Creator Spotlight: Paul Cousins and the Rise of Funder Games Studios
Every so often a creator reminds you that world-class work does not require a world-class budget — only conviction and an unreasonable amount of persistence. Paul Cousins is one of those creators: a New Zealand game developer, VR and AI innovator, and the creative lead at Funder Games Studios. We are spotlighting him because his story is the Nexaria thesis in miniature — an independent builder who owns what he makes.
A pioneer, not a passenger
Cousins belongs to a rare breed of near-solo developers. He hand-built almost the entirety of his breakout game rather than waiting on a large studio pipeline — environments, systems and gameplay, largely by one person. In his project retrospectives he talks candidly about the earlier work that shaped him: years of shipping, failing and iterating, the unglamorous apprenticeship that turns a hobbyist into a pioneer. That mindset — build it yourself, own the result — is exactly what we champion across the creator economy.
Dead Fury: a zombie shooter with a Kiwi soul
His best-known project is Dead Fury, a third-person zombie shooter set in the rugged backcountry of Central Otago — the region where Cousins grew up. Published in partnership with Apogee Entertainment and scored by composer Kyle Misko, it earned a spotlight at PAX East and put a genuinely New Zealand landscape on the global gaming stage. It is proof that distinctive, place-rooted stories can compete anywhere.
Skyhammer: browser-native VR, no install required
Cousins' newest project is Skyhammer, a VR experience you can launch straight from your Meta Quest headset browser — no store, no download, just open the link and play. Removing the friction between "I want to try it" and "I'm playing" is a quietly radical move, and it points to where immersive experiences are heading: instant, web-native and open to everyone. It is the same direction we explore in our VR and AR coverage.
Why he matters to the Nexaria community
From solo game development to AI-first business systems under his Funder Studios / SQUID banner, Cousins keeps betting on independent creators owning what they build — the same principle Nexaria Digital is built on. Watch his interviews, try Skyhammer in your headset, and follow a pioneer who is still, in his own words, figuring out "all that jazz" — one shipped project at a time.
This is an independent creator spotlight, not sponsored content. Details are drawn from the public interviews and pages linked above and may evolve; corrections are welcome at our contact page.
