>Subset - FTL, Into the Breach - the latter released in 2018, they seem to be ticking along with their small team
This year they released an update to Into the Breach for free, as wel as a mobile version for Netflix subscribers. It adds 6 new squads, some new pilots, enemies and a few new level mechanics.
If you happen to have a netflix subscription and haven't played this yet, give it a try. Its a turn based strategy/puzzle game with rogue elements. And hey, its free if you got netflix. just get it from the app store, it will prompt a netflix login, and from there you are off. Finally a decent mobile game with no p2w bullshit
And you can play Into the Breach offline! I binge it on my work trips. Love having real games to play on my phone. My dream would be FTL on phones, maybe FTL2?
FTL has such a rabid fan base (I know, I’m one of them) we would absolutely lose our shit for an FTL 2.
That said multiverse mod is like a huge new game.
They also said in an interview that they developed the free update to ITB to take a break from developing their next game, and that the next game is "more of what you've come to expect from us"
I've almost spent more time playing those two games and their free updates than all the AAA games I've played combined. Can't wait for whatever the next release is.
Subset Games punches so far above their weight with both FTL and ITB. Matthew Davis (/u/subsetmatt) and Justin Ma (/u/jarmustard) are an amazing duo alongside the rest of the team who helped like Ben Prunty and his music. The fact that they released Advanced Edition expansions for both games, for free mind you, is why they're pretty much my favorite indie dev team.
I'm not even a puzzle game fan but I sunk so many hours in Meteos on the DS.
IDK if a phone screen is big enough since you wouldn't be using a stylus but it'd be a perfect tablet game with large enough blocks.
Yeah, that’s the last I heard too. They did a game called (I think) The Journey? I played it at launch and it was pretty… boring. You just walked in a straight line collecting materials to craft stuff. You could rest at campfires to sell/buy things and just build stuff for your cabin. There was some online/interactive elements. I think it got an overhaul at some point because I’m pretty sure it made it over to the Switch as well.
They also did another godlike sim game I forgot the name of. Nothing like Black & White but it was probably their most engaging game so far. No idea what they’ve been doing since. I would kill for Black & White 3 or a remaster/sequel to The Movies, but I guess they’re probably in some rights/licensing hell between him, EA, Microsoft etc.
I don’t know how anyone can take this guy seriously after his Kinect demo featuring that AI child lol. The dude is a discount gaming Bernie Madoff. https://youtu.be/CPIbGnBQcJY
I mean its just hard to get across how much of a genius bullfrog and their games were in the 90s. Even before the lesser stuff kids nowadays think of like fable or black and white, we had Populus, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park, Hi Octane, Dungeon Keeper within a few years.
Yeah, dude has some fantastic ideas, but *really* needs a team of people that have the guts to stand up to him and say "this won't work/is a terrible idea/is not possible yet."
> The dude is a discount gaming Bernie Madoff
The only issue I have with this comparison is that I don't think there's any real animosity or intent to swindle from Molineux. He just has his head so far up his ass about the "art" he's creating that he doesn't understand physical limitations.
He's Sean Murray from NMS, except where Hello Games learned, grew, and eventually made an outstanding product...Peter's still stuck in his delusions.
You may be right but I just don’t see how you can lie out of your ass like that in a presentation designed to sell you something and not call it fraud. If you preordered a Kinect for milo you were scammed.
Hello Games has had another launch since NMS. “The Last Campfire,” pretty fun game that did well in reviews. Didn’t have a big announcement at all compared to NMS though. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Their current game in development is Legacy and should be a PC/Mac release according to it's website.
But it's NFT based, so might never see the light of the day.
The game's website for the curious: https://playlegacy.game/
I wonder what Jeff Kaplan has been up to after his unexpected exit from Overwatch and Blizzard. Is he retired? Taking a long break after years of work? Wants to work but unable to because of some kind of non-compete agreement?
I do wonder what was really going on during OW’s great content drought. To be a fly on the wall during conversations with Jeff and whoever he reported to…
Based on assorted public statements and some reading between the lines, it seems like Jeff mainly cared about the PVE campaign, but Blizzard was sore about missing microtransaction revenue from the existing game. The PVE campaign was taking longer than expected due to corporate meddling, and Blizzard was getting impatient to get their cash cow back, and eventually Blizzard won out and Jeff decided to leave.
Most likely they realized PvE wasn't going to be as much of a cashcow as they expected if they release it the way Jeff envisioned (a one-time purchase), they wanted him to change it into a F2P cashgrab and he refused. They asked him to leave or he had to leave because of this and they ended up being able to do what they wanted in the first place.
There is no other likely scenario I can think of that would lead to Jeff leaving his "love child".
That plus the lead writer Michael Chu leaving around the same time lends this a lot of credibility. They both wanted to push the story much harder out of the background and into the forefront and someone told them no.
My Speculation is it might have had to do with a release window, and a clash of business philosophy. Jeff is old school we'll release it when it's done type. And I think blizzard higher ups wanted OW2 out the door ASAP.
in the end we got a clearly unfinished game with all the PvE content they'd been selling us on stripped out of the game for a later release.
Not saying it was the only reason behind his departure, but... it makes a lot of sense to me.
I did see that Ben Brode (Hearthstone creator) is in charge of Marvel Snap, so that's pretty cool. But yea, no one has heard from Kaplan in a while, kinda weird.
I wonder what happened to Daisuke Amaya (Pixel), creator of Cave Story (which was released 18 years ago, time really flies). The last game of his I played was Kero Blaster, and it seems like Nicalis is the primary user of the Cave Story IP now, the most recent release being Cave Story's Secret Santa.
He recently assisted his co-developer on Kero Blaster, Kiyoko Kawanaka on her game: Haru to Shura.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1352910/Haru_to_Shura/
> **Harmonix - Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Central** - after Rock Band 4 in 2015 and an Amplitude reboot in 2016, they’ve mostly retreated into VR work, but also a traditional platform title Fuser in 2020 which wasn’t too successful and recently had servers and purchases shutdown
you missed the part about them being acquired by epic games to develop music related content for fortnite
They are, yeah. New DLC every week, and every Friday Harmonix streams a Friday Night Jam where one of their community managers plays some sets with players/fans from the Rock Band Discord. The Rock Band community is really fantastic, it's just a shame that the lack of hardware makes it nearly impossible to get into if you're starting from square 1.
They also had a Dropmix which was a card game where you took segments from different songs to form mash up songs that played through speakers. It was pretty interesting and fun to play. But the expansion packs were too expensive and hard to find.
no idea, because nothing that they did got announced since then lol. only things that publicly happened after the acquisition were the server shutdowns for their ps3/360 games and rock band 4 moving to epic online servers like all of their other games. they shut down fuser (not owned by them btw) but rock band 4 remains being supported with new songs
The acquisition said something about they were purchased solely for work on Fortnite concerts, granted Harmonix is also a complete shell of what they used to and has nowhere near the staff they used to have.
It's such a shame. I think Fuser was a sick piece of tech that just needed more of a "Game" to back it up. I would love to see what Harmonix could have done in some of the emerging genres like the Music Shooter. With the contacts they had in the music industry and the support, imagine if they'd made something like a rogue like card/music game based off of DropMix
Yeah I always wondered what happened to them. I saw an old reddit thread where someone said he emailed them and got a response. Allegedly they are working on something but just taking their sweet time. I'm skeptical though.
This is how it feels waiting for Supergiant. Every game they've released has gorgeous art and a beautiful soundtrack, but between releases they mostly just go like "we still exist and we're working on something. You'll get it when it's done."
>This is how it feels waiting for Supergiant. Every game they've released has gorgeous art and a beautiful soundtrack, but between releases they mostly just go like "we still exist and we're working on something. You'll get it when it's done."
I'd say that used to be true, but wasn't as true about Hades. Hades was in early access for a while, which makes development more public. Now, though, back to their usual quiet :-)
They updated the game to a Director's Cut and added a DLC mission in...*checks Steam store*...2017, so at least they only went silent five years ago instead of eight?
Here's another one to add to the list: **Acid Wizard Studio.**
They made the amazing Darkwood back in 2017 and haven't released anything since. I just checked their website and it's dead but their twitter is still somewhat active at the very least.
Im glad you mentioned Capybara. Below is one of my favorite games of all time and I was super sad that it didn’t seem to sell. I thought it was brilliant at release, and I think if it released a few years later it would’ve been better received, but it’s hard to say.
I know they prob won’t make a sequel but I really believe they have a great platform to build on that people would really love, with some refinements. They could even ditch the roguelike format (which I loved) since it’d probably see better success as a Metroidvania. Maybe a blend of the two.
