Over the past 12 years, Polish studio One More Level has carved out a niche in the world of AA games with projects whose production values often approach those of AAA titles. Its eye-catching 2020 cyberpunk action platformer Ghostrunner launched to critical acclaim and commercial success, selling 5.6 million units according to Video Game Insights estimates, and it was followed by a sequel in 2023.

Yet it's no secret that the AA sector is struggling. Over the past few years, investment has dried up at the same time as competition has increased, so smaller publishers have tended to prefer betting on games with smaller budgets of $1 million or less, while the big players have gone all in on evergreen titles. Despite the monumental sales of AA games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, getting funding for a mid-tier title remains an uphill struggle.

Radosław Ratusznik | Image credit: One More Level

"We had this enormous success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but still publishers find the AA segment quite risky," One More Level game director Radek Ratusznik tells GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom.

"We probably need a few more Expedition 33s to just prove them wrong. Maybe one Expedition is not enough. There are also so many companies who can deliver very good titles in the AA scope and budget, not just spending hundreds of millions.

"I think that with the technology that we have right now, we can make [better-quality games] a bit faster, maybe a bit cheaper, but still it's not like we can make the game in one year without any trouble. The game still needs proper time to be published and properly tested. I doubt that we can squeeze it that much, as probably some of the publishers would like to."

Funding quest

One More Level has been on a roller-coaster ride in terms of finding a publisher for its latest game, Valor Mortis, due out on October 13.

Ghostrunner and its sequel were published by the Italian firm 505 Games – a subsidiary of Digital Bros, which announced it would cut its workforce by 30% in late 2023 as part of restructuring. But for Valor Mortis, One More Level initially signed up with the indie label Private Division, only for parent Take-Two to begin scaling back the publisher in 2024, with Take-Two head Strauss Zelnick saying that the firm wanted to focus on AAA: "We're in the business of making great big hits."

Valor Mortis was originally set to be published by Private Division | Image credit: One More Level/Lyrical Games

(Private Division's catalogue was sold and the company reemerged as Fictions in 2025; the publisher is behind the recently released Beast of Reincarnation from Pokémon studio Game Freak.)

Ratusznik says One More Level was considering self-publishing Valor Mortis after the Private Division deal fell through. "But it turns out that if we want to make this game at the same quality level that we wish it for, then we had to find a publisher."

A saviour appeared in the form of Lyrical Games, which like Annapurna Interactive is a game-publishing spin-off from a film company: parent Lyrical Media is behind the Hugh Jackman movie The Death of Robin Hood. Lyrical Games was formed in 2025 by former Private Division heads Blake Rochkind and Roger Kurtz, and is one of relatively few publishers focusing on mid-tier titles.

The publisher of Valor Mortis is a spin-off from the film company Lyrical Media | Image credit: One More Level/Lyrical Games

"The number of people who are like, 'Oh my god, you guys are like an oasis in the desert' is really gratifying and obviously scary, because, of course, we can only do so much," Rochkind told GamesIndustry.biz last year. He gave Clair Obscur as a prime example of the kind of title the publisher is looking for. "If we have one of those in our life as a label, that would be a dream."

The timing couldn't have been better for One More Level. "We were fortunate that Blake and Roger remembered us," says Ratusznik. "They knew the project very well."

Staying the course

One More Level had around 40–50 staff when the studio was seeking funding for Valor Mortis. Ratusznik says they resisted the urge to cut staff at a point even when the future looked uncertain.

"Fortunately, we had our own savings from back in the day, so we were able to just live through the time and not cut the team, which was not easy," Ratusznik says. "We did this kind of leap of faith that we're going to find the funding for the game. And the team is worth it – because it's very hard to build a proper team for a game, and it's very easy to destroy it."

One More Level didn't cut staff after losing its publisher | Image credit: One More Level/Lyrical Games

Now, as the game approaches release, the company has grown to more than 70 people, although not all of them are working on Valor Mortis – some are working on another, unannounced project.

Many mid-tier or AA companies rely on external development for their more ambitious projects; Sandfall Interactive, for example, had a core team of around 30 people during the making of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but relied on a large number of external workers. But One More Level wants to keep as much work as possible in-house.

"We use external QA," notes lead designer Łukasz Wabik. "We've also got a company which works on some trailers and marketing software stuff. But almost all of the assets were done in-house."

And One More Level might well add more headcount to the company in future if Valor Mortis does well. "If it is successful, we're probably going to grow with it, but we don't want to just change immediately to some AAA company," Ratusznik says. "We'll feel comfortable if we can control the stuff that is happening."

Standing out

Valor Mortis is a first-person action RPG that borrows a few ideas from other games. The gameplay echoes Dark Souls in terms of its intimidating bosses and the way items are left behind when the player dies, while the plasmid-like powers are reminiscent of BioShock. But the setting – the 19th century Napoleonic Wars – is an intentional way to make the game stand out in an increasingly crowded market.

The plasmid-style powers in Valor Mortis echo BioShock | Image credit: One More Level/Lyrical Games

Ratusznik says they searched for a setting that hasn't been overused in past games. "The 19th century was particularly interesting for us, but at the beginning we thought about something that is more recognisable, closer to something like Bloodborne, which isn't recent, but is quite fresh and fantasy. We wanted to find something more specific – the Napoleonic era sounded reasonable for us."

"We moved from dark fantasy Napoleonic era to a more horror Napoleonic era"

Once they settled on the Napoleonic wars, they began workshopping ideas. "One of the pitches from our narrative team at the start was more about Napoleon being possessed by some evil power," Ratusznik says. "We've since moved to a more grounded approach. There are still elements of fantasy here, but it's not like the demon Napoleon is conquering the world. It's a different story: more grounded, more about the war and the horrors of war. We moved from dark fantasy Napoleonic era to a more horror Napoleonic era with some fantasy elements."

Along with the setting, the first-person swordplay helps to make Valor Mortis feel unique. "These are our USPs basically. They are pretty strong, and we are very happy about the reception so far," Ratusznik says. "The setting is the core thing. It's great that we can show this period of history with this twist, these mutations and the horror vibes. It's the sweet spot of something that the players can recognise, but still find it quite fresh."