Sickhead Games: History and Key Facts

Sickhead Games, LLC is an American independent video game developer based in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in October 2002 by Tom Spilman and Russell Fincher and specializes in porting, remastering, and co-developing games for consoles and PC, in addition to producing its own original titles. Titles the studio has ported or co-developed include Darkest Dungeon, Stardew Valley, Celeste, and Slay the Spire.

Sickhead's early work centered on the Torque engine before the studio shifted its focus to MonoGame, an open-source framework it has helped steward while also developing its own original games. It released its first original title, ARMED!, in 2013, and the following year began porting console versions of independently developed games, starting with TowerFall Ascension and Octodad: Dadliest Catch. Over the following decade, the studio ported dozens of independent titles to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile platforms, while also producing HD remasters of older console and PC games such as Grandia and ExZeus.

Alongside its ports and remasters, Sickhead continues to release original and licensed titles, including Space Invaders Deck Commander (2024) and the Jaleco Sports Series (2025–present), a line of revived classic NES, SNES, and Famicom sports games developed with Jaleco.

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