Screen Burn (company)

• 1. Introduction

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  Screen Burn Interactive, the Glasgow studio now attached to Silent Hill: Townfall, built its name on games made under pressure. "Fast forward another 64 hours after development started," Jon McKellan once recalled, "and we submitted the final game with 15 seconds to spare before the cut off deadline." That submission came from a single weekend game jam, and its aftermath would reshape the studio. What drove McKellan and his partner Omar Khan to leave the world of major productions and start from scratch? And how did that frantic weekend entry become a calling card?

• 2. Glasgow Origins

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  No Code Limited was founded on the 19th of August 2015 by Jon McKellan and Omar Khan. The company would later rebrand as Screen Burn Interactive. McKellan arrived with credits on two major productions: Alien: Isolation and Red Dead Redemption 2. Directing the DLC packs for Alien: Isolation gave him a lasting appetite for working in smaller, closer teams.

  The studio's first assignment was to bring Lub vs Dub, an iOS game, to Android. That game had originally been released under the name "Futuro," which was also the name of the band McKellan, Khan, and designer Graeme shared. Graeme was McKellan's brother.

  In 2016, the team created Super Arc Light for Android and iOS. The publisher was All 4 Games, a branch of UK television channel Channel 4. Super Arc Light earned nominations for two TIGA awards. By the end of 2016, an entirely different kind of work was already underway.

• 3. The House Abandon

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  The House Abandon emerged from Ludum Dare 36 and appeared on itch.io shortly after. Positive reviews arrived quickly, and the game spread widely. The success opened a door: Devolver Digital signed No Code and published Stories Untold in 2017. The House Abandon served as its first chapter.

  Stories Untold arrived initially on macOS and Windows. The game later extended to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Before Stories Untold had found its full audience, No Code had already turned its attention to an entirely different kind of game.

• 4. Two BAFTAs

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  Observation, developed with Devolver Digital and in partnership with PlayStation, arrived in 2019. Critical reception placed it among No Code's strongest work. The game was a sci-fi thriller, a departure from the anthology horror format the studio had become known for.

  At the 2020 BAFTA Game Awards, Observation took the Best British Game award. The studio had also won the Best Game BAFTA in Scotland. The BAFTA recognition gave No Code a public profile it had not previously held. What came next involved a franchise operating at an entirely different scale.

• 5. Silent Hill: Townfall

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  In 2020, No Code released a Console Edition of Stories Untold for Xbox, PS4, and Switch. For the first time, the game was playable in multiple languages, made possible by the keyboard-less text entry system. That release was followed by a long stretch of public silence through the COVID-19 pandemic years.

  In October 2022, No Code broke that silence. The studio announced it was developing Silent Hill: Townfall alongside Konami Digital Entertainment and Annapurna Interactive. In July 2025, No Code rebranded as Screen Burn Interactive and confirmed the project was still in active development. Silent Hill: Townfall was scheduled for release on Windows and PlayStation 5 in 2026. More than ten years would separate that release from the day McKellan and Khan first incorporated in August 2015.