Who made Shift At Midnight
Shift At Midnight is built by a single developer, Bun Muen, with music by Ryan Q, and published by Kwalee. The Steam and Xbox release did not start there — it started as a free single-player demo on itch.io, and the credits trail across both versions is worth untangling because a lot of the game's design choices only make sense once you know that history.
Last verified 10 September 2026 · game version: 29 July 2026 patch
The short answer
| Developer | Bun Muen — solo developer |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Kwalee |
| Music | Ryan Q |
| Original prototype | Free demo on itch.io, singleplayer, before the Steam co-op version existed |
| Steam / Xbox release | 22 July 2026 |
| AI content | The itch.io listing states "No generative AI was used" |
One developer, not a studio
Bun Muen made Shift At Midnight alone, which this wiki's own about page already notes in passing — it is a solo project that Kwalee picked up to publish, not a Kwalee-built game with Kwalee's name attached from the start. That distinction matters for expectations: the pace of content updates, the size of the credits list, and the studio's public communication style (a single dev account posting patch notes directly) all trace back to it being one person's project rather than a team's.
Kwalee's role is publishing — distribution, storefront presence, and presumably marketing support — rather than development. The game's EULA is issued under Kwalee's name as publisher, which is standard for this kind of publisher/developer split.
The composer: Ryan Q
The game's music is credited to Ryan Q, listed on the original itch.io project page with a direct contact (an Instagram handle, @ryanqkfcman) for anyone looking to reach the composer directly. This is not information repeated anywhere else on this wiki, and it does not appear on the Steam store page itself — the credit only surfaces on the original itch.io listing, which is one more reason this page exists separately from the about page.
We have not found a released soundtrack, a dedicated composer statement about the score, or interviews discussing the music specifically. If one surfaces, this page is where it will get added, dated.
It started as a free single-player demo
Before Shift At Midnight was a $9.99 Steam and Xbox release, it existed as a free, downloadable prototype on itch.io — singleplayer only, and by the developer's own description on that page, without the randomly-generated shifts the full release has. The itch.io page still exists and carries the game's original development log, including the point where it was upgraded into a multiplayer co-op Steam demo, ahead of the eventual full release.
That page also states that the step from the original singleplayer prototype to the multiplayer Steam demo expanded the game from one night to three. Unconfirmed: we have not found a source describing which specific content carried over unchanged versus what was rebuilt for the multiplayer version, so we are not going to guess at a night-by-night breakdown. Neither demo used the shift-to-shift procedural generation that the full release relies on — that came later, in the Steam release proper. See the demo page for what is playable today versus what these earlier builds were.
The itch.io page carries its own rating, separate from Steam's review percentages covered on the review page. They measure different audiences at different points in the game's life — the itch.io number reflects reactions to the free prototype, not the paid release. Don't conflate the two when someone quotes a rating at you without saying which storefront it's from.
The "no generative AI" statement
The itch.io listing carries a content disclosure reading "No generative AI was used." Steam's own listing does not repeat this specific wording, but nothing on the Steam page contradicts it either. We are noting it here because it is a real, sourced statement from the developer's own storefront page, and questions about AI use in indie horror games come up often enough that a direct, dated answer is more useful than silence.
Official channels, if you want to follow development directly
The developer's own itch.io page lists Discord as the place to find other players and follow updates, alongside the official @BunMuenGames account this wiki already links from every page footer. For business or press contact, the itch.io listing lists a direct developer email rather than routing through Kwalee — consistent with Bun Muen retaining an independent public presence even after signing with a publisher.
The gap between the itch.io page and the Steam page
It's worth being explicit about why these two credits sources don't fully overlap. Steam's store page lists Bun Muen as developer and Kwalee as publisher, and stops there — it is not a full credits roll. The itch.io page, being the developer's own original project page rather than a storefront listing, carries the composer credit, the demo history, and the AI-use statement that Steam's listing simply doesn't have a field for. Neither page is wrong; they're built for different purposes, and a full picture needs both.
Where this fits with the rest of the wiki
This page exists to answer "who made this" on its own, rather than making readers dig it out of the about page (which covers this site's own editorial policy, not the game's credits) or the similar games page (which is about what to play next, not who built this one). If you came here chasing the composer credit or the itch.io history specifically, this is the page; everything else about the game itself — release date, platforms, price — is covered on the release date page.