The team behind
first contact.
Four people. One ancient anomaly. One alien civilisation. A completely unreasonable amount of pressure.
Fiona Keil is a game designer and artist completing a Master's degree in New Media at Aalto University. At XenoEtiquette, she leads the visual identity, alien cultures and visual communication, while co-designing the game's overarching concept and puzzle modules.
What excites her most about the project is the unusual challenge of creating an asymmetric co‑op game that combines digital gameplay with physical/manual interaction. She has a particular fondness for cooperative games, strange creatures, and finding new ways to make players (mis)communicate, collaborate and bond.
Niklas Malinen is a game development professional with 5 years of industry experience and 3 shipped games. He leads Unity development, gameplay systems and technical implementation for XenoEtiquette, while also co-designing puzzles and building the asymmetric systems that support cooperation and player discovery.
His experience across different areas of game development is a major strength for the team. Games have always been part of his life — from video games to board games and tabletop role-playing — and cooperative games have always been close to his heart.
Miro Aurela is an award-recognised indie game designer with a background in computer science. His previous games have been recognised in competitions including Think Ink Innovation Contest 2024 — 2nd place and Aware Games Awards 2024 — finalist. In May 2026, Miro joined the XenoEtiquette team as Producer & Co-Designer.
At XenoEtiquette, he leads production, puzzle design and playtest‑feedback analysis, helping shape both the project and the communication-driven puzzle experience. He is especially interested in exploring communication as a vital skill that is often taken for granted.
Mariia Makushina is a technology entrepreneur, repeat founder and Co-Founder of XenoEtiquette, with a Master's degree in Computer Science. She previously built and led an international education business with global sales and brings experience across technology, entrepreneurship, marketing and startups.
At XenoEtiquette, she leads business development, partnerships, positioning and go-to-market activities, while growing the game's visibility within the indie games ecosystem. She is especially interested in building games and products that bring people together through communication, cooperation and shared experiences.
Opabinia is a five-eyed marine organism recovered from pre-human fossil records. Initial observers classified the species as “impossible,” “incorrect,” and “probably assembled backwards.” Subsequent investigations revealed no evidence of malfunction.
Despite its appearance, Opabinia displays a strong tendency toward curiosity, cooperation, and non-hostile interaction.
“A creature does not need to be familiar to be worthy of understanding.”