy game that pairs systems gameplay with character-driven narrative - a near-direct match for Per Aspera's narrative-meets-simulation design intent.
• Proxy Studios: Developer of Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - small-team turn-based strategy studio on a similar indie size and systems-driven strategy positioning.

Regional players

• Nimble Giant Entertainment: Argentine game studio (Buenos Aires) behind Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars and Conan Unconquered - a direct regional peer operating from the same city and ecosystem, making it a useful talent and market comparable.
• Ironhide Game Studio: Uruguayan indie developer of the Kingdom Rush series - a Latin American small-team studio that scaled a single Unity-based IP into a global franchise, comparable on regional origin and indie Unity stack.

Broad incumbents

• Paradox Development Studio: Swedish developer of Stellaris, Europa Universalis, and Cities: Skylines - the dominant grand-strategy/simulation incumbent that defines the competitive ceiling for studios like Tlön.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/tlonindustries

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 Tlön Industries