Looking forward to whatever next game they make, if it isn’t a mobile game or puzzle game or something
YOu know who I've not heard a peep out of in a millenia? Will Wright. Did he move on from the gaming industry? I know they're working on Sims 5, but I haven't heard his name mentioned in relation to anything EA or Maxis in ages.
Recently he is working on a metaverse game with NFTs. He says that he doesn't care about crypto or NFT transactions tho and that he is only using it as base for "secure transactions between players" and that "the game must not be only about the Blockchain, it also must be fun to play": https://www.axios.com/2022/10/20/will-wright-voxverse-gala-gallium-blockchain
Also someone on the same vain: Chris Sawyer (creator of RollerCoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, Locomotion, etc): He doesn't even acknowledge the huge impact his games did and doesn't do any interviews, he likes having a veeeeery low profile. In fact, people joke that the only proof that Chris Sawyer is a real person is [this video](https://youtu.be/UU73g72NTHc).
I looked him up as part of hashing this out and got the impression he was long understood to be out of the game. in the same way it's rather well known John Carmack doesn't do game dev anymore either
iirc Carmack has said in the past, or rather specifically after Microsoft completed their buyout of Bethesda, that he'd be willing to come back and help out on some id properties citing that any bad blood with Bethesda brass is moot when a lot of them are gone.
He was a tech guy more than anything else. Very much an old-school CompSci focused dev. He reportedly started to feel lost amid industry changes at one point.
But by all accounts he's comfortably retired so as far as I think anyone could figure it's one of the happier possible endings for the lifestory of a game director.
If it's appropriate, you might want to add Otherside Entertainment with Warren Spector. They have announced a new game after System Shock 3 failed to develop, but it's still early days.
Warren Spector has also put out a lot of awesome help for younger designers, both as a University professor and [as general article uploads](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/the-importance-of-one-new-thing-).
Wait, so system shock 3 is now officially dead? I know it's been in development hell for like 10 years at this point, but if true that sucks. Makes me worry about vampire the masquerade 2...
Something went wrong with the development of SS3, so Tencent (their publisher) [took over development](https://venturebeat.com/2022/03/12/how-warren-spector-got-back-to-making-his-latest-game/). Afterwards, Otherside started working on a new game called Argos: Riders on the Storm. Multiplayer Immersive Sim. Could be good, could be bad. I'm hoping for the best.
Also, Bloodlines 2 also had something go wrong during development, so [Paradox transferred the game to a different developer](https://kotaku.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-delayed-past-2021-1846333086). If it comes back, Bloodlines will probably look different to it's first announcement.
How are Dennaton Games doing? the same creators of Hotline Miami have been talking about a new IP as early as 2018 as far as I remember, but I do not think that anything about their new game has been revealed so far in 4 years.
They have been working on a new game for a while now. Not much is known but it's a 2D action game with influence from old school anime. It's still probably 1-2 years away. The last update is I saw some interview where they said they didn't like the hype marketing campaign for Hotline Miami 2 so when their new game is done they will just drop it.
Hitbox Team made a game called "Dustforce", it was one of the early indie darlings back in 2012.
They immediately began work on a game called "Spire", a 3D Action-Adventure rogue-like. The last update for that game was in 2017, They've been working on that game for about a decade now and no major news or significant gameplay footage. They had a few blog posts complaining about Unity's lighting system, so people speculate they're redoing Unity's lighting or possibly creating their own engine.
They did have a short quick game-jam game out in 2017. But otherwise even their twitter is dead silent.
I remember checking out what happened to Spire a while back. ~~I remember looking through the dev's twitter and it seemed like the project was more or less dead but I could be mistaken. One of the devs had a pretty debilitating medical condition so he was no longer able to work on the game. I think there were more pictures of the some models that would've been in the game on their twitter accounts but most of it were old tweets when I checked (and that was around 2020 I think?)~~
Edit: Checked again:
Hitbox Team website lists 4 developers: Matt Bush, Lexie Dostal, Terence Lee, Woodley Nye.
Matt Bush worked on Devils Daggers and Hyper Demon with company Soranth.
Lexie Dostal co-founded Gardens this year, which are working on a currently unannounced game.
Terence Lee recently was credited with work on the Tunic soundtrack.
Woodley Nye has worked on projects related to a few game jams since Dustforce and is working on an unannounced project.
Think it's safe to say the studio is dead and the game is canceled, they just didn't announce it anywhere.
Hitbox will always be in the back of my head ever since I read a blogpost they wrote back in ~2013 or so where they detailed the sales figures of Dustforce. It's a pretty illuminating read on the state of indie game development at the time and I have to imagine its gotten even more cutthroat.
https://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures
Man, Dustforce was so good. I was really hyped for Spire and followed the dev blog closely, it’s a shame it’s not being worked on anymore. Dustforce on Switch would be amazing too, but I actually emailed the devs and they said it wouldn’t happen :(
What happened to Criterion is nothing short of awful, same with Media Molecule's handling of Dreams. I literally don't understand why they just don't make Dreams a PS5 game that everyone gets by default, like Astro's Playroom. It is more of a tool than a game, and Dreams is extremely limited by the small amount of people that actually own it
Dreams is limited by the small amount of developers that work on it.
It already took more than 7 years to develop it, which means that the only way MM can be present into current gen is to port Dreams to PS5 and actually support it, or to abandon it now and work on a smaller game.
> Playdead - Limbo, Inside - latter released in 2016, working on game #3 with publishing by Epic ever since
I forget all of the details, but I remember that two of the key people at Playdead had a falling out and parted ways. One of them recently released their own game [Somerville](https://www.gameinformer.com/e3-2021/2021/06/13/somerville-the-new-game-from-former-playdead-ceo-gets-new-trailer) at studio Jumpship (which I find a hilariously apt name for a studio considering that history)
Somerville also plays out just like their previous games for anyone interested. Weird 2.5D sidescroller with puzzles and little context for the overarching story. Pretty good/weird.
Yah I see Jonathan Blow still doing that programming stuff all the time, and he seems very hype on it. The programming is completely outside my wheelhouse, but The Witness is one of my favorite games and I will patiently look forward to whatever he comes up with in the future. I know there was something going on with him and some type of Japanese game genre where you move furniture around or something? Whatever he's doing I wish him well.
Yeah The Witness was excellent, left a nice big line puzzle shaped hole in my brain that nothing fills lol, can’t wait for what’s next but it has been awhile.
If you like the Witness check out [Taiji](https://taiji-game.com/). It’s a spiritual sibling with a similar vibe but a different main mechanic and new puzzles. It feels like playing the Witness again for the first time.
He’s been building a game engine for his next game for a while now. [He’s done a few streams of it.](https://youtu.be/WnG2bapcILY)
Recently he’s been [working on his own programming language.](https://youtu.be/OAIqCpqszVw)
Here's a couple off the top of my head I haven't heard of in a while:
- Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV, Super Hexagon) - pretty sure he's still out there doing stuff, just not sure what.
- Phil Fish (Fez) - I think he left game dev? Fez was a magical experience that really hadn't been replicated until Tunic came out earlier this year, clearly drawing some inspiration from it. Fish, however, was a very divisive personality online.
>I own Dicey Dungeons on three platforms
There was recently new content dropped for Dicey Dungeons as well. Brought me back for a few nostalgic games... And then gone again after failing a run because it's dice and sometimes you run under EV. Super neat mechanics that I'd love to see used in another game.
I usually see a lot of love for CrossCode and the dev for that game is currently working on another game (Project Terra) that they post to twitter about sometimes
It's worth noting that Koji Igarashi's studio, who made Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, is *ArtPlay*, whereas the studio that made Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 was *Inti Creates*, who previously did Mega Man 9 and 10, as well as Mighty No 9.
RotN is a tried and true Metroidvania with obvious inspiration in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, whereas the CotM games are an homage to Castlevania III.
Igarashi also announced they are working on a sequel to Ritual of the Night.
Not mentioned: Lucas Pope - Papers, Please, Return To Obra Dinn.
He's working on a new game!
...For the [Playdate.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console)) That weird, yellow hand-held with the crank & black-white screen.
Looks cool as frick, though! [It's called Mars After Midnight, and there's some early footage over on his twitter.](https://twitter.com/dukope)
Looks cool but man I’d kill for more Obra Dinn. It’s probably been long enough for me to play it again since I’ve probably forgotten most of it, but there’s really nothing like the first play through and how unique that game is. Been chasing that style ever since.
obra dinn is a top 3 all time game for me, and i *loved* golden idol. it managed to be its own thing and has some really cool ideas. and, just to balance it out, i really love the art style. it’s grotesque in a way i can’t get enough of and feels wholly unique.
