A few weeks back I reached out to RetroStyle Games, the Ukraine-based indie studio behind their first full release, Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival. I had first stumbled across the game (back when it was still called Codename: Ocean Keeper) during a Steam sale, and as someone obsessed with anything ocean-themed—books (The Deep), films (Leviathan), and of course games—I knew I had to dive in.
In this (what technically is, but I shudder to call: 'exclusive') interview, I got to speak with Diana, RetroStyle’s content manager, who shares insights into the creative inspirations, development process, and community-driven evolution of Ocean Keeper. From how the team mixed influences ranging from cult sci-fi films to classic roguelikes, to their approach to building player relationships through Discord and Reddit, Diana offers a candid look at what it takes to bring a complex indie game from concept to launch and beyond.
I do hope you enjoy this one!
The Background:
To start with, introduce us to the team behind Ocean Keeper!
Hi! We’re RetroStyle Games, a small but passionate team based in Kyiv, Ukraine. We all absolutely love everything related to games. While the company was originally founded back in 2010 and has been working as an outsourcing studio ever since (you might’ve even seen our work in titles by Ubisoft, King, Sega and other).
But recently we’ve taken the exciting leap into making our own full-scale games.
Inside our company we’ve launched a full-on gamedev department with a super young and energetic crew: everyone here is around 25 years old. The core team behind Ocean Keeper includes a few developers, QA testers, one game designer and a humble little marketing team.
Answering your questions today is Diana, content manager at RetroStyle Games with a lot of help from our devs and game designer.
What inspired Ocean Keeper?
We’re big fans of games like Dome Keeper and Vampire Survivors for their loop, pacing, and satisfying power scaling. The thrill of diving deep and uncovering long-lost secrets has always pulled us in so yeah Subnautica definitely left its mark too.
Also StarCraft had a huge influence! Not just as a design reference but as a game that shaped many of us growing up. It’s a childhood favorite for several team members. In Ocean Keeper you’ll definitely catch echoes of that in how enemies are designed. Silhouettes and animations are key. We wanted each creature even as a shadow in the deep to feel instantly threatening.
Our whole team loves roguelikes and replayability was a big focus from day one.
And the underwater setting itself? It felt like such a rare space in games. It’s unpredictable and perfect for building tension. Plus it opens up tons of fun mechanics.
Any non-gaming influences?
Oh yeah a ton. What’s cool is that everyone on the team brought different tastes and ideas to the table. During brainstorms you’d hear everything from Pacific Rim and Edge of Tomorrow to War of the Worlds (both the movie and the book), Evangelion, The Iron Giant. That mix of references helped shape everything.
Our moodboards also had plenty of refs to Peni Parker’s mech from Spider-Verse when we were designing our mech and EVE from WALL-E when we were shaping the emotional bond between the mech and the Digger.
How much did the game change during development?
A lot honestly. Early on it was more generic, but we gradually leaned harder into the underwater vibe and added subtle "easter eggs" to real-world landmarks. You’ll see sunken historical locations which helps the world feel full of mystery even before we added a full narrative.
(an old build of the game, with a more 'rusty' mech type)
The mech also changed a bunch. It started as one rusty old machine but eventually grew into three distinct mech types that reflect your level of progress in the game.
(The mech builds soon got more detailed and more expansive)
On inspiration in general:
We believe the best ideas come from mixing things up. Art, movies, books, memes etc. Ocean Keeper has a serious tone but there’s warmth and a bit of soul underneath. That contrast is something we kept stick to the whole way through.
The indie gaming scene is thriving like never before. In recent years, we’ve seen growing frustration with big-budget AAA titles, while smaller studios (often working with just a fraction of the resources) have delivered some of the most creative and compelling experiences around. What led you to self-publish rather than partner with a publisher or turn to crowdfunding options like Kickstarter?
Honestly because we wanted to see what we’re capable of. It was a challenge we gave ourselves to grow not just as individuals but as a studio. Sure it’s hard but we knew what we signed for. Going all in on our own game from idea to release felt like the next step if we really want to grow as a team and as a company.
How early did you start promoting the game, and what was that process like? Especially when trying to build interest and visibility ahead of launch?
Marketing didn’t come easy at first if we’re being honest. It was all pretty new for us so the early steps were a bit messy.
Things really picked up around the beta launch, that’s when we started making real noise. Steam Next Fest helped a ton too it’s a crazy powerful event for visibility if you come in prepared.
Right after the beta we started reaching out to influencers, basically anyone we could find. We knocked on every door not knowing if anyone would answer. Sometimes they did sometimes they didn’t but we kept going.
