Gloomhaven studio releases a demo for a new game and lays off more than half its employees on the same day

GamesRPGGloomhaven studio releases a demo for a new game and lays off more than half its employees on the same dayWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Flaming Fowl Studios)

Ironmarked key art - a group of fantasy adventurers in battle

In a strange and unfortunate turn, indie developer Flaming Fowl Studios, known for past games includingFable FortuneandGloomhaven, has released a demo for a new game on Steam while simultaneously laying off more than half its employees.

“Today we are releasing a demo ofIronmarked, a new game we have been working on recently,” Flaming Fowlsaid. “Unfortunately, due to the current lack of funding in the games industry, we are putting production on hold and have had to downsize the studio, letting go of some amazing people.

“As soon as we finished Gloomhaven, we signed Ironmarked,” Oman said. “We had multiple offers. But then a year and half later, we’ve gone back to a lot of the same publishers and they say they’re no longer looking for projects like this.”

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The layoffs reduced Flaming Fowl’s employee count from around 30 to just nine people, Oman said. The remaining developers are taking until the end of 2024 to make a smaller, self-funded strategy game. As for Ironmarked, he hopes that releasing the demo on Steam will help it attract enough wishlists to convince a publisher to get behind it in the future.

Today we are simultaneously releasing a demo of a new game and announcing that production has been put on hold due to the lack of funding in the industry.https://t.co/81r7ve3MQbApril 23, 2024

“Wishlists are a hugely important thing for anyone trying to launch a game on Steam,” Oman said. “It’s a metric you can go to publishers with that gives them a clear indication of the market you can tap into… they’re just so risk averse.”

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