Triangular Pixels

Reviewed 12 October 2026. Studio identity and history, sourced game chronology and platform modes, room-scale authoring, developer accessibility tools and BAFTA recognition; all cited sources independently reopened. About review dates.

Triangular Pixels
Information
Industry	Video games and virtual reality
Founded	2014
Founder	Katie Goode and John Campbell
Headquarters	Bude, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Notable Personnel	Katie Goode (creative director); John Campbell (technical director)
Products	Unseen Diplomacy, Smash Hit Plunder, Unseen Diplomacy 2
Website	triangularpixels.com

Triangular Pixels is a British video game studio based in Bude, Cornwall, founded in 2014 by Katie Goode and John Campbell. Its virtual reality games include Unseen Diplomacy, Smash Hit Plunder and Unseen Diplomacy 2. The Unseen Diplomacy games use physical movement within a tracked play area, with virtual room layouts that reuse the available floor space. The studio has also developed games that combine a headset player's view with local play on a television, and tools intended to adapt VR content to different spaces and movement requirements.

Studio history

Goode and Campbell worked together on Book of Spells and Book of Potions before founding Triangular Pixels. BAFTA's 2018 biography identifies Campbell as technical director and Goode as creative director; the studio's website continues to list those roles. In its account of the early business, the studio describes moving from work at larger game developers to its own independent projects, with development based in Bude.

Smash Hit Plunder began development in 2014 as a social VR project for Samsung Gear VR. An early prototype combined the headset view with a shared two-dimensional display for people outside VR. Development shifted to PlayStation VR in October 2015 with Sony's support, and subsequently added a larger adventure, a story and local multiplayer modes.

The Unseen Diplomacy project grew from The Hatton Garden Heist, a prototype made at the London Vive VR Jam in July 2015. Goode's retrospective describes using the HTC Vive development hardware for a game involving physical ducking, crawling and sneaking. A later version became the spy game shown at GameCity in Nottingham in 2015. The studio announced a playable exhibition at the National Videogame Arcade in March 2016, and released the home version on Steam in April 2016.

The sequel developed over a longer period. In its 2025 account, the studio dates a technology prototype to 2018, a UK Games Fund-supported gameplay prototype to 2021, and full funding to January 2024. The fund's own project records list Unseen Diplomacy 2 under Round 7 and the Content Fund. Early access began on 25 September 2025; Steam records the full release on 16 March 2026.

VR game catalog

Game	Release history and platforms	Format and studio credit
Unseen Diplomacy	April 2016; PC VR through SteamVR, originally developed for HTC Vive.	Short, single-player spy obstacle course using physical movement; Steam credits Triangular Pixels as developer and publisher.
Smash Hit Plunder	2018; PlayStation VR on PlayStation 4. Goode's December 2018 release article confirms availability in US regions.	Castle exploration and object destruction, with a single-player campaign, local co-op and competitive play using the television. Developed by Triangular Pixels; Perp Games announced a boxed release for 5 October 2018.
Unseen Diplomacy 2	Early access: 25 September 2025. Full launch: 16 March 2026. The developer lists Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest 3S and Steam.	Single-player spy campaign with agent management, gadgets and procedurally generated missions. Steam credits Triangular Pixels as developer and publisher.

Smash Hit Plunder uses different views for the VR player and television players. In co-op, a player using the television and a controller joins the headset player as a goblin. Its competitive modes allow one VR player and up to three television players. Poltergeist Panic uses that difference in perspective: television players look for evidence of the headset player's invisible ghost, while Jewel Duel involves competing to retrieve treasure.

Unseen Diplomacy 2 expands the original obstacle course into a campaign in which players deploy and upgrade agents, gather intelligence and work toward a final confrontation before an in-game doomsday timer expires. Missions combine physical obstacles with tools such as wire cutters and hacking devices. The developer also lists a Meta-exclusive mixed reality training mode; the Steam description explicitly states that mixed reality mode is excluded from the PC version.

Room-scale design

The original Unseen Diplomacy was designed around room-scale VR and requires an unobstructed tracked area measuring 4 m by 3 m. Its Steam description identifies it as an approximately four-minute experience created in a month for GameCity 2015. Movement through its obstacle course comes from the player's own walking, ducking and crawling. In the studio's account, bending corridors and switching virtual rooms on and off allow successive spaces to occupy the same physical area.

Triangular Pixels calls this approach "environmental redirection". Its developer description concerns arranging and changing the virtual environment while the player moves within the tracked area. For Unseen Diplomacy 2, the studio describes a portal system at doorways that clips the visible scene and reveals the next room as the player crosses. It divides the defined play area into a grid and fits and rotates level segments within that area. This changes the authoring approach from the original game's hand-arranged room sequence.

An independent account by Nicholas Sutrich describes the sequel's room-scale play as physically walking through doors into newly presented rooms while circling within his living room. His account also distinguishes full physical movement from the options offered to players with different space or movement needs.

Accessibility and content tools

The original game's "Restricted Movement Mode" changes the generated level sequence and uses alternate versions of some rooms. Goode's 2016 development account describes removing crawling rooms, widening a ledge and repositioning items and lasers for players who need different movement or reach requirements. The same account describes text and symbols accompanying instructions and feedback, including door-state symbols alongside color cues. Kent Bye's GDC interview with Goode independently documents that restricted-movement option and the altered placement of buttons and objects. The original game still requires the stated play area and movement around it.

For Unseen Diplomacy 2, the developer documents optional locomotion for seated play, added reach and height, stance changes for players who cannot duck or crawl, and a hand-stabilization option intended for tremors. The press kit also lists one-controller play. These are selectable features described by the developer.

In 2019, Goode described a Responsive Content Generation Tool prototype through the South West Creative Technology Network. Its goal was to generate VR content around the player's device, play area and abilities. The development account connects that work to limitations of hand-authoring the original Unseen Diplomacy rooms, then explains a modular tileset and exporter for assembling and revising environments. The work was presented as a prototype in development, with further automation proposed for later work.

Recognition

Unseen Diplomacy was nominated for Game Innovation at the 2017 British Academy Games Awards. Campbell and Goode were selected as BAFTA Breakthrough Brits in 2018, with BAFTA's published biographies discussing the founding of Triangular Pixels and its VR games.