What IS Skyward Masters?
Skyward Masters is a fast-paced Arena FPS where four teams battle across floating islands to destroy each other’s cores. Imagine Bedwars reimagined as a real competitive movement shooter — with high movement, holo-bridges, vertical combat, tactical objectives, and chaotic multi-team warfare.
And it all started with a frustration.
Not a frustration caused by disliking Bedwars. In fact, quite the opposite.
We loved it!
We loved it enough to believe it deserved more. More depth. More movement. More strategy. More mastery. Yet, we didn’t want to replace the magic of the game mode, we wanted to evolve it.
You see… We grew up during the era of arena shooters. We remember the LAN parties, the movement shooters. We remember communities forming around game modes that were never meant to become global phenomena. Which since have happened again and again, with some of the most popular IPs we all play and love today. Defining so many shared thrills and experiences that we have had together. That will forever be a part of us.
We thought “why has nobody turned Bedwars into a standalone IP?”
“Why has nobody taken this to the next level?”
In this article, we’re going to delve into some of these details about Trinor Entertainment and share our story and vision behind Skyward Masters.
Like many studio names, “Trinor” started as a messy brainstorm on a whiteboard. But the meaning stuck.
“Tri” came from the trident — representing three founders with wildly different skillsets trying to build something none of them could create alone.
“Nor” came from the north. Scandinavian roots. Scandinavian stubbornness.
Together, it became Trinor.
But not before we pay a visit back to 2020, where our founder, Philip, was doing what millions of players before him had done… staying up far too late playing Bedwars with his friends.
You see, Trinor began the same way many great multiplayer stories do: With friends staying awake far too late saying to each other: “One more game…”
Somewhere between the clutch plays, collapsing bridges, and chaotic team fights, Philip realized that there was so much potential here - potential to become more than just a few months worth of gameplay before he and his friends moved on…
… potential to become a real stand-alone gaming experience.
After countless conversations with players, one thing became obvious. Players were craving depth and renewal of the game mode, just like Philip had felt. And thus began a journey towards assembling the perfect founding team, a process that Philip had no idea at the time would involve many ups and downs and roughly take 2 years.
2 years before assembling Trinor.
Philip met Bjarke in April 2022 through a forum post for game development, and through Bjarke, they found Daniel at a barbeque event. Later that year, they made the joint decision to go all-in on pursuing this shared passion and dream. To build a game fueled by their shared vision, without any Pay2Win elements, without lootboxes, without tactical staleness or becoming another CS/Overwatch clone.
We admit, it might be the start of a typical cliché startup journey so far. But fasten your seatbelt, because you see… Trinor really doesn’t do things like other startups. We listen to what experts say, and then we chart our own way across the stars anyway.
So fasten your seatbelt, because it’s going to be one hell of a journey.
2023 didn’t exactly start smoothly for Trinor. After just four months of development, we were forced to switch engine entirely while also facing rejection from national game startup support programs. It was a rough start, but in hindsight, it pushed us to become leaner, more creative, and more international in our mindset.
That mentality has followed us ever since.
2024 became a major turning point as we moved into our first real office and entered full production mode. At one point, 11 people were working full-time on Skyward Masters — entirely bootstrapped — during one of the toughest periods the games industry has faced in years.
Fast forward through years of unpaid work, long nights, Discord playtests, setbacks, stubbornness, and an almost unhealthy belief in this “Go Bigger” mentality… and it started paying off.
Because somewhere along that journey, we met people who saw the same potential in Skyward Masters that we did. And who embodied that same mindset we had.
Because if there’s one person who understands high-pressure FPS decision making…
… it’s probably the only guy on the planet with five CS:GO Majors.
Yeah. That guy.
In 2025, we connected with Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen — the most winning Counter-Strike player in history - , alongside Frederik Byskov, co-founder of Astralis and one of the key figures behind both BLAST.tv and AceZone.
Hundreds of games had already been pitched to them over the years. They had never invested in one.
But when they stepped into the office, something clicked instantly.
The atmosphere quickly turned into the kind of LAN environment we grew up with — laughter echoing across the room, gamer slang flying between desks, callouts, cheers, high-fives, people passionately arguing over balance changes and movement mechanics.
They saw the same thing we did: The possibility that a game mode people once dismissed as “just a mod” could evolve into something far bigger — just like so many iconic multiplayer games before it.
A potential to become more.
Since then it has been a feeling of a team chasing the same dream. Frederik and Peter joining us as minority investors and partners, helping us bring the vision of Skyward Masters to life.
We had done Discord playtests as well as office gatherings before, but never a fully-fledged expo or event.
Skyward Masters was in Pre-Alpha, and we should be busy developing towards Alpha… yet there was this nagging feeling. How could we be - as so many studios rightfully claim - community first if we didn’t actually put it in players’ hands? If we didn’t go out and meet the community face-to-face, learn in real time, experiment publicly, and create shared moments together instead of only behind closed doors.
Several industry veterans advised us against it again and again. At that stage, most studios would have waited. Polished more. Prepared for longer. Revealed less. But that only motivated us even more…
Therefore we listened carefully — and then decided to do it anyway!
We brought Pre-Alpha Skyward Masters directly to Copenhagen Gaming Week. No controlled environment. No closed-door focus groups. No safety net.
Just real players, real pressure, and real feedback.
And honestly? Everything could have gone wrong!
Anyone who has ever run a live playtest at a major event knows there’s almost no margin for error. You have minutes — sometimes seconds — to make a first impression. Our game had barely been tested outside Discord, never in a crowded expo environment, and never under that many continuous hours of live pressure.
But we did it. And it worked! Players kept jumping back into the queue. Again. And again. That begged the question - was it luck? Or had we actually built something special?
At that point, there is only really one way to find out.
So we did it again. This time at Denmark’s biggest gaming event: Gamebox Festival.
Across both events, more than 1,300 players have now played Skyward Masters live. We saw 60+ minute queues, nearly half of players returning for additional matches, hundreds of feedback forms and preorders — and somehow, zero crashes across both events.
Not because we got lucky.
But because everyone on the team prepared like it mattered.
Because it did.
For us, “Go Big or Go Bigger” was never about pretending to be bigger than we are. It’s about believing in the vision enough to take bold steps before you feel fully ready. About daring to carve your own path instead of blindly following the ones built by the giants before you.
And this journey with the community is only just beginning.
Well, that was a lot of storytelling! Hopefully, it helps give you an understanding of who we are at Trinor Entertainment, and what we want Skyward Masters to be.
So… where IS Skyward Masters?
We are currently in Pre-Alpha, busy developing towards Alpha hopefully later this year.
We have a fast-growing Discord community at discord.gg/skywardmasters, where we’re assembling Masters ready to duke it out in the Skies at regular playtests, participate in our many partner giveaways, dev Q&As, devstreams, fan-art contests, behind-the-scenes specials and server polls.
The Discord server is the heart of our core community. The pulse of Skyward!
And if you think this read has been interesting, also remember to Wishlist us!
We continue to be humbled by the support and passion of our community, and we are excited to be able to shape this ecosystem together.
One big or bigger step at a time.
Because Limits are for the Ground.
The Sky is for Masters.