This article originally ran in Back Alley Games Issue 11, January 2025

At M+DEV in November, the winner of the Best of Showcase Student Entry Award was SoulSync City, a project produced by Lost Water Studios. Indie City Games jam director Sebastian Galvez sat down with lead producer Kadin White and creative director Alexander Koeberl to talk about the development process and what’s next for the studio.

SoulSync City is a speedrun shooter based on intuitive vertical movement and fast-paced, high mobility FPS combat. Players control Mei, a rebel attempting to take down a rogue combat AI named MODULUS that has taken control of a stylish, cyberpunk-inspired city that serves as the game’s setting.

“You are a rebel on the run with a kinetic energy-storing pistol and three tools that amplify your movement and in turn boost your pistol,” Koeberl said of the gameplay and mechanics.

The game’s graphics feature neon heavily and are reminiscent of Neon White and Ghostrunner. However, the team’s influences are more varied, including games like ULTRAKILL and Dishonored, according to White and Koeberl.

Besides the prize the team won at M+DEV last year, they also showed their project at further-off venues, such as BostonFIG Online Expo.

Both Lost Water Studios and SoulSync City are the results of a Capstone class at Bradley University that the two were taking alongside the 27 other individuals who put work into the project. Before that class, the team had produced various other prototypes, a period of time White and Koeberl spoke fondly about.

White worked with a smaller number of students on his prototypes, recalling the exciting nature of working with such a tight-knit group. “It was a team of eight people, and it really felt like a small, indie studio. We would go to a friend on the team’s house who lived close to campus and just talk about the project,” he said.

Koeberl, however, produced a game called Chain of Traction that he hopes to finalize for Bradley Fuse, the university’s student showcase. “I really enjoyed working on that project with that team,” he said. “I think it has the potential to be retooled and made stronger.”

White and Koeberl met at Bradley, where they were both studying game design. Having both recently graduated, their paths appear to be deviating, but they would like to keep the studio together in some capacity.

“[Lost Water] started as something we created for the project, but we’d like to move forward with it at some point as an LLC,” Koeberl said.

White agreed but mentioned that finding a unified path forward is much harder when the team is so large, especially post-graduation.

As for their individual plans, Koeberl is pursuing a master’s degree with plans to graduate in December after completing his thesis. White is putting future projects on hold in order to focus entirely on a job search in the industry.

Future projects from Lost Water Studios may not be forthcoming, but when they do resurface, they will definitely be a studio to watch. SoulSync City can be found at the studio’s itch.io page.