Dragonis Games

Dragonis Games: One Artist in 2019, PS5 and Xbox in 2026

In early 2019 Ares Dragonis started building an island in Unreal Engine, mostly to learn the engine. He worked alone for eleven months. Seven years later the studio he founded, Dragonis Games, had four games out, two console publishers, and a PlayStation 5 disc carrying two of its titles. This is the timeline, year by year, using only dates that can be checked.

2019: one person, one island

The island became The Shore, a first-person Lovecraftian horror game about Andrew, a fisherman searching for his missing daughter. Ares did the direction, design, creatures and environments himself. After eleven months, programmer Adonis Brosteanu and composer Thanos Zampoukas joined. Brosteanu built the game systems in Unreal Engine 4. Zampoukas wrote the score, and Brandon Fague gave Andrew his voice.

2020: a demo, 162 backers and an Epic MegaGrant

The free demo of The Shore came out in July 2020 on Steam and itch.io. In August a Ulule campaign asked for 4,000 euros to fund the story mode. It closed on 27 August with 4,855 euros from 162 backers, 121% of the goal. Epic Games also backed the project with an Epic MegaGrant, listed in Epic’s 2021 MegaGrants update under “Ares Dragonis – The Shore”, Greece.

2021: The Shore launches

The Shore released on Steam for Windows on 19 February 2021. A performance patch followed three days later, and the game reached GOG on 27 October. On Steam it sits at Mostly Positive, 72% of more than 2,000 reviews.

2022: The Shore VR

The second release was a new chapter set after the events of The Shore, built for SteamVR headsets and tracked controllers and played standing. The Shore VR opened on Steam in Early Access in early 2022. The same year the original game was marked Steam Deck playable, and an anniversary update expanded its underwater area.

2023: Eresys and the first award

Eresys is the studio’s only multiplayer game: co-op horror for up to four players, cast as cultists who must seal a Void Portal on an island. Brosteanu led the programming. It entered Early Access on Steam on 20 April 2023, took a day-one patch the next day, and reached its full release on 18 December 2023 with version 0.8, which added the Innsmouth map.

The same year brought two Greek awards. The Shore’s launch campaign won Best Marketing of the Year at HEGA, the Hellenic Game Awards, and readers of Gameworld.gr voted The Shore their Best Game of the Year in the site’s Community Award.

2024: a demo for something stranger

On 10 May 2024 a free demo of Necrophosis went up on Steam. The Eresys Early Access campaign took HEGA’s Best Marketing of the Year, the studio’s second in a row.

2025: Necrophosis

Necrophosis launched on Steam on 25 April 2025, developed by Ares Dragonis and Adonis Brosteanu. It moved the studio from the sea to a desert of bone and rust, with the paintings of Zdzislaw Beksinski as its main reference and H. R. Giger and Lovecraft behind them. It has no weapons, only exploration and puzzles. It is the studio’s best-reviewed game on Steam: Very Positive, 89% of 953 reviews on 22 October 2026.

2026: two publishers, two consoles, one disc

Most of the studio’s console history happened inside four months.

  • 2 March: the Subconsciousness chapter for Necrophosis is announced with a trailer, and Iphigames confirms on Xbox Wire that The Shore: Enhanced Edition will come to Xbox Series X|S in 2026.
  • 3 March: Necrophosis: Full Consciousness is announced for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
  • 30 April: The Shore: Enhanced Edition releases on PlayStation 5, published by Iphigames.
  • 28 May: PQube releases Necrophosis: Full Consciousness on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with the base game and Subconsciousness in one package. A physical PS5 edition on the same day also includes The Shore: Enhanced Edition. On Steam, the Subconsciousness DLC and the 110-page Necrophosis Digital Artbook go on sale.
  • 9 July: the studio publishes the official launch event video for Full Consciousness.

The Shore: Enhanced Edition is still due on Xbox Series X|S later in 2026, without a date at the time of writing.

The awards, in full

  • Epic MegaGrant, Epic Games, 2020: development grant for The Shore.
  • Best Marketing of the Year, HEGA, 2023: The Shore launch campaign.
  • Best Game of the Year, Gameworld.gr, 2023: The Shore, Community Award voted by readers.
  • Best Marketing of the Year, HEGA, 2024: the Eresys Early Access campaign.
  • Best Marketing of the Year, HEGA, 2026: the Necrophosis console launch campaign.
  • Best Game of the Year, Gameworld.gr, 2026: Necrophosis.
  • IndiePump Top Choice Award, IndiePump.space, September 2026: The Shore, indie game of the month by public vote.

Who makes the games

The core is still small. Ares Dragonis directs and makes the art, and was credited as the solo artist on the Necrophosis artbook. Adonis Brosteanu has programmed every game since The Shore. Thanos Zampoukas and Brandon Fague worked on The Shore as composer and voice actor. Marketing runs through IndiePump, with Alexander Gorbenko. On console, Iphigames publishes The Shore and PQube publishes Necrophosis.

Seven years after one person opened Unreal Engine to learn it, the island he built is on a PS5 disc next to the studio’s newest game.

The people, partners and awards are on the About page. Every game, with platforms and store links, starts from Necrophosis, The Shore, Eresys and The Shore VR.