// Development studio
A small studio that researches before it builds.
Retro Scape is a New Zealand development studio working with teams worldwide. We do the research, design around what it tells us, and ship products that keep working long after the launch post.
What we do
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Usability Engineering
Research what people need.
Scientific research, user studies and usability testing to uncover what actually works.
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Human-Centred Design
Turn insight into intuitive products.
Design around real people, real contexts and meaningful experiences.
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Product Development
Build engaging, secure, reliable products.
From prototype to production-ready digital products across web and mobile.
Projects
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Retro Pals Live
A companion app for keeping small groups of friends actually in touch.
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Fruit Hunt Coming soon
A bright, tactile mobile game about foraging — built for short sessions.
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Spectrum Coming soon
An explorative survival game made with Unity.
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Unlicensed Wizardry Coming soon
A game made for Reddit, built on Devvit.
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Your project Open
If you think your project is a good fit for our process and our team, let's talk.
People
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Logan
Usability Engineering, MSc
Eleven years building usable products as a usability engineer.
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Ana
User Researcher
Runs the interviews, diary studies and usability sessions that keep our assumptions honest.
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Devon
Database Architect
Designs the schemas and data paths, and decides what we deliberately never store.
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Marlow
Marketing & Comms
Turns the work into words, and keeps the claims we make matched to the thing we shipped.
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Louie
Chief of Walks
One year of experience. Ensures the team leaves the building at least twice a day.
How we work — with and without AI
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AI as an assistant, not an author
We work with AI to increase efficiency. Our team has skills across research, design and development, so we know the difference between a secure product and a product that looks nice but doesn't function or keep your users' data safe.
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Sensitive data, handled properly
We can build products that carry highly sensitive data with integrated AI that doesn't train models on user data — or even store it (zero data retention).
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Agile, and yours
You own the stuff. We build together, in biweekly sprints.
About
Retro Scape Ltd is a small team based in Auckland, New Zealand, serving products globally. We keep overheads low and the team close to the work, which is why the people who research your product are the people who design and build it.