Deliver Us the Moon, Deliver Us Mars developer KeokeN Interactive has laid off its entire team due to a lack of publishing options — a worrying sign of things to come. Co-founder and CEO Koen Deetman warned last month that this might be the case following the frosty reception many smaller studios seeking funding received at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC).
Koen and his brother and the studio's managing director, Paul Deetman, shared the sad news on Twitter (thanks, Eurogamer), doing what they could to ensure affected staff would find somewhere else to land. The statement reads: "Heartbroken, we've had to lay off our team at KeokeN because nothing substantial materialised directly after our visit to GDC. We've unfortunately exhausted all our possible options for publishing, work for hire, and co-development."
The brothers have vowed to rebuild the studio, refusing to let the state of the industry break them. Koen states: "Paul and I are heavily beat, but far from beaten. It's our personal mission to rebuild KeokeN brick by brick like we've done before, in the name of our people and to continue the legacy of our games."
It's becoming increasingly difficult for indie developers like KeokeN to secure funding, a state of affairs that is unlikely to change anytime soon. Deliver Us Mar was released in February 2023 and published by Frontier Foundry, which suffered from layoffs and an organisational review later that year. KeokeN is preparing a Kickstarter for Deliver Us Home, the next game in the series, with more information in the future.
Do you see an end to these industry doldrums? How much more talent will be lost before some sense of normality returns? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 11
Once I read a tweet from Tyler Glaiel (the current development partner of Edmund McMillen) and he said that an indie developer isn't indie if they depend on publishers because if you depend on a publisher at the first signal of trouble for them you are done.
I know it seems unfair to put the blame on a small studios with good ideas like deliver us mars but if your plan as a company or studio is to design games that you know you can't pay alone and then wait for someone to put the money then you should know this day can happen ... and it happened.
This makes me remember that one studio who made rpgs, had a little gir as the logo and their last game had pirates. When they closed they said something like "we wasted too much money trying to keep up with the industry" and the problem is why would you try to keep up with studios that can waste all that money when you DON'T have it? I know a big problem of the industry is the regular CoD player doesn't buy anything that doesn't look like GTA but if you can't compete in budget then let the ideas carry your success.
The problem is the same for all devs doesn't matter if it's sony, ms, or these guys. Bad administration specially in the management of resources is losing jobs and will keep losing jobs until big companies understand the value of smaller games and indie developers understand that there should be a limit on what they can do based in real budgets not a fictional one. Obviously big and small devs are already working on something and they aren't going to waste all that money and time to start something smaller from 0 so this situation will keep happening for the years to come.
Shame, I’ve rather enjoyed their games for what they are. Need people like them in the game industry.
Played Deliver Us the Moon and really enjoyed it despite it's rough edges, but never bought the sequel at launch due to poor reviews. However, I've just played Deliver Us Mars on PS Plus and I'm genuinely baffled by the shockingly low metacritic score. 69!?!?
Sure it's still got obvious shortcomings due to the indie nature of the development, but damn it deserves better than it got, and it excels in certain areas better than most AAA games. I will 100% purchase Deliver Us Home if they can find a way to do it.
I thought they recently re-announced a Switch port of the first game (Nintendo Life ran the story)? Maybe it's cancelled once more then.
Deliver Us the Moon didn't blow me away by any means, but I enjoyed it just enough to play Mars at some point. Regardless, it's still a shame that they had to lay everybody off because indies are struggling so much. Yes, I know even the larger developers are laying people off, but it's still a shame.
I enjoyed Mars up until I had to climb. I deleted the game instantly. Such a shame.
This sucks, I really enjoyed both Deliver games and would definitely buy a 3rd. I hope they can find a publisher willing to take a chance.
Deliver us another job
Shouldn't the “saviors” of the industry microsoft have stepped in to fund the project? Lol
Deliver Us the Moon was enjoyable, but the follow up featured boring gameplay, long unnecessary flashback sequences, and an unlikeable protagonist. I wouldn’t fund a third game, either.
@GymratAmarillo "indie developer isn't indie if they depend on publishers because if you depend on a publisher at the first signal of trouble for them you are done"
I think a lot of this come down to people hoping to get rich quick. AKA start a studio, pitch several ideas to publishers, hope one of those ideas get picked up, build a big fancy office with a bunch of perks to entice top tier developers to apply, release an okay product, sell studio/IP to publisher... profit???
With the massive BOOM the industry saw during COVID. It bought a lot of eyes to the industry as a way to make profit. People just don't release the massive profit gains don't last...
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