Overview
Thermite Games (Chinese legal name: Beijing Yunling Technology Co., Ltd.) is a video game publisher based in Beijing, China, founded in 2020. The company focuses on discovering and publishing indie games for a global audience. It served as the original publishing partner for The Bustling World after the game's Kickstarter campaign was cancelled in January 2024.
Thermite Games offers developers a range of publishing services including funding, localization, porting, quality assurance, marketing, public relations, and community management.
Leadership and Team
The company's leadership team consists of Sean (founder and CEO), Jay (co-founder and COO), Dirac (CMO), and Siki (Creative Director). Even with its modest size, the company has built a catalog of over a dozen published titles spanning multiple genres from roguelikes to life simulators.
Relationship with the Bustling World
Thermite Games partnered with FireWo Games to publish The Bustling World after the game's Kickstarter campaign was pulled. FireWo Games was founded by a young Chinese couple who began the project in 2019 and incorporated in Chengdu in January 2024. That team numbered 25 by August 2024 and around 50 by early 2026. The Kickstarter had raised $10,634 from 231 backers toward an $80,000 goal before being cancelled on January 3, 2024. The team decided to restructure backer rewards and pursue a traditional publishing partnership instead.
The game accumulated over 150,000 Steam wishlists within three weeks of its store page going live, with over 60% of wishlists coming from outside China.
By early 2025 Lightning Games had appeared as the publisher on the game's store page, and it remains the sole publisher named there. Both companies have been associated with the title at different points during its development, so older articles and database entries still carry the earlier attribution. The store listing is the current one.