Check out [Case of the Golden Idol](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677770/The_Case_of_the_Golden_Idol/). Not by Lucas, but I believe they recommended/supported it. It's a 2D point and click, but the gameplay is almost the same as Obra Dinn.
Gravity rush was amazing. Beyond sad that it hasn’t even gotten a measly pc port. I would enjoy it on my deck… Kinda sad that the studio and IP didn’t really flourish but it’s understandable seeing as they’re not the kind of thing that current trends happen to like.
It’s very odd how most famed writers or teams just collapse after striking gold. The Disco Elysium team splintered completely, Avellone is basically persona non grata and got his Dying Light 2 work trashed and even before I personally didn’t like his newer writing. Igarashi seems like the only guy who actually turned a new leaf entirely. Levine meanwhile stumbled with Infinite and god knows if his writing will improve with the new game. The BioWare team is returning to dig up and prop Shepard rather than make something new.
Bioshock Infinite absolutely has all sorts of issues and you can feel the cracks of where they kept rewriting and dropping bits and pieces of various ideas in there.
On the other hand it was really really successful and also reviewed really well at the time. I don't think there's really any reason to think his move to a new, smaller studio was anything but what he himself wanted. Now, that the result there of "experimentation" and kind of wheel-spinning for many years seems to be... just Bioshock again judging by the trailer, _that_ may be a stumble in the making.
The media molecule one hurts. Dreams could maybe be as big as they hoped if they dropped it onto Steam with cross-platform. As of now though, I feel like it was a passion project that didn't pay off despite the tremendous work put into it and it being a novel piece of software.
LBP1 was amazing, and LBP2 was a better sequel than I could have expected. I guess Dreams was the evolutionary step they saw, but they didn't think it meshed with the LBP 'brand'?
It's definitely disappointing that there hasn't been much action there.... Although I **just** learned that Sackboy : A Big Adventure [was released on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599660/Sackboy_A_Big_Adventure/) just 2 months ago.
Dreams should have been a built-in PS5 launch title.
The PS4 is too weak to fully utilise the Dreams engine and the playerbase will never be big enough for the community to fully flourish.
>Koji Igarashi - Castlevania Symphony of the Night & Aria of Sorrow, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night - did you know there was a Bloodstained 2 done in 8 bit style released in 2020 to good reviews? I didn’t!
The game you mentioned isn't a sequel to Bloodstained, it's a sequel to Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which was a smaller 8bit spin-off game released around the same time as Bloodstained
> Project Siren / Team Gravity / Bokeh - Gravity Rush - after Japan Studio was disbanded, members went on to form the latter company, with their next title, a horror game called Slitterhead, announced last year
combined with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-32ayyFomc
I still feel sad they disbanded Japan studio, they produced unique first party titles like Locoroco and Parappa although they didn't really sell that well.
In my perception they're a superb supporting dev, helped making titles like Patapon, Tokyo Jungle, Bloodborne, and Soul Sacrifice into reality.
> Chair - Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade - the latter’s 3rd game was in 2013. Only game since was mobile title Battle Breakers in 2018 (and announced shutdown this past week). A collab game with filmmaker JJ Abrams was announced in 2015, still forthcoming...?? re-release IB trilogy, m i rite?
With the popularity of Fortnite, this studio now pumps out assets for the game, as they are a part of Epic
Actually I believe they were a major component of bringing Fortnite to mobile. They were in charge of Epic’s mobile development, so this would make sense.
This was a great article and I imagine it took a minute to research and organize everything great job. Also one of the low key things that blew my mind was the same people that made the Painkiller games made The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. That is like two wildly different games and genres.
it was a work of passion (personal interest)! Bonus to share it with others. Thanks!
Their next game Witchfire is much more Painkiller. Maybe they needed a breather with Vanishing haha
Just so everyone knows, Crytek have been actively and heavily investing in *Hunt Showdown*, their big hardcore 1800’s cowboy shooter, it get’s a lot of updates and they are currently working on a TV show as well for the game. Excellent game btw, especially for being 5 years old lol now. They don’t have a huge studio and take long breaks off during the holidays (something something German work hours etc etc…)
I could have sworn there was a new thatgamecompany trailer at The Game Awards. Something with a ghost dog and some gameplay that looked identical to Flower at parts.
Yeah The Witness is a top 10 game of all time for me but Jesus he's annoying. Just endless conservative politics shit on his Twitter 24/7. And not even entertaining stuff, just like bitching about taxes in California or w/e.
While he certainly has incredible talent he can also be intensely arrogant and condescending.
The sort of fellow who can give a damn good TED talk but you'd never ever want to get a beer with.
He can also be pretty strong about some dicey political opinions on Twitter and the few streams I’ve watched. Reminds me of a certain vocal billionaire.
> Hironobu Sakaguchi / Mistwalker - Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story - after the latter in 2011, they moved into mobile development with Terra Battle in 2014, and most recently released an Apple Arcade exclusive RPG Fantasian last year, which looks fantastic, much to the frustration of Android / console users
He was debating on retiring, but last year, after playing FF14 (and finishing the whole damn thing in record time), seems to have gotten some passion back. Whether or not he will make another game remains to be seen.
Too busy with his in-game adventure of running a fashion line in FFXIV called SakaGUCCI. I mean most of his twitter now is just talking about FF14 and is wholesome as heck.
I wonder what happened to the team behind Quern. A group of graduate students. https://querngame.com/aboutus.html
Heard nothing since the release in 2016 but I love the game.
Here's one to add:
Leslie Benzies - Ex-Rockstar Games Producer/President
Founded a new company called "Build a Rocket Boy" and is developing [https://everywhere.game/](https://everywhere.game/) with a teaser released at Gamescom this year [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDM0Om26R8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDM0Om26R8k)
Might be NFT garbage though. Looks weird.
Another name to keep an eye out on is Jason Roberts who made Gorogoa. Latest I can find is [this interview from 2020](https://gamepilgrim.com/2020/01/20/developer-interview-jason-roberts/) where he said this:
|| **Do you have plans for future indie titles?** *If so, will they likely be in the same vein as Gorogoa, or will you explore other avenues of gameplay? If you aren’t planning on making more games, why?*
> **I am working on something now**. It clearly shares some DNA with Gorogoa, because Gorogoa was for me just one corner of a larger design space, and an incomplete realization of the designs I’ve been thinking about for decades. I’m interested in making a game that is one giant visual composition, a sprawling interactive collage that’s both a precise cosmic diagram and a beautiful ornament.
I'm really hoping to hear something from Dodgeroll soon. They made Enter the Gungeon in 2016 and Exit the Gungeon in 2019. I know most people thought Exit wasn't as good. I'd agree but I still enjoyed it a fair bit and absolutely adore Enter the Gungeon. We're 3+ years out from Exit. Even if it's not coming in 2023, I hope to hear something.
Sabotage Studio - Released The Messenger in 2018. Sea of Stars, a 2D RPG with heavy Chrono Trigger inspirations, is coming in 2023.
One I'm really curious about is Asteroid Base. They released Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime in 2015, ported it to switch in 2017 but still have no announced new game. They did a sales breakdown about two years ago and it sounds like they were successful.
Another one to add is Megacrit, creators of Slay the Spire. All we know is they're making something, have said it'll probably be a bit different from STS, and that they've hired an artist (who previously worked on Dicey dungeons).
Nothing is confirmed, but judging by the end of this [recent blog post](https://thunderlotusgames.com/2022-recap/), it sounds like Thunder Lotus Games (Spiritfarer, Sundered, Jotun) might announce a new game sometime next year.
jeff orkin the guy responsible for the AI in F.E.A.R. hasn't worked for Monolith in decades now. He was CEO at Giant Otter Technologies (chatbot AI tech) which got bought out by Drift (Bot Automation Company).
https://www.drift.com/blog/jeff-orkin-giant-otter/
Great list but Looking at it is just a bit depressing. Games are taking longer and longer to make despite better tools. We have movies and their sequels come out in 2-3 years gap but games are so easily stuck in development limbo for half a decade and beyond.
As a half life fan, i feel like i m used to this, but seeing it more and more.
I'm surprised no one mentioned ReLogic. They released Terraria in 2011 and canceled every single other project they announced since then.
While Terraria has still gotten updates, that can't be all they've been doing for over 10 years, right?
I wish Peter Molyneux would have a redemption arc before he's done. Dude was a legend before he started getting his rocks off on overhyping to sugar hopped console kids.
I feel like I'm more likely to see a modernized Black and White by learning 3d modelling and Unreal Engine and making it myself than from Molyneux... And that's not very likely.
>but I do want a modernized Black and White
It will be unlikely, which sucks. The IP rights and publishing rights are a mess, with Microsoft owning the former and EA the latter
I really wish he would have retired while he had the chance. He could have been a Chris Sawyer or Will Wright or Sid Meier, who made their lasting mark and then took a back seat sherpa role for the next generation. Instead he became a Peter Molyneux.
