Misery Guts
Heavy Grit Ltd is a Glasgow‑based early‑stage studio, with a long term goal of creating meaningful employment for underrepresented and disabled creatives. We want to show what small, diverse teams can achieve in the games industry. Our team brings together illustrators, animators, composers and industry specialists to create authentic, human‑made narrative games.
We have a wealth of experience in social enterprise, community building and creative problem‑solving, and we’re exploring how human‑centred storytelling can strengthen the marketability of narrative games in a competitive commercial landscape.
The Starter Fund offers us the chance to refine our prototype, establish sustainable workflows and demonstrate the commercial potential of our studio.
Key features
- Misery Guts is a Scottish, hand drawn, dark comedy point & click adventure game, where we follow Sloan, an eccentric and somewhat dysfunctional 20-something, as she stumbles towards an uncertain future.
- Players explore core themes of bio capitalism and humanity vs. technology thorough hand illustrated environments, solving narrative‑driven puzzles and uncovering a twisting story steeped in self‑deprecating Scottish humour. Initially designed for PC & Mac, the game blends traditional point & click mechanics with modern accessibility features. We will integrate dynamic subtitling and accessible interaction design.
- Misery Guts is created entirely by humans, with a focus on hyper-authenticity and collaborative storytelling. The game is aimed at fiercely loyal fans of point & click adventure games and players seeking character‑driven Scottish games with humour and social commentary.
Quote
We’re thrilled to have been accepted for the Starter Fund. We applied because we needed help in taking the bare bones of our idea and turning it into something that shows commercial potential, and this opportunity is pivotal in helping us reach the next stage.
For us, the Starter Fund isn’t just about making a game. It’s about building a collaborative, accessible studio culture where our team can thrive, contribute meaningfully and see a future for themselves in the industry. This support will help us grow as a small, diverse team and will give us the resources needed demonstrate the wider impact that inclusive, values‑led development can have on the games sector.
It allows us to establish a way of working that shows how studios can meaningfully support under-represented and under-supported creatives, and why that matters for the future of the games industry.