Tarba Paul Cornel

Tarba Paul Cornel is a Romanian indie game developer, graphic designer, and music producer based in Ia?i, Romania. He’s a solo developer specializing in psychological horror, and he’s been building games since he was a kid. Everything he’s released has been self-funded, self-built, and released under his studio Galactic Crows.

Tarba Paul Cornel’s Origin Story: A Self-Taught Developer from Romania

Starting at Eight Years Old

Tarba Paul Cornel started making games at eight years old, completely self-taught. His original dream was to become a movie director, and when that didn’t pan out, game development became the outlet for that same love of storytelling. That filmmaking instinct shows up in his work — his games lean heavily on atmosphere, narrative, and dread over traditional gameplay mechanics.

From Forge Gaming to Galactic Crows

Before going fully independent, he worked as Lead Developer at Forge Gaming Studio SRL, a small indie company in Romania. He’s described it as a fun experience that was sometimes a nightmare — which sounds about right for small studio work. He also picked up work as a Romanian translator on MADiSON, the horror game from Bloodious Games that went viral internationally. Eventually he founded Galactic Crows, his own solo studio, and that’s where all his original work lives.

Tarba Paul Cornel Games: A Complete History

Sinister Within (2021)

Sinister Within was his first serious release, put out when he was around fifteen years old. It established the psychological horror direction he’s stayed in ever since.

Sinister Within: Decay (2022)

A follow-up to the original, released when he was around sixteen. Building a sequel at that age as a solo developer is not a small thing.

Stay Still (2023)

Stay Still came out in January 2023. By this point he was eighteen and the quality of his output was noticeably maturing. It’s worth going back and looking at the progression from Sinister Within to Stay Still — the growth is visible.

Left to Rot (2024)

Left to Rot is a ghost hunting game he had the concept for since around 2022 but took time to develop properly. One of the more ambitious things he attempted with it was implementing speech recognition, which is genuinely rare in indie horror. The game was self-funded from money earned on his previous releases.

Psychopathy Assessment (2024)

Released in October 2024, Psychopathy Assessment leaned into the psychological side of his work. The title alone tells you where his head is at creatively.

Christmas Mutilator (2024)

A horror release timed around Christmas 2024. He also directed a live action short film component — that film background coming through again. For such a simple game, it’s story is a lot more in depth than you’d think based on the graphics.

Ghost Siege (2025)

Ghost Siege was made in eight hours. He released it on January 1st, 2025. Whether that’s impressive or reckless probably depends on how it turned out, but the fact that he shipped it says something about his work ethic.

Deadly Quiet (2025)

Deadly Quiet is an asymmetrical co-op horror game — a significant step up in scope. It got coverage from IGN and Vice, which is a real milestone for a solo indie developer operating out of Romania. Vice described it as a bodycam horror game developed by two nineteen year olds, which is a sentence that should make any indie horror fan pay attention.

NETBREAK (2025)

NETBREAK is a found footage horror puzzle game released on Steam in October 2025. It got coverage from Bloody Disgusting, which is one of the more respected outlets in the horror space. The concept involves finding hidden hashes and decrypting them to break into a vault while real threats close in. It’s a clever hook for a horror puzzle game.

How He Works

Tarba Paul Cornel writes the code, builds the levels, lights the scenes, fixes the bugs, handles sound design, and sometimes composes music. He brings in freelancers for specific pieces — a music track, some character models, animations — but the core of every game is him. On Steam, if the developer name reads Tarba Paul Cornel only, the game is fully solo. He’s been a finalist at the Romanian Game Awards under Best Independent Studio of the Year and Game of the Year for work done under Galactic Crows.

Why He’s Worth Watching

There are a lot of solo horror developers putting games out on Steam and itch.io. What makes Tarba Paul Cornel stand out is the trajectory. He started at fifteen with Sinister Within and by nineteen he had a game covered by IGN and Vice. He self-funds, self-builds, and keeps releasing. If Deadly Quiet and NETBREAK are signs of where he’s headed, he’s a developer worth keeping an eye on.