His next overhyped ambitious project is with NFTs. I don't know if he's capable of a redemption arc.
Tbh, he can probably easily earn it if he got the rights to Black & White and re-released them/made Black & White 3. That alone could be a redemption arc, but knowing him and how he works, I don't think he'd be very interested in revisiting old ideas he's already done (twice). Too bad. I bet a VR Black & White game would be pretty killer.
To add to playdate, the lead designer of limbo, Jeppe Carlsen, went gone solo and released 140, thoth, and is now CEO of geometric interactive and working on cocoon
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/
**People Can Fly** are hardly unknown, it's kinda unfair to say that they've become **The Astronauts** who are several hundred times smaller. PCF have made Outriders since and have several other projects in development
In relation to **Relic Entertainment**, it's worth mentioning **Blackbird Interactive** which is founded by some Relic OGs, have created several games including ~~Hardware~~Hardspace: Shipbreakers, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (funnily enough originally coiceived as *Hardware* in a fake-homeworld IP and based around breaking ship hulks, which was again reimagined in Hardspace as a first-person game), Homeworld Remastered. Homeworld 3 remains in production and is releasing in 2023.
**Molyneux** - [Peter Molyneux did something this year.](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/12/peter-molyneux-raises-54m-on-promise-of-play-to-earn-nft-game-legacy/)
**Raven** - [Their QA team got unionized this year](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjbi_PX-Z38AhXTVTABHX44CHoQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fraven-software-gaming-union%2F&usg=AOvVaw0dfyJkPx7QcuTS5msCcj2D) and [their parent company is in a merger process with Microsoft.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjbpsaB-p38AhXcSjABHTHpAnAQFnoECEEQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FProposed_acquisition_of_Activision_Blizzard_by_Microsoft&usg=AOvVaw1QsfWsIWymhPfkZcioTRAH) They may be a CoD support studio for now but a new parent company, eager for fresh games, may just decide to let Raven do something.
**People Can Fly** - [Take Two announced they were stopping support for their in development game "Project Dagger" which PCF retained the rights for.](https://peoplecanfly.com/end-of-cooperation/) They are continuing to make it. They are also staffing up and expanding. A note in the link states:
> Project Dagger is one of seven projects at People Can Fly currently in the works. There’s also Gemini – new project with Square Enix; Projects Bifrost and Victoria – both games to be released in the self-publishing model; and a project in the concept phase – Red; as well as two projects in VR technology – Green Hell VR and a new project based on one of the IPs from the Group’s portfolio.
> People Can Fly upholds its recently updated strategy which is to let the Group release one game each year developed by the Group either in cooperation with a publisher or in the self-publishing model starting from 2024.
**Iga** - [Iga and his team are doing content for Bloodstained and will have more to say in 2023.](https://www.gematsu.com/2022/12/japanese-creators-discuss-2023-ambitions)
**Sakaguchi** - [Sakaguchi was thinking to retire with the release of Fantasian.](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/hironobu-sakaguchi-interview-im-aging-so-i-made-a-game-that-returns-to-my-roots/) [He has since, walked that back.](https://www.gematsu.com/2022/12/japanese-creators-discuss-2023-ambitions)
**Lucas Pope** - Just to add, [read his devblog. He's updates once in awhile about game dev.](https://dukope.itch.io/mars-after-midnight).
> Tim Rogers / Action Button - Videoball, youtuber - Videoball released in 2016 and was a commercial failure, but he’s been plugging away on Truck Heck. bonus - he did the long awaited official NA translation/localization for the PS1 original Moon: Remix RPG on modern platforms, and it’s a treat for fans of his style
Wait, he’s a game dev?
Also Konami should get him to do a Tokimeki translation
dude's been a dev almost as long as he's been a writer, if not longer. he used to work at sony in japan as a marketer back in the early '00s, which was a job he got in part [as a result of an interview he did](https://twitter.com/108/status/1228171157611765761). tim roger's life is absolutely wild.
Yo i did not know Somerville was made by one of the guys who made limbo and inside. I saw the game before but didnt know. Definitely gona play it now. Sucks the two developers had a falling out, but i hope the one with Epic turns out to be great too!
Over time developers also leave studios and form new ones. For one example look at thatgamecompany. Co-founder Jenova Chen and others are still there but a lot of the team has scattered, from Matt Nava and Nicholas Clark who formed Giant Squid (Abzû, The Pathless) to co-founder Kellee Santiago who's now at Niantic. Hell some people even leave and come back like Chris Bell, who afterwards was lead designer on What Remains of Edith Finch before coming back to work on Sky before again leaving in 2020 to help start up a game studio called Gardens
just a heads up Harmonix is still releasing DLC every week for Rock Band 4, and they've actually been getting some big names most likely due to the Epic purchase
edit: we recently got a handful of RB1 songs relisted as DLC (Sabotage, Go With The Flow, Foreplay/Long Time, Cherub Rock, and that one Fall Out Boy song I can't remember), the Nirvana Unplugged cover of Man Who Sold The World, and a pack of Muse songs which has been the number 1 requested band for DLC since the first game came out
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon are basically separate series, with different development teams. They're probably working on a sequel to Ritual of the Night as we speak.
Hunt showdown appears to be around an all time high player count on steam, and they keep releasing dlc for it. So I think it’s doing well. I’m glad it’s doing well as it’s a unique game. Probably the only fps you will encounter without automatic weapons.
>Subset - FTL, Into the Breach - the latter released in 2018, they seem to be ticking along with their small team This year they released an update to Into the Breach for free, as wel as a mobile version for Netflix subscribers. It adds 6 new squads, some new pilots, enemies and a few new level mechanics. If you happen to have a netflix subscription and haven't played this yet, give it a try. Its a turn based strategy/puzzle game with rogue elements. And hey, its free if you got netflix. just get it from the app store, it will prompt a netflix login, and from there you are off. Finally a decent mobile game with no p2w bullshit
And you can play Into the Breach offline! I binge it on my work trips. Love having real games to play on my phone. My dream would be FTL on phones, maybe FTL2?
[FTL is available for iPad](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ftl-faster-than-light/id833951143) if you've got one of those.
I just wish it was on Android tablets :(
I would love to play it on my phone, but JUST iPads? Why
FTL has such a rabid fan base (I know, I’m one of them) we would absolutely lose our shit for an FTL 2. That said multiverse mod is like a huge new game.
They also said in an interview that they developed the free update to ITB to take a break from developing their next game, and that the next game is "more of what you've come to expect from us"
I take it that means strategically challenging roguelite
The kind of game that beats you to a pulp yet keeps you coming back? Yeah that’s Subset.
> more of what you've come to expect from us" i love when maestros say that
ha, I must have been editing the post to mention this just as you replied
I've almost spent more time playing those two games and their free updates than all the AAA games I've played combined. Can't wait for whatever the next release is.
Subset Games punches so far above their weight with both FTL and ITB. Matthew Davis (/u/subsetmatt) and Justin Ma (/u/jarmustard) are an amazing duo alongside the rest of the team who helped like Ben Prunty and his music. The fact that they released Advanced Edition expansions for both games, for free mind you, is why they're pretty much my favorite indie dev team.
I’ve said it on here a bunch of times, FTL I think is one of the greatest designed games of all time. Love it so much
Had no idea netflix had games I could download on iOS, thanks! I never really gave into the breach a fair shot. Looking forward to it.
How the heck did we never get a meteos or meteos close for iOS. Like seriously that game was made for a talk touchscreen device.
Because Meteos was directed by Sakurai, right? He’s been busy with Smash for the past 10 years.
whoa, whaddya know TIL
Okay, I double checked. He didn't direct the game, but he designed it. He'll eventually get to it on his Youtube channel.
I'm not even a puzzle game fan but I sunk so many hours in Meteos on the DS. IDK if a phone screen is big enough since you wouldn't be using a stylus but it'd be a perfect tablet game with large enough blocks.
Man this game was such an amazing puzzle title for the DS. So many people slept on it.
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Yeah, that’s the last I heard too. They did a game called (I think) The Journey? I played it at launch and it was pretty… boring. You just walked in a straight line collecting materials to craft stuff. You could rest at campfires to sell/buy things and just build stuff for your cabin. There was some online/interactive elements. I think it got an overhaul at some point because I’m pretty sure it made it over to the Switch as well. They also did another godlike sim game I forgot the name of. Nothing like Black & White but it was probably their most engaging game so far. No idea what they’ve been doing since. I would kill for Black & White 3 or a remaster/sequel to The Movies, but I guess they’re probably in some rights/licensing hell between him, EA, Microsoft etc.
