Fractional Studio Director & EP

The studio leadership your team and game deserve.

You know how to make a great game. Building the team, the production systems, the culture, and the business around it, that's what I do. Part-time. Without the full-time executive cost.

Seb Cardoso
20+
Years in Games
AAA
to Indie
COO
+ EP
Global
Studios
What I Do

Two decades building games and the studios behind them.

01

Game Development Leadership

Production systems, roadmaps, milestones, capacity planning, risk management and more. The work systems and discipline that make shipping a great game actually possible, built and installed for your team, by someone who has done it many times before.

02

Studio Operations

HR, finance, legal, partnerships, business development. I can help you build and run this critical operational infrastructure without creating the bureaucracy that kills the creative culture I know you're trying to protect.

03

Culture & Leadership

Values, founder coaching, developing your leads. I partner with you to help you foster the human layer that determines whether your studio lasts beyond one game. Because how you build the studio shapes everything that comes out of it, including its games.

Built for the independent studios of tomorrow.

I work with founders of indie studios who make premium PC or console games and are still figuring out the operational infrastructure to build a lasting game studio. Whether it's your first title or your third, if the production, the team structure, the culture, or the business side of running a studio feels like it's getting away from you, that's exactly where I come in.

Sound like you?
  • You're a first-time or early-stage studio founder, pre-funding or recently funded
  • You're making a premium PC or console game driven by creativity and innovation
  • You're realizing that running a studio is its own full-time job, and it's getting in the way of making the game
  • You want to build something that lasts beyond one game
  • You'd rather invest in the right leadership early than fix expensive mistakes later
  • You can't afford a full-time COO or EP, but you could really use that level of experience today

Transparent pricing. Flexible by design.

Most early-stage indie studios can't afford a full-time executive. I built my pricing around that reality. Rates reflect where your studio operates in the world. If you're pre-funding or bootstrapping, we can find a structure that works, including deferred arrangements tied to your fundraise or ship date.
Light Engagement

Someone in your corner, on a regular cadence. You bring the challenges; I bring the solutions. Right for studios that need clear direction and a steady hand without deep day-to-day involvement.

10–15 hrs/month
US, Canada, UK, EU West, Japan, Australia
USD 2,500 – 3,500 / month
Mexico, China, LATAM, EU East, Malaysia, Thailand
USD 1,750 – 2,450 / month
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Philippines
USD 1,000 – 1,400 / month

Pre-funding & Bootstrapped Studios

If you don't have funds yet, it's okay, let's talk. I work with studios that don't have financing right now but have the right game, the right team, and the right creative ambition.

Pre-money
Deferred until raise closes, then settled in full or on a payment plan.
Bootstrapped
Comp can be structured post-launch from net revenue, with a defined window and cap.
Seb Cardoso

I've spent 20 years making and shipping games, not advising from the outside.

I've been COO, Studio Director, and Executive Producer across AAA, AA, and indie titles, at Riot Games, Crytek, EA and more. I've shipped games, reshaped studios, helped get across the finish line productions that were in trouble, built studios from the ground up, and worked with founders who had everything except the operational knowhow to thrive across multiple title launches.

Indie development is full of founders who know exactly what game they want to make but have little knowledge of what building the studio around it actually requires. That's not a criticism. It's just the reality of how most people get into this. Myself included. The passion comes first, but the operational knowledge has to be built nonetheless. Unfortunately, that tends to happen by way of expensive mistakes.

I'm convinced the best games of the next decade will come from small, passionate teams in markets and regions the industry isn't paying attention to yet. That's who I built Game Studio Unlocked for. The founders making something daring, genuinely original, without a safety net, and who need real embedded experience in their corner, not a consultant with a framework.

Game Studio Unlocked Substack.

Production, operations, culture, leadership, management, publishing. The stuff nobody teaches you about building and running a game studio. Written for indie founders, studio leaders and future gaming entrepreneurs who want to build something that lasts.

Published regularly on Substack. No fluff. Hard-earned perspective, knowledge and applicable content from someone who's been doing this for a long time.

Game Studio Unlocked

Production, processes, operations, creativity, culture, and leadership for indie studios. Practical, direct, and grounded in 20 years of real work.

Read on Substack →

If something on this page rang true, let's talk.

No pitch. No deck. Just an honest conversation about where your studio is and whether working together makes sense. I respond within 2 business days.