Another big moment for us was the livestream we ran on Steam. It was just our own team playing the game and chatting with the audience live on Steam. And that worked — people connected with us and the game on a real level.
(Screenshot of that livestream held on Steam by the team)
We’re putting a lot of effort into organic reach and trying to catch every opportunity that comes our way. It’s scrappy but it’s real.
As a small team, which marketing platforms ended up making the biggest impact: Reddit, Discord, dev blogs, Steam forums...or somewhere else?
Discord and Reddit definitely made the biggest impact for us, mostly through open communication and creating spaces where players felt heard. During the beta testing phase of Ocean Keeper, our Discord server was buzzing with daily conversations between players and developers. That early interaction helped shape the game and also created a strong sense of community. Many of those players are still there, chatting and joking around, not about bugs anymore, but just because they’ve genuinely connected, even with some of our team members.
Another major moment was an AMA we recently hosted on the r/NintendoSwitch subreddit. It brought a huge spike of attention to the game, with lots of thoughtful questions and feedback. We think this kind of genuine engagement is what makes people want to spread the word. Screenshots and trailers are great, but conversations build loyalty.
(Their AMA!)
Were there any lessons (or surprises) you’d like shared, in trying to break through the noise of so many other indie releases?
One big lesson for us was understanding how different the marketing approach needs to be between our outsourcing services and our own game projects. With outsourcing, it’s about clarity, structure, and client trust. But in game dev, you’re building emotional connections, with your audience, your world, and your team’s personality.
What helped us stand out wasn’t just the game concept (although underwater mechs are definitely rare), but finding the right way to position it and build a niche. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, we focused on players who specifically love roguelikes, underwater themes, and mechs. That gave us a clear voice and message.
And most importantly, we learned the value of community. Not just as a one-time campaign, but as a long-term commitment. Real conversations, real care, those things cut through the noise better than any paid ad ever could.
The Development Process:
Let’s talk a bit about the development process itself. Ocean Keeper is a game that clearly underwent a lot of iteration, from early access to full release across multiple platforms. What did development look like day-to-day?
It felt like one long never-ending brainstorm honestly. The whole process was super feedback-driven especially as we got closer to release.
Pre-launch was basically the feedback era. You test a version, collect thoughts from the team, patch it up, rinse and repeat. First it was all internal suggestions from our devs and designers but once we launched the open beta the feedback floodgates really opened.
Bug reports, improvement ideas - it all poured in and honestly helped us a lot. One cool story from that phase is how we found our QA Sophia. She was one of the beta players and her bug reports were so detailed and sharp, we just had to reach out. We invited her to an interview and now she’s been with us for over a year.
So yeah, lots of back and forth testing rebuilding tweaking again.
The procedural generation element plays a big part in replayability for me. How did you go about designing levels that still feel purposeful and satisfying within that randomness?
First thing - procedural generation in Ocean Keeper only applies to the caves. The surface map stays the same.
For us replayability isn’t just about random levels. It’s about how each run feels. So we focused on balancing action with a more meditative flow. The game splits into two main rhythms - blasting fish with big guns and then mining peacefully. That contrast is super important to the vibe we wanted to achieve.
The caves are few, but important, and we didn’t want them to get stale. So procedural generation made perfect sense there. It keeps things fresh. You never know exactly what layout or surprises you’ll get which helps a lot with keeping each run interesting.
Replayability also comes from the upgrade system. The map may be small but every run gives you different weapons, different paths to power and different combinations. That completely changes how the gameplay feels.
We also sprinkled in some puzzles and little narrative beats that act like twists during the digging phase.
And we kind of “cheated” a bit, because our studio has years of experience in level and system design from outsourcing projects. So we took that know-how and put it straight into our own game.
Were there any features that had to be cut or postponed because of time or resource constraints? If so, are they still on the roadmap? And any sneak peeks at what they might be?
There are plenty of examples. When you start a project you’re full of ideas and ambition and then reality hits, at some point you gotta actually put it all together into one working game. And, unless you want to spend the next ten years in dev hell, some things just have to go.
We originally planned more weapon types and chip mods for them. There were ideas for adding variety to the Digger’s tools, more destruction on the surface, more interactivity in the world.
Narrative was also something we had to delay, for almost a year the game had zero story. We only added it right before release.
At one point we were even planning to have different biomes inside the caves but that turned out to be way too much for the timeline.
Still we managed to sneak in a lot of those ideas just in a simpler more “budget-friendly” way. And that honestly helped both the game and our team grow. It forced us to test systems faster and be more creative with what we had. Some of that stuff is still on the wishlist though. So who knows, maybe in an update.