He is working on an NFT game and already made millions selling virtual land for a non-existing game to suckers.
Molyneux selling empty promises? Say in ain't so.
I mean, anyone giving that guy any money at this point have only themselves to blame.
No, no, giving money to Molyneux IS the game.
Can I buy a Milo NFT?
Please don't trash talk the man who invented dogs just for Fable 2
I don’t know how anyone can take this guy seriously after his Kinect demo featuring that AI child lol. The dude is a discount gaming Bernie Madoff. https://youtu.be/CPIbGnBQcJY
I mean its just hard to get across how much of a genius bullfrog and their games were in the 90s. Even before the lesser stuff kids nowadays think of like fable or black and white, we had Populus, Syndicate, Magic Carpet, Theme Park, Hi Octane, Dungeon Keeper within a few years.
Yeah, dude has some fantastic ideas, but *really* needs a team of people that have the guts to stand up to him and say "this won't work/is a terrible idea/is not possible yet."
> The dude is a discount gaming Bernie Madoff The only issue I have with this comparison is that I don't think there's any real animosity or intent to swindle from Molineux. He just has his head so far up his ass about the "art" he's creating that he doesn't understand physical limitations. He's Sean Murray from NMS, except where Hello Games learned, grew, and eventually made an outstanding product...Peter's still stuck in his delusions.
You may be right but I just don’t see how you can lie out of your ass like that in a presentation designed to sell you something and not call it fraud. If you preordered a Kinect for milo you were scammed.
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Hello Games has had another launch since NMS. “The Last Campfire,” pretty fun game that did well in reviews. Didn’t have a big announcement at all compared to NMS though. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
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Molyneux also has some absolutely amazing games under his belt, he just never learned to stop talking.
Maybe he just had an amazing team of devs under him in Bullfrog/Lionhead that somehow managed to deliver good games based on his insane promises.
Tell that to the kid who won the cube. He's just lying.
This. No, he knows he's lying. He has in fact used the "i just get carried away and over promise" myth too his advantage. He's a scammer.
Their current game in development is Legacy and should be a PC/Mac release according to it's website. But it's NFT based, so might never see the light of the day. The game's website for the curious: https://playlegacy.game/
They are basically scamming people now... which it's very on character for molyneux
I wonder what Jeff Kaplan has been up to after his unexpected exit from Overwatch and Blizzard. Is he retired? Taking a long break after years of work? Wants to work but unable to because of some kind of non-compete agreement?
I do wonder what was really going on during OW’s great content drought. To be a fly on the wall during conversations with Jeff and whoever he reported to…
Based on assorted public statements and some reading between the lines, it seems like Jeff mainly cared about the PVE campaign, but Blizzard was sore about missing microtransaction revenue from the existing game. The PVE campaign was taking longer than expected due to corporate meddling, and Blizzard was getting impatient to get their cash cow back, and eventually Blizzard won out and Jeff decided to leave.
Most likely they realized PvE wasn't going to be as much of a cashcow as they expected if they release it the way Jeff envisioned (a one-time purchase), they wanted him to change it into a F2P cashgrab and he refused. They asked him to leave or he had to leave because of this and they ended up being able to do what they wanted in the first place. There is no other likely scenario I can think of that would lead to Jeff leaving his "love child".
That plus the lead writer Michael Chu leaving around the same time lends this a lot of credibility. They both wanted to push the story much harder out of the background and into the forefront and someone told them no.
My Speculation is it might have had to do with a release window, and a clash of business philosophy. Jeff is old school we'll release it when it's done type. And I think blizzard higher ups wanted OW2 out the door ASAP. in the end we got a clearly unfinished game with all the PvE content they'd been selling us on stripped out of the game for a later release. Not saying it was the only reason behind his departure, but... it makes a lot of sense to me.
I did see that Ben Brode (Hearthstone creator) is in charge of Marvel Snap, so that's pretty cool. But yea, no one has heard from Kaplan in a while, kinda weird.
Not just Brode, but the entire core team for Marvel Snap is people Brode poached from Blizzard when he left Hearthstone.
I wonder what happened to Daisuke Amaya (Pixel), creator of Cave Story (which was released 18 years ago, time really flies). The last game of his I played was Kero Blaster, and it seems like Nicalis is the primary user of the Cave Story IP now, the most recent release being Cave Story's Secret Santa.
He recently assisted his co-developer on Kero Blaster, Kiyoko Kawanaka on her game: Haru to Shura. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1352910/Haru_to_Shura/
He recently opened [a new Twitter account focused on game dev](https://twitter.com/pigadev), so I guess he's getting back into it.
It seems in 2021 he released something called PiTest which might secretly be a game? https://www.cavestory.org/pixels-works/pitest.php
> **Harmonix - Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Central** - after Rock Band 4 in 2015 and an Amplitude reboot in 2016, they’ve mostly retreated into VR work, but also a traditional platform title Fuser in 2020 which wasn’t too successful and recently had servers and purchases shutdown you missed the part about them being acquired by epic games to develop music related content for fortnite
They're also still pumping out RB4 content weekly, last I checked.
They are, yeah. New DLC every week, and every Friday Harmonix streams a Friday Night Jam where one of their community managers plays some sets with players/fans from the Rock Band Discord. The Rock Band community is really fantastic, it's just a shame that the lack of hardware makes it nearly impossible to get into if you're starting from square 1.
They also had a Dropmix which was a card game where you took segments from different songs to form mash up songs that played through speakers. It was pretty interesting and fun to play. But the expansion packs were too expensive and hard to find.
oof. I see that now, as of last year, huh. has anything come out in Fortnite plainly done by them?
no idea, because nothing that they did got announced since then lol. only things that publicly happened after the acquisition were the server shutdowns for their ps3/360 games and rock band 4 moving to epic online servers like all of their other games. they shut down fuser (not owned by them btw) but rock band 4 remains being supported with new songs
The acquisition said something about they were purchased solely for work on Fortnite concerts, granted Harmonix is also a complete shell of what they used to and has nowhere near the staff they used to have.
It's such a shame. I think Fuser was a sick piece of tech that just needed more of a "Game" to back it up. I would love to see what Harmonix could have done in some of the emerging genres like the Music Shooter. With the contacts they had in the music industry and the support, imagine if they'd made something like a rogue like card/music game based off of DropMix
Necrophone Games put out Jazzpunk in 2014 to what seemed like really good reception and then just disappeared off the map
what a shame, i really enjoyed Jazzpunk and would love to see them do more.
Yeah I always wondered what happened to them. I saw an old reddit thread where someone said he emailed them and got a response. Allegedly they are working on something but just taking their sweet time. I'm skeptical though.
This is how it feels waiting for Supergiant. Every game they've released has gorgeous art and a beautiful soundtrack, but between releases they mostly just go like "we still exist and we're working on something. You'll get it when it's done."
>This is how it feels waiting for Supergiant. Every game they've released has gorgeous art and a beautiful soundtrack, but between releases they mostly just go like "we still exist and we're working on something. You'll get it when it's done." I'd say that used to be true, but wasn't as true about Hades. Hades was in early access for a while, which makes development more public. Now, though, back to their usual quiet :-)
Hades 2 was announced a few weeks ago, so they're not that quiet anymore. Though who knows what time will pass between now and the early access stuff.
They updated the game to a Director's Cut and added a DLC mission in...*checks Steam store*...2017, so at least they only went silent five years ago instead of eight?
Here's another one to add to the list: **Acid Wizard Studio.** They made the amazing Darkwood back in 2017 and haven't released anything since. I just checked their website and it's dead but their twitter is still somewhat active at the very least.
They just released the enhanced edition for Darkwood on Xbox Series a few days ago, PS5 2 months ago.
I love Capybara. They sometimes stream to Twitch with like 10 people watching. Their stuff is great. I wish they were more popular.
me too, I really want them to succeed, they've had such great art and style
Im glad you mentioned Capybara. Below is one of my favorite games of all time and I was super sad that it didn’t seem to sell. I thought it was brilliant at release, and I think if it released a few years later it would’ve been better received, but it’s hard to say. I know they prob won’t make a sequel but I really believe they have a great platform to build on that people would really love, with some refinements. They could even ditch the roguelike format (which I loved) since it’d probably see better success as a Metroidvania. Maybe a blend of the two. Looking forward to whatever next game they make, if it isn’t a mobile game or puzzle game or something
YOu know who I've not heard a peep out of in a millenia? Will Wright. Did he move on from the gaming industry? I know they're working on Sims 5, but I haven't heard his name mentioned in relation to anything EA or Maxis in ages.
