Meet Airy the Dragon, the Studio's Mascot

Every studio has a face, and ours happens to have wings. Airy the Dragon is the friendly cartoon character at the center of Endtime Entrepreneurs — the little dragon who shows up on the games, on the music, and right there on the Piano Reveries album cover. If you’ve spent any time around the studio, you’ve already met Airy. This is the proper introduction.

Who Airy the Dragon is

Airy the Dragon is the mascot of Endtime Entrepreneurs, the indie game-and-music studio of composer Michael Clinesmith. Airy isn’t a scary, hoard-guarding dragon. Airy is warm, earnest, and a little playful — the kind of character you’d want narrating a bedtime story rather than burning down a village.

More than a mascot, Airy is also Michael’s composing persona. Online, Michael goes by AiryTheDragon, and that handle carries across everything: it’s his name on itch.io, the spirit on the Patreon page, and the face that greets you on the record sleeve. When you follow the studio anywhere, the dragon is usually the first thing you see.

That’s on purpose. A one-person studio doesn’t have a logo department or a marketing team — it has a person and the character that person dreamed up. Airy is the shorthand for a whole project: indie games with heart, and original music written to match.

From game character to studio mascot

Airy started the way most good mascots do — inside a world, not on a business card. The studio builds playable worlds, and somewhere in the making of them a cheerful dragon emerged who felt like the right host for all of it. Over time, Airy grew past any single game and became the brand itself.

You can meet that world for free. The studio’s small itch.io titles — The Beginning of Hope and A Guinea’s World — are open-door invitations into the same universe. And the flagship, Rebellion on Steam, is the full-length indie RPG that gives the studio its center of gravity. Airy is the thread that ties those very different projects into one recognizable place.

Airy on the Piano Reveries cover

Here’s where a lot of people first shake hands with Airy the Dragon: the cover of Piano Reveries. Michael’s 22-track solo piano album puts the dragon front and center, and that choice says something about the record. This isn’t a faceless collection of instrumentals — it’s a personal album with a personal mascot smiling out from the front.

It also quietly breaks a rule. Piano albums usually reach for the expected imagery: a grand piano in soft light, a moody black-and-white portrait, a lot of tasteful restraint. Piano Reveries puts a cartoon dragon there instead. That single decision tells you the music is going to be sincere but never stuffy — heartfelt without taking itself too seriously.

The album lives up to it. Across eight genres, from classical to flamenco to funk and chillwave, the through-line is warmth. You can listen to and buy Piano Reveries on the music page, and the whole time, Airy is the little guide standing at the door.

Why a dragon at a piano

A dragon at a piano is a funny image on paper, and a perfect one in practice. Dragons are supposed to be huge and dangerous; a piano ballad is supposed to be delicate and small. Airy sits right in the middle of that tension — big-hearted but gentle — which is exactly what Michael’s music does too.

Listen to the range on the album and Airy starts to make total sense as its face. There’s tenderness, like the hush of Jade’s Lullaby or the aching sincerity of For Grandma. There’s pure motion, the kind that makes you want to move, in Dance in D and Race. There’s the quiet after difficulty in After the Storm, and the honest effort of Working Through It. One character has to represent all of that, and a warm little dragon does it better than a stern portrait ever could.

That emotional range is also why the studio’s music travels so well. The same melodies that feel at home on a solo piano scaled up beautifully when the Vassar City Band performed the album live as a full ensemble in 2025 — proof that pieces with this much heart don’t need to shout to fill a room. Whether it’s the classical structure of the three-movement Sonatina in G or the bright lift of Joyous, the music keeps the same friendly spirit Airy wears on the cover.

Where you’ll spot Airy next

Once you start looking, Airy the Dragon is everywhere the studio is. Here’s where to go depending on what you’re after.

• To listen: head to the music page for Piano Reveries, with Spotify and Apple Music arriving soon. Pianists can play it themselves via Sheet Music Plus and Sheet Music Direct.
• To play: grab Rebellion on Steam, pick up the Soundtrack DLC to keep the score, or try the free itch.io games above.
• To follow: subscribe on the Endtime Entrepreneurs YouTube channel, where Airy shows up alongside the music.
• To support: join the studio on Patreon for exclusive tracks and sheet music — the most direct way to keep a solo studio making things.
• To hire Michael: if you want a custom score with this kind of warmth, he takes commissions through SoundBetter.

Airy the Dragon is small, cheerful, and a little bit brave — which is a fair description of an independent studio that writes its own games and its own albums. Every couple of years a new world arrives with its own original soundtrack, and the dragon is always there to welcome you in.

If this resonated, you can listen to and buy Piano Reveries, learn more about the music, or get in touch about a custom score.