
Raid-scale multiplayer netcode
Authoritative servers, interest management, and rollback tuned to hold 40+ synchronised players through a boss encounter without desync.

Game Development · Holborn, London
ShadowRaidForge.pro is a Holborn studio building netcode, boss AI, and full production pipelines for PC and console teams shipping ambitious multiplayer titles.
Where our code runs
Founder's note
I started ShadowRaidForge above a coffee roaster on Leather Lane after eleven years shipping raid content at larger studios.
We stay deliberately small — a senior-only team of gameplay, netcode, and tools engineers who each carry a feature end to end. No offshore rewrites, no mystery subcontractors. When you hire us you get the people who write the commit, sit through the playtest, and stay on the bug-bash the weekend before your certification submission. We take on four to five clients a year so nobody waits behind a queue.
Selected work
Prototypes, tools, and shipped features from recent client engagements.

Deterministic boss AI & phase sync

6-frame rollback for 1v1 duels

In-editor encounter scripting

Playable slice in 9 weeks
How we build
From the first grey-box prototype to the day-one patch, we own the hard systems so your team can focus on the game.

Authoritative servers, interest management, and rollback tuned to hold 40+ synchronised players through a boss encounter without desync.

Deterministic behaviour trees and phase logic your designers can retune in-editor without an engineer.

Editor extensions, build farms, and telemetry dashboards that shave hours off every iteration.
Frame-time budgets, memory profiling, and platform cert support for PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
Engagements
A playable, feel-right slice of your core loop — one level, one boss, real netcode — ready to show publishers.
8–10 weeks · from £48,000
We architect and ship your netcode, matchmaking, and server backend, then hand over documented, testable code.
3–6 months · from £14,000 / month
An embedded senior pod working inside your repo through alpha, beta, and certification.
6+ months · from £22,000 / month
A two-week deep dive into a stalled build with a prioritised fix plan and a live pairing week.
2 weeks · from £9,500
Questions
Search the questions studios and publishers ask us most.
We are engine-native in Unreal Engine 5 and Unity 6, and comfortable extending bespoke C++ engines. Most raid-scale netcode work lands in Unreal, while lighter co-op and mobile titles often stay in Unity. We'll recommend the right fit during the scoping call rather than pushing a house engine.
Always. We sign your NDA before the first technical call and all work-for-hire IP transfers to you on invoice payment. We're happy to work inside your source control, issue tracker, and security requirements. Unannounced projects never appear in our public gallery without written approval.
Our smallest engagement is the two-week Technical Rescue Audit at £9,500. Below that we'll usually point you to a solid freelancer instead, because a senior pod isn't cost-effective for a few days of work. If you're unsure, send us the brief and we'll tell you honestly.
Yes — our studio is on Leather Lane in Holborn and we can work on-site across central London for workshops, playtests, and cert crunch. For distributed teams we run fully remote with overlapping hours across UK and EU time zones. On-site days are billed at cost for travel only.
We hold active developer relationships with the major platform holders and build against certification requirements from day one, not as a last-minute scramble. We run pre-cert passes internally and stay on through submission to turn around any lot-check failures quickly.
After the scoping call we send a fixed-scope proposal within five working days. Once signed, we start with a one-week discovery sprint to set up the repo, CI, and a shared milestone board before any feature work begins. You get a Friday build and written update every week from then on.
Start a build
Send the brief and Marcus will reply within two working days. Prefer to talk? Call the studio directly.