In addition to offering all the games on this website for sale, licensing or distribution, Light In The Lab also offers a range of custom games-design services.

Designing to Specification

To rise above the competition, publishers need to do more than produce innovative, eye-catching games. They must ensure their catalogue covers every angle of their target market. It’s no good having three amazing games if they compete against each other. It doesn’t help to have the greatest family game ever made if your audience is mostly veteran gamers. The best publishers have very specific ideas of exactly what product they’re looking for. Unfortunately, it can be almost impossible to find a truly brilliant game which ticks every single box, even for a publisher drowning in games submissions.

Our cross-disciplinary background and years of extremely varied experience make us ideally suited to making a brand new, high-quality game with the precise features and properties you specify. The more specific the better! Do you want a cooperative dexterity game for 7-year-olds, playable in 30 minutes or less, themed around cowboys, and using a particular component? We can deliver!

We pride ourselves on being able to rapidly design, prototype, and iterate on your specification. We can work closely with you, providing regular updates and incorporating your feedback, or work independently until the game is complete.

Please note this service is only available to publishers interested in purchasing the completed project. We don’t need any more ideas – we already have more than we could ever turn into finished games!

Normally, there is no charge specifically for this service, and the game created from your spec is added to the Light In The Lab games catalogue. You can then contact us to discuss licensing or purchasing the completed game as normal. If you would prefer a more exclusive arrangement, you should note this when you contact us to discuss your specification.

Adapting Designs

Sometimes people will find a game they like the look of on our website, but unfortunately it has one or two features that make it unsuitable for consideration with their company. Perhaps you love the look and theme of our new family game, but aren’t interested in a game with trivia questions. Or you’d love to play a prototype of our latest big-box gamers’ game, but you’re not in the market for a sci-fi title right now.

We can adapt any of our existing designs, adding and removing features as you request. In fact, we’ve already done this with most of our games, as we tend to produce many slightly different versions in the course of our normal testing. We’ve listed what we think is the best version of each game here on our website, but all of these alternative versions are solid and fully-playable, just with a different set of features.

All of our games are made from the ‘bottom up’- with solid mechanics and gameplay created and positioned first to ground every other aspect of the design. This allows us to make almost any changes relatively easily, in most cases with minimal knock-on effects to the rest of the design.

If you’re interested in having one of our listed games adapted, just get in touch and let us know which changes you’d like made to which game. We’ll check out the viability of your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

Game Checking

From school events to corporate retreats, from mega games to treasure hunts, games are increasingly popular in all areas of life. Whether as a hobby or an unusual aside to their job, it seems like everyone is designing a game these days!

Unfortunately, this process can be a minefield. Even the simplest idea can be full of hidden problems that may not emerge until the big day. If you don’t have time to playtest your idea thoroughly, and don’t have years of experience, you risk your players coming away upset and disappointed.

Thankfully, we can help. We can analyse your aims and the files for your game, and produce a customised “health report”. This will explain the strengths and weaknesses of your proposed design in detail, suggest some changes and explain the impact they’re likely to have, and finish with a list of things to keep in mind when actually running your game.

No game is too big or too small for this service. We have checked everything from simple minigames for a child’s birthday, all the way through to commercial events with dozens of participants.

We offer a heavily discounted rate for amateur designers and educational organisations. Importantly we can usually complete your report within 24 hours if needed – perfect for those last-minute events! Just get in touch for a quote and to discuss it further.