Looking back now, what was the hardest system or mechanic to get right, and what finally made it click?
The hardest part wasn’t a single mechanic, it was getting all of them to work together as one system. Each individual feature was challenging in its own way, sure, but the real headache was syncing it all up so nothing broke the game.
You’ve got combat, mining, upgrades, puzzles, the mech systems, enemies events — and they all need to feel like one game, not just a pile of features.
What finally made it work? Just persistence really.
Platform Support/Launch:
Ocean Keeper didn’t just launch on Steam; there was Steam Deck support out of the gate, a mobile release not long after, and a full PlayStation 5 version too. That’s a huge feat for an indie team.
How did you decide which platforms to prioritize, and what did your release timeline look like behind the scenes?
Right now Ocean Keeper is available pretty much everywhere: Steam, Steam Deck, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, even Linux and macOS.
From the start we really wanted the game to be accessible on all major platforms. That was both a big goal and a challenge for us. Kind of like expanding our territory of possibilities if you will.
We paid special attention to portable consoles and especially mobile gaming. We already had experience with our mobile games like Last Pirate (10M+ downloads), Zombie Run (1M+ downloads), and more. So bringing a full-scale game to mobile felt like a top priority.
The release pipeline went roughly like this: mobile platforms first, then PlayStation, followed by Xbox and finally Nintendo Switch. Of course, real-world workflow isn’t always that linear, console porting comes with its own quirks, certification steps, build approvals. Sometimes you’re juggling multiple platforms at once just to keep things moving. But that’s the norm in multi-platform development.
This kind of strategic and time management played a major role in helping us bring Ocean Keeper to major consoles in under six months!
Steam Deck support was available right from launch (which is lovely to see), was that a focus early in development, or something that came together late in the process?
It was kind of part accident, part intention. Making a build for Steam Deck isn’t too complicated. You can actually submit your regular PC version and Steam will test it and assign a compatibility rating.
Ocean Keeper got the “Playable” status at launch which means it runs fine but still has a few things to polish. We’re still working on improving that and aiming for the full “Verified” badge.
So while we didn’t build the game just for Steam Deck from day one we always had it in mind. We’re big fans of handhelds in general so making sure the game feels good on Deck was important to us.
(writer's note - since this interview, Ocean Keeper has been verified!)
What were some of the biggest challenges with console or mobile development: UI adaptation, optimization, certification, or something else?
Porting to consoles can definitely feel like opening Pandora’s box. It’s a cycle of endless checks, re-checks, optimizations, approvals, rejections, and trying again. But honestly, we feel things went pretty smoothly for us overall. Each platform’s support team was helpful throughout the process, which made a big difference.
The biggest time sink, though, has been mobile development. The sheer variety of devices and system versions makes porting much more complex. We’re aiming to make the game run well on as many phones as possible, which means finding the right balance between visual compression (without losing the game’s look and feel) and adapting gameplay for touch controls.
It’s a multi-layered challenge, but one we’re actively working through, because we want the game to be accessible on every platform possible.
Do you approach performance and controls differently on each platform? And how important is parity across PC and console experiences?
Yeah the porting approach was different for each platform. Everything had to be tweaked: from controls and UI to how we ran playtests.
Adapting performance settings from PC to Xbox and PlayStation was fairly smooth. But Switch and mobile versions were a lot more challenging. On portable platforms the key is to find that sweet spot where you’re not cutting core gameplay just to make things run.
Parity was super important to us. We wanted the experience to feel unified no matter where you play. So sometimes that meant sacrificing a bit of visual fidelity or texture quality or model complexity just to make sure the gameplay stayed consistent.
Another thing we kept in mind was game size. Especially for mobile. We didn’t want players waiting forever just to download the game. So we did a lot of optimization there to keep it light without losing the feel of the full experience.
Community Feedback & Post-Launch:
What was the most common player feedback post-launch?
Aside from the usual bug reports, gameplay feedback, and requests to tweak the balance a little (yes, we admit the game can make you sweat a bit xD), we’ve also received some incredibly heartwarming messages.
One of our favorite stories comes from a father and son who both play Ocean Keeper on Nintendo Switch and are huge fans of the game. They’ve been actively following development, regularly sending feedback, reporting bugs, and cheering us on. The father often shares how much his son loves the game and keeps asking how things are going on our side. Every time we hear from them, the whole team sends a big hello back to his son, it’s become a bit of a tradition now! ^^
It's moments like these that remind us why we make games.
How has the game changed since release based on community input?