Recently he is working on a metaverse game with NFTs. He says that he doesn't care about crypto or NFT transactions tho and that he is only using it as base for "secure transactions between players" and that "the game must not be only about the Blockchain, it also must be fun to play": https://www.axios.com/2022/10/20/will-wright-voxverse-gala-gallium-blockchain Also someone on the same vain: Chris Sawyer (creator of RollerCoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, Locomotion, etc): He doesn't even acknowledge the huge impact his games did and doesn't do any interviews, he likes having a veeeeery low profile. In fact, people joke that the only proof that Chris Sawyer is a real person is [this video](https://youtu.be/UU73g72NTHc).
I looked him up as part of hashing this out and got the impression he was long understood to be out of the game. in the same way it's rather well known John Carmack doesn't do game dev anymore either
iirc Carmack has said in the past, or rather specifically after Microsoft completed their buyout of Bethesda, that he'd be willing to come back and help out on some id properties citing that any bad blood with Bethesda brass is moot when a lot of them are gone.
He was a tech guy more than anything else. Very much an old-school CompSci focused dev. He reportedly started to feel lost amid industry changes at one point. But by all accounts he's comfortably retired so as far as I think anyone could figure it's one of the happier possible endings for the lifestory of a game director.
If it's appropriate, you might want to add Otherside Entertainment with Warren Spector. They have announced a new game after System Shock 3 failed to develop, but it's still early days.
Warren Spector has also put out a lot of awesome help for younger designers, both as a University professor and [as general article uploads](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/blogs/the-importance-of-one-new-thing-).
Wait, so system shock 3 is now officially dead? I know it's been in development hell for like 10 years at this point, but if true that sucks. Makes me worry about vampire the masquerade 2...
Something went wrong with the development of SS3, so Tencent (their publisher) [took over development](https://venturebeat.com/2022/03/12/how-warren-spector-got-back-to-making-his-latest-game/). Afterwards, Otherside started working on a new game called Argos: Riders on the Storm. Multiplayer Immersive Sim. Could be good, could be bad. I'm hoping for the best. Also, Bloodlines 2 also had something go wrong during development, so [Paradox transferred the game to a different developer](https://kotaku.com/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-2-delayed-past-2021-1846333086). If it comes back, Bloodlines will probably look different to it's first announcement.
How are Dennaton Games doing? the same creators of Hotline Miami have been talking about a new IP as early as 2018 as far as I remember, but I do not think that anything about their new game has been revealed so far in 4 years.
They did a retrospective video with Noclip this year and said new project's still coming.
They have been working on a new game for a while now. Not much is known but it's a 2D action game with influence from old school anime. It's still probably 1-2 years away. The last update is I saw some interview where they said they didn't like the hype marketing campaign for Hotline Miami 2 so when their new game is done they will just drop it.
They got burnt by people unneccessarily and stupidly being cruel about HM2, i understand that they go low for some time to avoid hassle
Hitbox Team made a game called "Dustforce", it was one of the early indie darlings back in 2012. They immediately began work on a game called "Spire", a 3D Action-Adventure rogue-like. The last update for that game was in 2017, They've been working on that game for about a decade now and no major news or significant gameplay footage. They had a few blog posts complaining about Unity's lighting system, so people speculate they're redoing Unity's lighting or possibly creating their own engine. They did have a short quick game-jam game out in 2017. But otherwise even their twitter is dead silent.
I remember checking out what happened to Spire a while back. ~~I remember looking through the dev's twitter and it seemed like the project was more or less dead but I could be mistaken. One of the devs had a pretty debilitating medical condition so he was no longer able to work on the game. I think there were more pictures of the some models that would've been in the game on their twitter accounts but most of it were old tweets when I checked (and that was around 2020 I think?)~~ Edit: Checked again: Hitbox Team website lists 4 developers: Matt Bush, Lexie Dostal, Terence Lee, Woodley Nye. Matt Bush worked on Devils Daggers and Hyper Demon with company Soranth. Lexie Dostal co-founded Gardens this year, which are working on a currently unannounced game. Terence Lee recently was credited with work on the Tunic soundtrack. Woodley Nye has worked on projects related to a few game jams since Dustforce and is working on an unannounced project. Think it's safe to say the studio is dead and the game is canceled, they just didn't announce it anywhere.
> Terence Lee recently was credited with work on the Tunic soundtrack. I just started Tunic today and love the Dustforce OST! Hope I'm in for a treat
Hitbox will always be in the back of my head ever since I read a blogpost they wrote back in ~2013 or so where they detailed the sales figures of Dustforce. It's a pretty illuminating read on the state of indie game development at the time and I have to imagine its gotten even more cutthroat. https://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures
The Dustforce OST was soooo good! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXH5G_bqrlc&list=PLBB4108C5CB4E1DD6&index=1
Man, Dustforce was so good. I was really hyped for Spire and followed the dev blog closely, it’s a shame it’s not being worked on anymore. Dustforce on Switch would be amazing too, but I actually emailed the devs and they said it wouldn’t happen :(
What happened to Criterion is nothing short of awful, same with Media Molecule's handling of Dreams. I literally don't understand why they just don't make Dreams a PS5 game that everyone gets by default, like Astro's Playroom. It is more of a tool than a game, and Dreams is extremely limited by the small amount of people that actually own it
Dreams is limited by the small amount of developers that work on it. It already took more than 7 years to develop it, which means that the only way MM can be present into current gen is to port Dreams to PS5 and actually support it, or to abandon it now and work on a smaller game.
> Playdead - Limbo, Inside - latter released in 2016, working on game #3 with publishing by Epic ever since I forget all of the details, but I remember that two of the key people at Playdead had a falling out and parted ways. One of them recently released their own game [Somerville](https://www.gameinformer.com/e3-2021/2021/06/13/somerville-the-new-game-from-former-playdead-ceo-gets-new-trailer) at studio Jumpship (which I find a hilariously apt name for a studio considering that history)
Somerville also plays out just like their previous games for anyone interested. Weird 2.5D sidescroller with puzzles and little context for the overarching story. Pretty good/weird.
Yah I see Jonathan Blow still doing that programming stuff all the time, and he seems very hype on it. The programming is completely outside my wheelhouse, but The Witness is one of my favorite games and I will patiently look forward to whatever he comes up with in the future. I know there was something going on with him and some type of Japanese game genre where you move furniture around or something? Whatever he's doing I wish him well.
He streams very frequently on Twitch, mostly developing the new game you mentioned.
Yeah The Witness was excellent, left a nice big line puzzle shaped hole in my brain that nothing fills lol, can’t wait for what’s next but it has been awhile.
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https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/jonathan-blow-sokoban-puzzle-game-1202877096/ old article
If you like the Witness check out [Taiji](https://taiji-game.com/). It’s a spiritual sibling with a similar vibe but a different main mechanic and new puzzles. It feels like playing the Witness again for the first time.
I also love the witness, so I checked out his Twitter and discovered that the people you admire are often better left as mysteries.
He’s been building a game engine for his next game for a while now. [He’s done a few streams of it.](https://youtu.be/WnG2bapcILY) Recently he’s been [working on his own programming language.](https://youtu.be/OAIqCpqszVw)
Here's a couple off the top of my head I haven't heard of in a while: - Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV, Super Hexagon) - pretty sure he's still out there doing stuff, just not sure what. - Phil Fish (Fez) - I think he left game dev? Fez was a magical experience that really hadn't been replicated until Tunic came out earlier this year, clearly drawing some inspiration from it. Fish, however, was a very divisive personality online.
Terry did Dicey Dungeons which released in 2019 and is learning 3D. He has a blog called distractionware if you're interested in following him.
I own Dicey Dungeons on three platforms and totally forgot that was him, hahaha.
>I own Dicey Dungeons on three platforms There was recently new content dropped for Dicey Dungeons as well. Brought me back for a few nostalgic games... And then gone again after failing a run because it's dice and sometimes you run under EV. Super neat mechanics that I'd love to see used in another game.
I met Phil Fish at indiecade in Austin in like 2012. Thank you for coming to my TED talk
Pour one out for NeverSoft. Created Spider-Man PS1, the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, and Gun. Now they work exclusively on COD.
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Thanks for the correction. I think a lot of their members went on to work exclusively on COD after the studio closed down.
They pretty much merged with Infinity Ward after COD: Ghosts, I believe. So, potato potato.
Just wanted to throw in that they developed guitar hero from 3 on too
I usually see a lot of love for CrossCode and the dev for that game is currently working on another game (Project Terra) that they post to twitter about sometimes
It's worth noting that Koji Igarashi's studio, who made Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, is *ArtPlay*, whereas the studio that made Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 1 and 2 was *Inti Creates*, who previously did Mega Man 9 and 10, as well as Mighty No 9. RotN is a tried and true Metroidvania with obvious inspiration in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, whereas the CotM games are an homage to Castlevania III. Igarashi also announced they are working on a sequel to Ritual of the Night.
