BudAI Labs makes games that take empathy seriously. Part studio, part applied research practice: we prototype, we measure, and we publish what we learn along the way.
Now building
Research · Unity
An open world adventure for neurodiverse children, built around a fox companion that earns your trust rather than demands it. Athena is both a game and a study of how understanding grows between different kinds of minds.
In development, pilot in preparation
Join the closed alpha waitlistUnannounced · Unreal Engine
A narrative game we are not ready to talk about yet. What we can say: it is systems driven, it is premium, and it is being built with the same question in mind. More when it is ready.
In development
The practice
Building to understand means showing the work, not just the trailer. The studio publishes its thinking and releases its tools.
Essays on user generated content, production craft, and how games actually get made.
A free planning tool for game teams, available as a Claude Code plugin.
claude plugin add sunifyre/production-canvasAdvisory & production
We bring the same discipline we use in R&D—prototype, measure, and learn—to help partner teams see what is in the way and ship what matters.
€1,500 · One week · Fixed price
€1,500 · One week · Fixed price
About
Our founding team brings 20+ years of production and product leadership across Electronic Arts, PopCap, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and The LEGO Group. We have shipped live events on Roblox and built a creation tool in UEFN in partnership with Epic Games.
Budai is the laughing monk with the cloth sack: he travels light, gives freely, and always finds the joke. The AI sitting in the middle of his name is not an accident. That is the studio we are trying to be.
Contact
Researchers, publishers, studios, and the simply curious: we would love to hear from you.
hello@budailabs.com