Xombis is a one-person studio in Winter Park, Florida. It builds games in Unity and C#, publishes books and makes animated shorts. Blightened is the first world out the door, not the only one.
One world, two ways in. Blightened is the beast's side of it. Relic Keeper is the archivist's.
Awaken the Beast.
A dark fantasy 2.5D Metroidvania platformer where corruption fuels both survival and power. Explore fractured timelines, channel volatile blight into abilities, and battle monstrous guardians across collapsing realms.
Inspect relics. Diagnose corruption. Decide what survives.
A narrative archive-management game set in the world of Blightened. Inspect cursed relics, question unreliable visitors, find the Seven Powers, and keep the Sanctuary Archive alive for one more day.
Games, books and animated shorts, in whatever genre the idea needs. Right now that is a dark fantasy universe, a sci-fi thriller and a wind-up ladybug. One developer, with art from Limited Slip Studios.
Xombis is not looking for work, but a collaboration is always worth a conversation.
Let's talkUnity and C#, prototype to Steam. Gameplay systems, enemy AI, saves and progression, full controller support, the store page. All of it built by one developer.
The games →Worlds kept consistent across games and books. In Blightened that means ruptures, blight, the Syphon, the Sanctuary Archive and the Seven Powers.
The stories →Folklore compendiums and a novel, published under the Xombis name. Monstrous Legends is out. Two more are coming.
On Amazon →Character, environment and UI art comes from Limited Slip Studios, the Orlando game-art group where Chris Santangelo has been Technical Director since 2009.
Limited Slip Studios →Interface systems, editor tooling, pipelines. Twenty-five years of production UI work in games and simulation, applied to every release.
Portfolio →Animated shorts under the What's in the Box? banner, starting with One more turn. Trailers, gameplay captures, a developer's story, and one relic a day on YouTube.
What's in the Box? →Screens and key art from Blightened, Relic Keeper and What's in the Box? The game screens are in-engine.
Fiction, folklore and film under one label. Some of it is Blightened. The rest is not.
Available now
Real legends: sea, myth, beast, spirit, ancient, elemental. The monsters are not in the game. The world they come from absolutely is.
A new chapter is coming. Ancient records. Forgotten histories. Secrets unearthed.
Slapstick animated shorts. First up, One more turn: a wind-up ladybug, one greedy passenger, one very tired chauffeur. Flyboy discovers a new toy, but White Fly quickly claims the best seat. A few turns of the key later, the ride gets out of hand.
The sealed city of Harrow survives beneath a massive Dome. Those above control the light, clean air and water. Those below live on what reaches them. Quinn “Hax” Winters, a brilliant engineer and irreverent hacker, works alongside augmented hitman Husk, sniper Razor and former fighter Boomer. When their crew steals a mysterious device called the Nexus, they become entangled in a war between criminal factions, compromised police and the ruling Council. As betrayals and retaliation tear through the lower city, the crew’s loyalties fracture under the consequences of their own choices. Hax discovers that the Nexus can access the system governing the Dome, giving her a chance to change how the city’s resources are distributed. To help Harrow, she must confront the same question dividing her crew: who gets to decide what everyone else must live with?
Xombis LLC is my studio. I am Chris Santangelo, a Unity and C# developer and UI/UX designer in Winter Park, Florida. Twenty-five years of interactive software and thirty-plus shipped titles: military training systems at JHT, AR and VR research at Virtual Reality Rehab, front-end work at LexisNexis, a 4X strategy interface at Hit-Factor Games. I formed Xombis in May 2025 to publish my own games and books, starting with Blightened.
Blightened did not start with a name. It started with a single test: a Unity scene made of tiles, a character controller, a basic jump. Every system is functional now, and I design, code and direct all of it, from the enemy state machines and the Syphon to the store page and the dev log. Character and environment art comes from Limited Slip Studios, where I have been Technical Director since 2009. When this site says “we”, that is who it means.
Three rules: movement is identity, corruption and time are the spine, readability over spectacle. I use AI tools for concept exploration and iteration in the art and writing workflows. When you use AI to help generate assets, you have to set rules, and I do. Every system, mechanic, piece of worldbuilding and production decision is mine. The Steam pages say the same.
Xombis is not looking for work. But if you want to collaborate, or you are press, a platform or a publisher, I am always willing to chat about possibilities.
One inbox, and I read it.
The Xombis channel is the hub for every project. The Blightened channel carries the lore: since late August it has posted one Relic Keeper relic a day, with the trailers, the boss fights, the developer's story and an older folklore series alongside.
The first What's in the Box? short. A wind-up ladybug, one greedy passenger, one very tired chauffeur. Flyboy finds a new toy and White Fly claims the best seat.
Watch →One relic per short, straight from the Sanctuary Archive. Latest: Sharpened Bone Shard, Bone Comb Rupture, Blighted Chisel, Blight Ladle, Beggars Crown, Bark Disc and the Syphon component set.
Watch the series →
The first trailer, cut ahead of Steam Next Fest: fast-paced Metroidvania movement, brutal hack-and-slash combat and evolving abilities.
Watch →
You serve the Archive. Inspect dangerous relics, diagnose corruption, and decide how each one is handled before the ruptures collapse. Every relic has a story. Every visitor is not to be trusted.
Watch →
Behind the scenes, early: the design document, the state of the vertical slice map, the main player abilities and behaviors, and how the maps get built.
Watch →