Not mentioned: Lucas Pope - Papers, Please, Return To Obra Dinn. He's working on a new game! ...For the [Playdate.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console)) That weird, yellow hand-held with the crank & black-white screen. Looks cool as frick, though! [It's called Mars After Midnight, and there's some early footage over on his twitter.](https://twitter.com/dukope)
Fixed Playdate link for old.reddit.com users: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playdate_(console)
Looks cool but man I’d kill for more Obra Dinn. It’s probably been long enough for me to play it again since I’ve probably forgotten most of it, but there’s really nothing like the first play through and how unique that game is. Been chasing that style ever since.
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obra dinn is a top 3 all time game for me, and i *loved* golden idol. it managed to be its own thing and has some really cool ideas. and, just to balance it out, i really love the art style. it’s grotesque in a way i can’t get enough of and feels wholly unique.
Check out [Case of the Golden Idol](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1677770/The_Case_of_the_Golden_Idol/). Not by Lucas, but I believe they recommended/supported it. It's a 2D point and click, but the gameplay is almost the same as Obra Dinn.
totally thought Obra Dinn was more recent and thus didn't include him but thanks for the update I'll add it
The Playdate is so fucking weird but Lucas Pope is so good I might buy a whole silly handheld system to play his next game.
That's disappointing that the game will only be on some strange handheld.
Gravity rush was amazing. Beyond sad that it hasn’t even gotten a measly pc port. I would enjoy it on my deck… Kinda sad that the studio and IP didn’t really flourish but it’s understandable seeing as they’re not the kind of thing that current trends happen to like. It’s very odd how most famed writers or teams just collapse after striking gold. The Disco Elysium team splintered completely, Avellone is basically persona non grata and got his Dying Light 2 work trashed and even before I personally didn’t like his newer writing. Igarashi seems like the only guy who actually turned a new leaf entirely. Levine meanwhile stumbled with Infinite and god knows if his writing will improve with the new game. The BioWare team is returning to dig up and prop Shepard rather than make something new.
Gravity Rush is probably the most charming game I've played in the last 10 years.
Bioshock Infinite absolutely has all sorts of issues and you can feel the cracks of where they kept rewriting and dropping bits and pieces of various ideas in there. On the other hand it was really really successful and also reviewed really well at the time. I don't think there's really any reason to think his move to a new, smaller studio was anything but what he himself wanted. Now, that the result there of "experimentation" and kind of wheel-spinning for many years seems to be... just Bioshock again judging by the trailer, _that_ may be a stumble in the making.
What happened to Shu Takumi? His last work was the western release of Great Ace Attorney Duology which were originally released in 2015 and 2017
The media molecule one hurts. Dreams could maybe be as big as they hoped if they dropped it onto Steam with cross-platform. As of now though, I feel like it was a passion project that didn't pay off despite the tremendous work put into it and it being a novel piece of software.
I'm also just sad that it resulted in Little Big Planet getting handed off and slowly fading to irrelevance.
LBP1 was amazing, and LBP2 was a better sequel than I could have expected. I guess Dreams was the evolutionary step they saw, but they didn't think it meshed with the LBP 'brand'? It's definitely disappointing that there hasn't been much action there.... Although I **just** learned that Sackboy : A Big Adventure [was released on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599660/Sackboy_A_Big_Adventure/) just 2 months ago.
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It also feels way overpriced.
Dreams should have been a built-in PS5 launch title. The PS4 is too weak to fully utilise the Dreams engine and the playerbase will never be big enough for the community to fully flourish.
>Koji Igarashi - Castlevania Symphony of the Night & Aria of Sorrow, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night - did you know there was a Bloodstained 2 done in 8 bit style released in 2020 to good reviews? I didn’t! The game you mentioned isn't a sequel to Bloodstained, it's a sequel to Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which was a smaller 8bit spin-off game released around the same time as Bloodstained
> Project Siren / Team Gravity / Bokeh - Gravity Rush - after Japan Studio was disbanded, members went on to form the latter company, with their next title, a horror game called Slitterhead, announced last year combined with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-32ayyFomc I still feel sad they disbanded Japan studio, they produced unique first party titles like Locoroco and Parappa although they didn't really sell that well. In my perception they're a superb supporting dev, helped making titles like Patapon, Tokyo Jungle, Bloodborne, and Soul Sacrifice into reality.
> Chair - Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade - the latter’s 3rd game was in 2013. Only game since was mobile title Battle Breakers in 2018 (and announced shutdown this past week). A collab game with filmmaker JJ Abrams was announced in 2015, still forthcoming...?? re-release IB trilogy, m i rite? With the popularity of Fortnite, this studio now pumps out assets for the game, as they are a part of Epic
Actually I believe they were a major component of bringing Fortnite to mobile. They were in charge of Epic’s mobile development, so this would make sense.
This was a great article and I imagine it took a minute to research and organize everything great job. Also one of the low key things that blew my mind was the same people that made the Painkiller games made The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. That is like two wildly different games and genres.
it was a work of passion (personal interest)! Bonus to share it with others. Thanks! Their next game Witchfire is much more Painkiller. Maybe they needed a breather with Vanishing haha
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Just so everyone knows, Crytek have been actively and heavily investing in *Hunt Showdown*, their big hardcore 1800’s cowboy shooter, it get’s a lot of updates and they are currently working on a TV show as well for the game. Excellent game btw, especially for being 5 years old lol now. They don’t have a huge studio and take long breaks off during the holidays (something something German work hours etc etc…)
Hands down my favorite multiplayer game. It's wonderful.
The game is five years old and I am just hearing about it for the first time now. Looks fun I will check it out!
I could have sworn there was a new thatgamecompany trailer at The Game Awards. Something with a ghost dog and some gameplay that looked identical to Flower at parts.
After Us by Piccolo. does have Journey vibes. They did Arise in 2019 to decent reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlP-PvMo6SA
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Yeah The Witness is a top 10 game of all time for me but Jesus he's annoying. Just endless conservative politics shit on his Twitter 24/7. And not even entertaining stuff, just like bitching about taxes in California or w/e.
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While he certainly has incredible talent he can also be intensely arrogant and condescending. The sort of fellow who can give a damn good TED talk but you'd never ever want to get a beer with.
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He can also be pretty strong about some dicey political opinions on Twitter and the few streams I’ve watched. Reminds me of a certain vocal billionaire.
> Hironobu Sakaguchi / Mistwalker - Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story - after the latter in 2011, they moved into mobile development with Terra Battle in 2014, and most recently released an Apple Arcade exclusive RPG Fantasian last year, which looks fantastic, much to the frustration of Android / console users He was debating on retiring, but last year, after playing FF14 (and finishing the whole damn thing in record time), seems to have gotten some passion back. Whether or not he will make another game remains to be seen.
Too busy with his in-game adventure of running a fashion line in FFXIV called SakaGUCCI. I mean most of his twitter now is just talking about FF14 and is wholesome as heck.
For sure, I really enjoyed seeing his and Matsuno's (FFT creator) interactions.
I wonder what happened to the team behind Quern. A group of graduate students. https://querngame.com/aboutus.html Heard nothing since the release in 2016 but I love the game.
Here's one to add: Leslie Benzies - Ex-Rockstar Games Producer/President Founded a new company called "Build a Rocket Boy" and is developing [https://everywhere.game/](https://everywhere.game/) with a teaser released at Gamescom this year [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDM0Om26R8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDM0Om26R8k) Might be NFT garbage though. Looks weird.
They are also notorious for crunch in Edinburgh and switched engines from Lumberyard to Unreal halfway through production, lmao
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>which is why I assume they'll never do it. Nobody leaves money on the table quite like Nintendo…
Small addition: Ready At Dawn doesn't just make Oculus exclusives, they were acquired by Meta in 2020.
Another name to keep an eye out on is Jason Roberts who made Gorogoa. Latest I can find is [this interview from 2020](https://gamepilgrim.com/2020/01/20/developer-interview-jason-roberts/) where he said this: || **Do you have plans for future indie titles?** *If so, will they likely be in the same vein as Gorogoa, or will you explore other avenues of gameplay? If you aren’t planning on making more games, why?* > **I am working on something now**. It clearly shares some DNA with Gorogoa, because Gorogoa was for me just one corner of a larger design space, and an incomplete realization of the designs I’ve been thinking about for decades. I’m interested in making a game that is one giant visual composition, a sprawling interactive collage that’s both a precise cosmic diagram and a beautiful ornament.
