FuturLab

FuturLab is a British video game studio founded in 2003 by James Marsden in Brighton, UK. The studio started building Flash games and standards-compliant websites before making its first major move in 2007, when the team walked into Sony HQ with a pitch that would put them on the map. That audacity became a recurring FuturLab trait. The studio has grown from a two-person outfit to a team of over 100, and is now a subsidiary of Miniclip following an acquisition in April 2024. Kirsty Rigden, who joined in 2010 and originated the idea for PowerWash Simulator, serves as CEO. Marsden stepped back in late 2023 to pursue music and remains on the board as Founding Chairman.

FuturLab operates on a remote-first basis with their Brighton office still open, and runs a no-crunch policy they have stuck to throughout their growth. They credit that approach with the quality of their output, and the award shelf backs it up: BAFTA finalist, Golden Joystick finalist, Best Indie Studio and Best UK Developer wins from TIGA and MCV/DEVELOP among others.

The Velocity Series

Before PowerWash Simulator made FuturLab a household name, the Velocity series was the studio’s calling card. Velocity Ultra and Velocity 2X combined top-down shoot-em-up action with teleportation mechanics and puzzle-platforming elements in a way that earned the series genuine critical acclaim. Velocity 2X received over a million downloads on PlayStation 4 in its first year and won Best Arcade Game at the 2014 TIGA Awards, Vita Game of the Year from GameSpot, and Indie Game of the Year from TheSixthAxis. For a studio of FuturLab’s size at the time, it was a significant achievement.

PowerWash Simulator

PowerWash Simulator started as an idea from Kirsty Rigden, who bought a pressure washer for her patio and found the cleaning itself satisfying but the setup and mess less so. The game launched into Steam Early Access in 2021, published by Square Enix Collective, and hit full release in 2022. It reached over 7 million players by May 2023. The game’s DLC catalog has become one of its defining features, bringing in licensed content from Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII, SpongeBob SquarePants, Back to the Future, Shrek, and Wallace and Gromit among others. PowerWash Simulator VR, developed with nDreams, extended the concept into virtual reality.

I don’t know what it is about this game, but it sucked me in for hours. I played levels multiple times and got all the Achievements in it. There’s just something so relaxing about this game.

PowerWash Simulator 2

PowerWash Simulator 2 released on October 23, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Unlike the original, FuturLab published it themselves rather than going through Square Enix Collective, a significant step for the studio’s independence. The sequel expands the setting beyond Muckingham into the wider Caldera County, adding new areas including Lubri City and Pumpton, and brings 38 jobs at launch. Multi-stage jobs that unlock new areas as cleaning progresses, a home base players can customize between jobs, and two cats named Bubbles and Squeak are among the new additions. Soap is no longer limited, which removes one of the mild friction points from the original. The game launched day one on Xbox Game Pass and was priced at $24.99, a deliberate choice to keep it accessible at a time when other publishers were raising prices. A DLC pipeline is already in place for 2026, with Adventure Time and Star Wars packs among the announced content.

This second game may have new tools to play with, but it’s just as relaxing as the first game.

Other Games

FuturLab’s catalog beyond the two flagship series includes Peaky Blinders: Mastermind, a puzzle game based on the BBC series, and Mini-Mech Mayhem, a VR tabletop strategy game for up to four players. Their upcoming title IKARO Will Not Die, developed in partnership with Thunderful, is described as a spiritual successor to Velocity and a high-intensity sci-fi adventure.