Building a competitive real-money game is hard. Beyond the gameplay itself, studios have to think about matchmaking, payments, fairness, fraud prevention, and backend infrastructure. For many small teams, that complexity becomes the blocker. 

Eplay Studios shipped 25 of them on Skillz, reaching 2 million installs.

The Infrastructure Problem Every Indie Faces

Justin Graysmark, founder of Eplay Studios, did not come from a big studio or a technical background. Like many indie developers, he had to think carefully about where to spend his time and resources.

The challenge with competitive real-money games is that the work goes far beyond building the game itself. Matchmaking, payments, fairness systems, fraud prevention, and backend infrastructure all need to work reliably before players ever enter a match.

For most small teams, building that from scratch can become the project instead of the game.

Skillz handled those systems for Eplay Studios, allowing the team to stay focused on gameplay, content, and building experiences players wanted to come back to. 

What That Unlocked for Eplay

With the infrastructure handled by Skillz, Justin and his team could spend their time where it mattered most, improving gameplay, building new content, and creating experiences players wanted to keep coming back to.

That changed the pace of development. Instead of rebuilding the same backend systems for every project, Eplay Studios could focus on iterating faster and releasing more games.

What started with a single title in 2017 eventually grew into a portfolio of 25 games and more than 2 million installs.

Why the Platform Matters

For competitive games, trust matters as much as gameplay. Players want to know the competition is fair, matchmaking works properly, and outcomes are based on skill. If that trust breaks, players stop coming back.

That’s where Skillz made a difference for Eplay Studios. Instead of building systems for matchmaking, payments, and fairness from scratch, Justin’s team could plug into infrastructure that was already built for competitive gaming.

For a smaller studio, that changes everything. It means spending less time solving backend problems and more time building games players actually want to play.

A Model for Other Indie Developers

Justin now shares his journey on a YouTube channel he originally started from his kitchen, talking openly about what he’s learned building competitive games. What began as a way to document the process has grown into a resource for other developers exploring the space.

His story shows what can happen when smaller studios are able to focus on building great player experiences instead of spending years building infrastructure from scratch.