Welsch Poked Studio Bets On Original IP With Gritty Sci-Fi Short ‘Pokedbots – Delta City’

Over the weekend, Welsh animation outfit Poked Studio debuted its animated short Pokedbots – Delta City, a gritty, neon-soaked pilot that doubles as a statement of intent: this is a studio betting on original IP, lean work-from-home production, and a future beyond traditional commissioning models.

Set in the year 2453, Pokedbots – Delta City imagines an Earth abandoned by humans and left to rust, quite literally. The planet is smog-choked, rain-soaked, and energy-starved. Its only inhabitants are the robots humanity created and left behind. Like a grittier Wall-E.

Most of the automatons are concentrated in Delta City, a former Antarctic metropolis, and the last human settlement before mankind fled the planet for good. Nuclear “energy drinks” power daily survival, monopolized by vast corporations, while rumors swirl of a master race of robots cannibalizing the weak and rogue human colonies exploiting cyborg intermediaries to drain the Earth’s core. The short follows a group of robots whose night out on dodgy power drinks spirals into contact with an old rebel and a resistance plotting to bring down the Silent Clan and its shadowy organization, EVOL 33.

For studio founder Jonathan Ball, the project crystallizes a shift he sees across the animation industry. “I think it’s the way forward now, to be honest,” Ball says of small, self-driven, digital-first productions. “We’ve got the ability to do it far more easily than we used to anyway.” That ethos underpins Poked Studio’s debut, a 17-minute, CG-animated short produced over two years with a tight, mostly remote team.

Ball brings more than two decades of commercial experience to the venture. An illustrator by trade, he worked across games, toys, and major brand campaigns before redirecting that expertise inward. “I’ve done a little bit for almost all the big companies,” he says. “And I just thought, ‘No, I’m going to do my own thing.’ It’s like I’m doing it for everyone else, but now it’s our own characters and stories.”

Pokedbots was conceived as a world first, characters and story second, kind of. Ball traces the project’s origins to earlier character explorations, but in design only, not in depth of personality, since the originals were designed for a successful NFT launch by the studio years ago.

He says that now, his priorities lie in environment and tone. “I’m interested in the setting and what’s around the characters more than any one story,” he explains. “The visuals were always really important to me, and I’m interested in creating a lived-in world.” The pilot only samples that universe; future stories could follow entirely different characters in other corners of the same timeline.

Tonally, the short aims for an intergenerational sweet spot. It isn’t a kids’ show, but it isn’t wall-to-wall adult provocation either. “We were keen not to aim at specific age groups too much,” Ball says. “You can get cartoons which are not aimed at children, but children could watch it… create something that people can enjoy at different ages.” Even the language was debated, with alternate R-rated takes recorded before Ball ultimately opted for restraint.

Production-wise, Pokedbots – Delta City is emblematic of Poked Studio’s ambitions. The short was animated in Blender, with Ball noting that the team has been using the software “for decades.” Artists worked remotely, convening only at his in-home studio/screening room for key reviews, a model that kept the studio nimble and cost-effective.

Having debuted in Cardiff over the weekend, Balls says the next step is an online release, although no date has been set. He’s hoping to hit a few European festivals and markets with the finished pilot to court possible co-production partners, investors, or distributors.

Ball and his team envision Pokedbots as a springboard for more episodes, potentially a feature, and a broader slate of original IP developed under the same lightweight model. In an era when even major industry figures are embracing indie pathways, Poked Studio’s debut feels timely as proof of concept that world-building, smart tools, and creative autonomy can carve space for new animated universes to emerge on platforms available to the masses.