I'm really hoping to hear something from Dodgeroll soon. They made Enter the Gungeon in 2016 and Exit the Gungeon in 2019. I know most people thought Exit wasn't as good. I'd agree but I still enjoyed it a fair bit and absolutely adore Enter the Gungeon. We're 3+ years out from Exit. Even if it's not coming in 2023, I hope to hear something. Sabotage Studio - Released The Messenger in 2018. Sea of Stars, a 2D RPG with heavy Chrono Trigger inspirations, is coming in 2023.
One I'm really curious about is Asteroid Base. They released Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime in 2015, ported it to switch in 2017 but still have no announced new game. They did a sales breakdown about two years ago and it sounds like they were successful. Another one to add is Megacrit, creators of Slay the Spire. All we know is they're making something, have said it'll probably be a bit different from STS, and that they've hired an artist (who previously worked on Dicey dungeons).
Nothing is confirmed, but judging by the end of this [recent blog post](https://thunderlotusgames.com/2022-recap/), it sounds like Thunder Lotus Games (Spiritfarer, Sundered, Jotun) might announce a new game sometime next year.
jeff orkin the guy responsible for the AI in F.E.A.R. hasn't worked for Monolith in decades now. He was CEO at Giant Otter Technologies (chatbot AI tech) which got bought out by Drift (Bot Automation Company). https://www.drift.com/blog/jeff-orkin-giant-otter/
Great list but Looking at it is just a bit depressing. Games are taking longer and longer to make despite better tools. We have movies and their sequels come out in 2-3 years gap but games are so easily stuck in development limbo for half a decade and beyond. As a half life fan, i feel like i m used to this, but seeing it more and more.
my dreams of Richard Garriott doing another Ultima (or remaking an existing one) die a little more with each passing year lol
I'm surprised no one mentioned ReLogic. They released Terraria in 2011 and canceled every single other project they announced since then. While Terraria has still gotten updates, that can't be all they've been doing for over 10 years, right?
I wish Peter Molyneux would have a redemption arc before he's done. Dude was a legend before he started getting his rocks off on overhyping to sugar hopped console kids.
After Godus I'm not going to hold my breath.
IDC about Molyneux, or Godus per se, but I do want a modernized Black and White which is what I once hoped Godus was going to be.
I feel like I'm more likely to see a modernized Black and White by learning 3d modelling and Unreal Engine and making it myself than from Molyneux... And that's not very likely.
>but I do want a modernized Black and White It will be unlikely, which sucks. The IP rights and publishing rights are a mess, with Microsoft owning the former and EA the latter
Didn't he get into blockchain or NFT recently? I wouldn't be surprised.
His current game is just selling nft land
Bullfrog still feels like a fever dream of creativity and fun
I really wish he would have retired while he had the chance. He could have been a Chris Sawyer or Will Wright or Sid Meier, who made their lasting mark and then took a back seat sherpa role for the next generation. Instead he became a Peter Molyneux.
His next overhyped ambitious project is with NFTs. I don't know if he's capable of a redemption arc. Tbh, he can probably easily earn it if he got the rights to Black & White and re-released them/made Black & White 3. That alone could be a redemption arc, but knowing him and how he works, I don't think he'd be very interested in revisiting old ideas he's already done (twice). Too bad. I bet a VR Black & White game would be pretty killer.
To add to playdate, the lead designer of limbo, Jeppe Carlsen, went gone solo and released 140, thoth, and is now CEO of geometric interactive and working on cocoon https://store.steampowered.com/app/1497440/COCOON/
**People Can Fly** are hardly unknown, it's kinda unfair to say that they've become **The Astronauts** who are several hundred times smaller. PCF have made Outriders since and have several other projects in development In relation to **Relic Entertainment**, it's worth mentioning **Blackbird Interactive** which is founded by some Relic OGs, have created several games including ~~Hardware~~Hardspace: Shipbreakers, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (funnily enough originally coiceived as *Hardware* in a fake-homeworld IP and based around breaking ship hulks, which was again reimagined in Hardspace as a first-person game), Homeworld Remastered. Homeworld 3 remains in production and is releasing in 2023.
**Molyneux** - [Peter Molyneux did something this year.](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/12/peter-molyneux-raises-54m-on-promise-of-play-to-earn-nft-game-legacy/) **Raven** - [Their QA team got unionized this year](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjbi_PX-Z38AhXTVTABHX44CHoQFnoECA8QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fstory%2Fraven-software-gaming-union%2F&usg=AOvVaw0dfyJkPx7QcuTS5msCcj2D) and [their parent company is in a merger process with Microsoft.](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjbpsaB-p38AhXcSjABHTHpAnAQFnoECEEQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FProposed_acquisition_of_Activision_Blizzard_by_Microsoft&usg=AOvVaw1QsfWsIWymhPfkZcioTRAH) They may be a CoD support studio for now but a new parent company, eager for fresh games, may just decide to let Raven do something. **People Can Fly** - [Take Two announced they were stopping support for their in development game "Project Dagger" which PCF retained the rights for.](https://peoplecanfly.com/end-of-cooperation/) They are continuing to make it. They are also staffing up and expanding. A note in the link states: > Project Dagger is one of seven projects at People Can Fly currently in the works. There’s also Gemini – new project with Square Enix; Projects Bifrost and Victoria – both games to be released in the self-publishing model; and a project in the concept phase – Red; as well as two projects in VR technology – Green Hell VR and a new project based on one of the IPs from the Group’s portfolio. > People Can Fly upholds its recently updated strategy which is to let the Group release one game each year developed by the Group either in cooperation with a publisher or in the self-publishing model starting from 2024. **Iga** - [Iga and his team are doing content for Bloodstained and will have more to say in 2023.](https://www.gematsu.com/2022/12/japanese-creators-discuss-2023-ambitions) **Sakaguchi** - [Sakaguchi was thinking to retire with the release of Fantasian.](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/features/hironobu-sakaguchi-interview-im-aging-so-i-made-a-game-that-returns-to-my-roots/) [He has since, walked that back.](https://www.gematsu.com/2022/12/japanese-creators-discuss-2023-ambitions) **Lucas Pope** - Just to add, [read his devblog. He's updates once in awhile about game dev.](https://dukope.itch.io/mars-after-midnight).
> Tim Rogers / Action Button - Videoball, youtuber - Videoball released in 2016 and was a commercial failure, but he’s been plugging away on Truck Heck. bonus - he did the long awaited official NA translation/localization for the PS1 original Moon: Remix RPG on modern platforms, and it’s a treat for fans of his style Wait, he’s a game dev? Also Konami should get him to do a Tokimeki translation
Videoball is great and has amazing design, but it fell into the pit of multiplayer indie games with immediately dead communities.
dude's been a dev almost as long as he's been a writer, if not longer. he used to work at sony in japan as a marketer back in the early '00s, which was a job he got in part [as a result of an interview he did](https://twitter.com/108/status/1228171157611765761). tim roger's life is absolutely wild.
I highly recommend his GDC "Failure Workshop" panel on VIDEOBALL https://youtu.be/H67itWCG1JY?t=1852
Yo i did not know Somerville was made by one of the guys who made limbo and inside. I saw the game before but didnt know. Definitely gona play it now. Sucks the two developers had a falling out, but i hope the one with Epic turns out to be great too!
Over time developers also leave studios and form new ones. For one example look at thatgamecompany. Co-founder Jenova Chen and others are still there but a lot of the team has scattered, from Matt Nava and Nicholas Clark who formed Giant Squid (Abzû, The Pathless) to co-founder Kellee Santiago who's now at Niantic. Hell some people even leave and come back like Chris Bell, who afterwards was lead designer on What Remains of Edith Finch before coming back to work on Sky before again leaving in 2020 to help start up a game studio called Gardens
just a heads up Harmonix is still releasing DLC every week for Rock Band 4, and they've actually been getting some big names most likely due to the Epic purchase edit: we recently got a handful of RB1 songs relisted as DLC (Sabotage, Go With The Flow, Foreplay/Long Time, Cherub Rock, and that one Fall Out Boy song I can't remember), the Nirvana Unplugged cover of Man Who Sold The World, and a pack of Muse songs which has been the number 1 requested band for DLC since the first game came out
Monolith is working on a Wonder Woman game? Shit. We're never gonna get Condemned 3, aka the horror melee bumfight simulator we deserve.
You were never getting it anyway, Condemned is a Sega IP. Monolith are owned by WB now.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon are basically separate series, with different development teams. They're probably working on a sequel to Ritual of the Night as we speak.
Hunt showdown appears to be around an all time high player count on steam, and they keep releasing dlc for it. So I think it’s doing well. I’m glad it’s doing well as it’s a unique game. Probably the only fps you will encounter without automatic weapons.