Patrick O'Luanaigh working on new title "exploring how music can affect gameplay"

Image credit: Atmospheric Studio

The founder of VR studio nDreams, Patrick O'Luanaigh, has launched a new studio called Atmospheric, described as "a new independent entertainment company creating original intellectual property across games and music." O'Luanaigh stepped down from nDreams in May 2025 after 19 years as CEO, and eighteen months after the studio was acquired by Aonic. Prior to founding nDreams, he held senior roles at SCi, Eidos and Codemasters.

Atmospheric will "explore new ways of bringing games and music together, developing immersive worlds in which narrative, interactivity and audio are conceived as part of a single creative vision," the firm said in a press release, adding that its approach "centres on building distinctive worlds and stories that can extend naturally across games, music and other formats."

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, O'Luanaigh says this does not mean the studio was making "a music-based game like Guitar Hero, Beat Saber or even PaRappa the Rapper.

"I guess a movie like Baby Driver might be a closer analogy, actually," he says. "We're exploring how music can affect gameplay and in particular the emotional response that players get when playing."

"I love powerful stories, twisting narrative, flawed yet lovable characters and games that make you feel things. I loved the Telltale games, and indie games like Firewatch. But I've also been a part-time composer and audio engineer, so it's a chance for me to come up with something a little different - a game that doubles down on tension, storyline, music and audio, but still very much indie."

Patrick Luanaigh in his studio. | Image credit: Atmospheric

O'Luanaigh says he is currently the only employee, working with freelance contributors for art, writing, and some coding, and does not foresee recruiting any staff until the company's first game is signed. The studio has taken no investment and is currently self-funded. "Our plan is to get a publishing partner on board at the right time – probably the start of next year – to help fund the full game," he says.

He described the impetus behind the studio's founding as being how much he'd missed being hands-on with coding and creative development. "I started as a coder and creative director, but for my last eight years at nDreams, I had to step away and spend my time managing people and investors. I'm lucky enough to have the chance to get back to what I really love, and try to make something different - something I'm really proud of - with the help of a few brilliant people.

"I loved my time at nDreams, and I'm very proud of what we achieved. But my very happiest time there was when the team was small, working on something truly innovative and utterly exciting, as opposed to when we were 250-people strong building big projects. There is much less pressure this time, and I'm going to make sure the journey remains incredibly fun."

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