METATHEORY sold characters in a game world before it had finished building that world. Then its founder learned a brutal little truth about rewards: people may chase them without loving the game.

A $10-an-hour support job opened the door. Two acquired startups and one creator platform later, Frederic Descamps is still betting that the interesting part of a game begins when players get their hands on it.
The Toronto studio found its edge in public, stumbled when it wandered from it, and rebuilt around a simple idea: make combat worth talking about, then let the players show you what to fix.