Sickhead is a game porting studio and game development company in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2002, we specialize in game porting services and custom game development from concept to completion. With 75+ years of combined experience, our team is dedicated to crafting exceptional gaming experiences to bring to new audiences.
Work with our experienced studio staff to bring a brand new game idea to market or breathe life into an established franchise. We can prototype, produce, and develop a new game from scratch and within budget.
Our team has brought dozens of games to PCs, consoles, and mobile devices over the years. From decades-old classics to modern indie darlings. Work with the team that other porting studios come to for help.
Our talented and creative art team has worked on everything from AAA titles to indie blockbusters and knows how to work within your budget to create new content.
We quote every project individually.
Every game is built differently and has different needs. The biggest factors are your engine and codebase, what platforms you’re targeting, how much optimization is needed, and if you have online features like multiplayer or cross-play.
We’ll ask you a few questions and give you a quick ballpark estimate, and once we’ve reviewed your code, we’ll update that to a firm fixed price with a clear milestone schedule. No hourly billing and no open-ended costs.
We’ve worked with everyone from solo developers to AAA publishers, and we’re used to finding creative ways to fit different budgets, so don’t rule yourself out before we’ve talked.
Reach out with a few details about your game and we’ll get back to you with an initial estimate.
Every game is different, but most ports take 4 to 6 months of work. This includes the actual porting process, QA testing, platform certification, and release.
Complex games with extensive optimization needs or staggered multi-platform launches may require additional time, while simpler single-platform ports can sometimes be delivered more quickly.
We do recommend engaging us as early as possible as porting can factor into your game design decisions.
We first give you a ballpark estimate based on your needs, general game information, and desired target platforms.
If you choose to proceed we sign any required NDAs before our team reviews your codebase and content to identify platform-specific challenges and the scope of work. Based on our assessment, we provide a comprehensive proposal with a firm fixed price and a clear milestone schedule with specific deliverables.
Once we start you’ll receive regular updates and builds to review as we progress, ensuring the port meets your expectations at every stage. We will collaborate with your team for platform specific requirements like achievements, controller differences, storefront integrations, etc.
We handle basic QA testing along the way, and will work with your QA team to ensure stable release.
We handle platform certification requirements and will guide you through the launch.
Finally, we provide a period of post-launch support to address unforeseen issues and ensure a successful release.
We have a custom port of Godot with GDScript support to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
We’ve used it to ship a few titles so far, but we expect to do more in the future.
Our team is still working on getting C# support for Godot on consoles, but get in touch if you want to help further that effort.
Yes!
We are experts in porting legacy codebases, custom game engines, and uncommon game frameworks to modern platforms.
We have extensive experience with both legacy game engines and one-off custom engines written in various programming languages.
Our team has successfully ported classic games from PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2, SEGA Dreamcast, and Nintendo Wii, as well as classic 8-bit and 16-bit titles through emulation.
Yes!
We are currently among the few external porting studios that are working on Switch 2 titles.
We’re happy to help enhance your existing Switch titles for Switch 2 or develop new ports for you.
Most of the games we work on are developed by other studios and we do not have any keys to give away.
Please research the game you are curious about and inquire with the developer or publisher.
Sorry, we're not hiring at this time.
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Do you have more questions, want to partner with us on a new project, or just have a game to port? Fill out the form below and we'll get back to you promptly!