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UK studio Bitmap Bureau celebrates a decade in the business in 2026, a year which sees the company fresh off the success of Terminator 2D: No Fate and preparing to release He-Man: Dragon Pearl of Destruction.
To cap it off, the studio's most famous game – Xeno Crisis – is also getting new physical releases on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox.
Keen to celebrate the studio's tenth birthday, we sat down with Bitmap Bureau co-founder and design director Mike Tucker for a chat about the past, present and future.
Congratulations on ten years in the business! When you established Bitmap Bureau a decade ago, did you ever think the studio would be in the position it's in today?
Mike Tucker: Thank you! It’s been quite a ride, but it’s great to see the studio expanding and flourishing, and being able to offer permanent employment to a number of people. We’ve been fortunate enough to work on some amazing licences, but also continue working on our own IP.
How would you say the studio has changed in those ten years, and how has it remained true to your core vision?
Mike Tucker: The size and complexity of the games have increased for sure – around five people worked on Xeno Crisis, but games such as Terminator 2D: No Fate and He-Man have seen something like 20 to 30 people work on each of them in various capacities.
I’ll always continue to make games in my own way, though (whilst people want to play them!), and we’re still as committed to developing and porting to retro systems as we ever were. I think the focus on retro has truly helped us find our identity, and it now informs everything we do.
Xeno Crisis is arguably your most famous game and has been ported to a wide range of systems. Why do you think that game is particularly special to you and your fans?
Mike Tucker: I’d like to think that we really raised the bar for “homebrew” retro titles with Xeno Crisis, and we aimed to make every aspect of the game as polished as we could (within 4 megabytes!), from the art to the sound to the game design.
The whole team were huge Mega Drive fans, and with this being our first Mega Drive title as a studio, we wanted to create something special. I think our followers realise that, but are also interested in our mission to port it to as many platforms as possible!
Do you have any more ports of Xeno Crisis on the horizon, or will you eventually call it a day?
Mike Tucker: Absolutely! We have an original PlayStation port ready to go, which plays great, but we’re hoping to crack the CD duplication issue rather than release it on a non-booting disc that would require a mod chip to play. There are also a few other ports in the works that I can’t mention just yet, so we’re far from done!
Are there any games you've worked on that you perhaps weren't as pleased with, or you'd like to revisit?
Mike Tucker: I’ve made a few sequels in the past but I generally feel that a single follow up should be enough to address the things that you couldn’t squeeze into the original game, and I’m getting to the point now where I realise that I might only make another 10 to 20 titles before I’m done, so I’m keen for each of those to be something fresh – although I will make an exception for Xeno Crisis 2, which we’ve done some preliminary work on already.
Terminator 2D feels like it was a dream project for you. What were the highlights of working on such a prestigious licence, and what were the downsides?
Mike Tucker: Yes, we couldn’t quite believe it when Reef approached us with the T2 licence, and it was an opportunity we just couldn’t turn down! I instinctively knew it would be a challenge, especially given the struggles of previous developers to come up with a decent experience, but we felt we could do the movie justice, especially with the assistance of the Reef team.
The highlights for me were being able to build the game largely around Sarah Connor, as although she is undoubtedly one of the most bad-ass movie heroines, she didn’t play much of a role in previous T2 titles. It was also a lot of fun to create the various Future War scenarios for John Connor, too, as you only see a few snippets of that in the movie – it was amazing seeing Henk [Nieborg]’s Centurion boss in pixel form for the first time!
As with working with any major movie franchise, the downside is that as a designer, your hands are somewhat tied in that, for the most part, you need to stick to the movie’s storyline and flow, and you need to shoehorn in iconic scenes, so you end up building the gameplay around that scene rather than the other way round. It does help that the source material is superb, though, and we had a lot of fun bringing all of the characters and scenes to life.
He-Man: Dragon Pearl of Destruction feels like another dream project, and one that is particularly timely, given this year's Hollywood movie. What attracted you to that particular IP?
Mike Tucker: I was obsessed with Masters of the Universe when I was around 6 or 8 years old, watching every episode of the Filmation series I could, and my parents bought me a few of the action figures, which I loved - I also had a few of the Ladybird books.
T2 still hadn’t been announced when Limited Run Games came to us asking if we’d like to create a Masters of the Universe-based beat ‘em-up, but it was another opportunity we couldn’t say no to! They and Mattel knew exactly what they wanted, and as soon as they mentioned the project to us, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted to do with it, too.
I was a massive Golden Axe fan, but also played a lot of Knights of the Round, Shadow Over Mystara, Guardian Heroes and so on, so creating a game of that ilk in the Masters of the Universe was right up our street, and felt like it could be another chance to deliver a quality game for a franchise.
Side-scrolling fighting games have enjoyed something of a resurgence of late; how will He-Man stand out from the crowd?
Mike Tucker: I always try to bring something to new to every genre I tackle, and whilst it’s hard to mess with or improve on the standard set by the likes of Capcom and Sega, I would like to think that we’ve put our own stamp on the genre with He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction by putting in some interesting mechanics, plenty of potential for crazy combos, and Masters of the Universe itself is such a rich and fun Mattel IP that brings amazing characters and settings with it.
Handling beloved properties like The Terminator and He-Man must come with a lot of pressure. How difficult is it to ensure you keep existing fans pleased while also attracting newcomers?
Mike Tucker: Many of our team have worked on major IPs in the past, but both Terminator and Masters of the Universe felt like a whole new level and, without a doubt, brought with them a great deal of expectation.
It’s definitely been a consideration, though, giving enough lore and easter eggs for fans to enjoy whilst also creating accessible games that newcomers can jump into and enjoy even if they aren’t too familiar with the source material.
Perhaps the games will create new fans of both franchises!
GenAI is a hot topic in the world of video games right now. Given that Bitmap Bureau is so heavily invested in creating wonderful, hand-drawn 2D artwork, it would be interesting to hear your perspective on this new technology. Do you use it at any point in development?
Mike Tucker: I’m vehemently against GenAI and flat-out refuse to use it in what we do – it feels like intellectual theft and might also deny someone a job, neither of which sits right with me. It’ll be a sad day when humans no longer create anything and defer it all to AI, but I’m hoping that’s a long way off.
Where do you see Bitmap Bureau in another ten years?
Mike Tucker: I’d like to see us try some genres that really push our limits, perhaps even a foray into the world of 3D, and I’m sure our retro team will continue to port our games to every platform under the sun!
I’m certainly not averse to continuing to work on some amazing movie and cartoon franchises, but I’m also keen to create a few more original titles, particularly one which I can say I’m 100% satisfied with – we’ve been close on a few occasions, but I know we can still improve!
Most importantly, though, I hope that we continue to offer opportunities to people all around the world and from all walks of life, and, with any luck, we’ll move into larger premises in the near future with carpet and air conditioning!
We'd like to thank Mike for taking the time to speak with us, and Natasya Farisa at Reef Entertainment for making this interview possible.