Alex McDonald
Managing Member
Tampa, FL
Founder + Managing Member. Product, business, systems, launch operations, and the shape of the player experience.
[ THE STUDIO ]
[ STUDIO BRIEF ]
Built in Tampa. For the player.
First Signal Games is a Tampa-based independent game studio founded in 2026 by Alex McDonald and Geoff Taylor. We build mobile games that respect the player: strategy with real decisions, characters with weight, and economies where identity is worth collecting but power is earned in play. Our first title is Neon Arcana, a portrait auto-battler set in the city of Arcadia.
First Signal Games LLC · NAICS 511210 · Mobile video game development and publishing
[ THE FOUNDERS ]
Two people. One signal.
Geoff Taylor
Member
Newburgh, IN
Co-founder. Worldbuilding, lore, systems texture, and the long tail of making Arcadia feel like a place.
[ WHY AUTO-BATTLERS ]
Because the second before the fight is the best second of the fight.
Auto-battlers are at their best when a fight feels like proof. You made the choices, the board resolved them, and the result teaches you something for the next round. We’re building toward that middle: deep enough to reward expertise, clear enough to play on a phone without fighting the interface.
No pay-to-win. No infinite-grind anxiety. Cosmetic expression matters because identity matters, but the strongest board should come from learning the game.