Feedback is a core part of Ocean Keeper from the very beginning. Ever since we launched the beta and brought in our first wave of external testers the conversations never stopped. Our Discord has been buzzing daily with ideas, bug reports and suggestions.
At one point our CEO literally asked the team to make a top list of player-submitted bugs and feature requests and many of those ended up in the game. That kind of direct connection with the community shaped a lot of what Ocean Keeper became.
(credits to the Beta-Testers in the game's credits)
We’re super grateful to everyone who’s contributed. That’s why the most active beta testers are credited in the game. And when we hit our Early Access launch we even invited some of them to our office to celebrate with the team.
Do you find it hard to balance your own creative vision with community suggestions?
It all comes down to critical thinking really. If a community idea is great and it fits the game - we’ll find a way to make it happen.
Of course not everything can go in. We’ve got deadlines and a limited team size so we have to be selective. Sometimes we have to say no not because the idea’s bad but because the timing or scope just doesn’t line up.
Could you share an update or feature that exists only because of player feedback?
Honestly a huge part of how the game looks and feels now is thanks to player feedback.
The underwater vibe especially got a major upgrade after the beta. Players kept saying the game didn’t feel “underwater” enough and they were right. So we added reflections, water caustics, floating corpses of defeated enemies, subtle fog, particles. All those little touches came straight from community suggestions.
A lot of small ideas from players ended up becoming core parts of the atmosphere.
*Are there new biomes, enemies, or mechanics you’re excited to add?
Since the 1.0 release on PC we’ve already dropped update 1.0.3 with a bunch of new upgrades, rebalancing, and optimization tweaks.
Right now we’re working on getting that same update rolled out to all consoles.
We’re definitely continuing to support the project and we know it still has room to grow. There are plenty of things we’re excited to explore next, but we’ll let the updates speak for themselves when the time comes.
Finally:
What games have you been playing lately - indie or otherwise?
Everyone on our team has different tastes when it comes to games. Personally, lately I really enjoy spending time playing with friends, and recently we’ve been playing a lot of DayZ and PEAK (we just love WALKING in games :D).
As for indie games, one that really caught my attention since launch, both for its storytelling and its incredibly unique visual style - is ENA: Dream BBQ. The game touched me deeply with its originality and the way it creates such a vivid interaction with the player.
*Do any of you feel the ‘burn out’ from developing your own game? Most developers I chat to end up having such little time to play games yourself, or even much desire to, when the day-to-day is spent maintaining your own project. Is that the case here, too?
As a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine, I can say that dealing with burnout is something we have to manage very carefully. Especially when our country is at war. Day after day, with air raid sirens, sad news, and explosions, it deeply affects both the company as a whole and each person individually. Everyone worries about themselves and their loved ones.
In these circumstances, you start seeing life and your free time in a completely different way. It makes you realize it’s better to do something now because you never know what might happen next. This applies to everything: from spending time with loved ones to even finding the desire to play a new game.
So yes, burnout is a challenge, but it also brings a new perspective and determination to make the most of every moment. And the support within our team helps us keep going.
If you weren’t working on Ocean Keeper right now, what kind of game do you think you’d be making instead? And, what would you love to make next?
We’re definitely not done with Ocean Keeper just yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re not working on new things too! Here’s a little exclusive: right now we’re actively preparing the beta launch of a co-op version of Ocean Keeper, which we plan to release in late summer or early fall.
Funny enough, we already had the idea for co-op back when we were working on version 1.0 and now it’s finally becoming its own standalone project! We're aiming for an even better launch this time, learning from our stumbles and building on everything we learned from the original game.
We’ll be sharing more details on our social media soon, especially in our Discord, where we’ll likely be recruiting beta testers from the community. So stay tuned! :3
Where can the community find you, if they want to know more, or join in?
Whether you want to follow updates, join the conversation, or just hang out: we’d love to see you around:
And of course, the Steam page!
A big thank you to Diana and the entire RetroStyle Games team for taking the time to share such thoughtful and detailed answers. It’s clear how much passion and care went into creating Ocean Keeper: Dome Survival, and that dedication truly shines through in the game itself. I’ve really enjoyed diving into its world and can’t wait to see how the game (and the team behind it) continue to grow.
I’ve always been a fan of 80s and 90s underwater movies like Sphere, The Abyss, Leviathan, and Deep Star Six. As an avid SCUBA diver, I’m constantly on the lookout for more deep ocean video games to explore. Ocean Keeper was an impulse buy in its early days, and I’m so glad I took the plunge. Maybe you’ll enjoy it too!
Thank you!!!
I'm really glad you found it interesting :)