How MIMESIS launched 1M+ copies on a publishing-light timeline.
- Studio
- ReLU Games
- Publisher
- KRAFTON
- Genre
- Co-op horror · Early Access
- Launched
- October 27, 2025
A small team inside a large publisher launched on weeks of runway, not months.
ReLU Games used FirstLook to validate demand, run multi-region playtests, distribute Steam keys, and stand up a Discord community, without building any of it themselves.
A studio inside a publisher, with a launch window and almost no publishing-side bandwidth.
ReLU Games — KRAFTON's internal label — was readying MIMESIS, a co-op horror title, for Early Access on October 27. The project was greenlit with a launch slot, but without the dedicated marketing, QA, and community-ops resources a typical KRAFTON release would receive. One primary operator — Junhyung — needed to run the entire pre-launch program day-to-day.
Six things had to ship before launch day.
- 1
Validate real player demand
ahead of October 27. Structured signal a launch decision could rest on, not just awareness.
- 2
Run multi-region playtests
across Korea, Japan, English-speaking, Brazilian, and Russian audiences, on a branded ReLU domain, with Korean-privacy-compliant sign-up.
- 3
Distribute Steam keys at scale
across the full tester cohort, staged so keys could be pre-assigned but hidden until a single simultaneous reveal moment.
- 4
Stand up a Discord community
with verified onboarding and automated role assignments, without building any of that tooling in-house.
- 5
Track post-launch sentiment
across Steam reviews and Discord conversations to flag technical issues and confirm what was resonating.
- 6
Operate the entire program
on a timeline measured in weeks, with one primary operator running it day-to-day.
A dedicated MIMESIS instance, live in days, covering the surface KRAFTON would have built itself.
Branded domain & regional flows
Custom playtest.relu.games, global English primary, Japan / Brazil / Korea / Russia setup, age-gated 18+ eligibility, and on-demand template duplicates.
Steam keys, hidden until reveal
Steam App ID + Web API configured, wishlist CTA on the waitlist, ownership and playtime tracking, and the full tester cohort pre-loaded so every key was revealed at the same instant, at 4 PM KST.
Automated Discord onboarding
Native Discord auth, automatic role assignment by cohort, auto-join into the official server, and onboarding gating tied directly into key distribution. Studio Ops on standby through key-drop day.
Korean & Japanese flows, KR-compliant
Korean primary plus Japanese flow with localized copy. Custom required-checkbox clickthrough agreement to satisfy Korean privacy-policy requirements inside the sign-up form.
One source of truth
Player CRM with search, segment, export, and login-as-player. Roles & invites for beta cohorts and friends-of-testers. Refer-a-Friend in the waitlist flow; each invitee given 3 direct invites.
Enterprise support throughout
Pragma's Studio Ops embedded with the ReLU team, including unblocking a Discord-API incident in real time on key-drop day. New flow templates spun up on demand as plans evolved.
It's hard to imagine what would have happened without FirstLook. Their fast and efficient user testing ultimately led to the decision to move forward with the project's release, and the game went on to achieve over one million copies sold.