Melbourne studio League of Geeks has made as much as 52% of its staff redundant.
League of Geeks, known for its breakout 2015 hit Armello, has had two games on the boil in the last twelve months. The simultaneous development of the grand strategy title Solium Infernum and the anime-themed colony sim Jumplight Odyssey represented a heavy lift for the studio. Two games developed in tandem create a beast hungry for funding, however, and it may have been that this ambitious leap contributed to a funding gap that LoG could not fill.
A source close to company leadership tells Kotaku Australia that Solium Infernum will ship in February as planned. Its launch details were announced just days ago. Getting Solium to the finish line, however, represents the last of LoG’s current funding. The remaining staff still working on the game are those operational hands required to get it out the door on time. The act of taking on a loan against the Government’s Digital Games Tax Offset was what likely saved the game and the company from closing its doors entirely.
Unfortunately, securing Solium‘s future meant that the outlook for its sister title, Jumplight Odyssey, became rather bleak.
According to a message posted to League of Geeks’ social media accounts this morning, the entire Jumplight Odyssey team has been made redundant. The game will be placed on an ‘indefinite hiatus’, and all development will cease.
A much longer, extremely candid message from League of Geeks Co-Founder & Studio Director Trent Kusters, displayed in-game, goes into finer detail about what players can expect. One final update will be pushed containing everything that the team had been working on. We understand that the game’s existing early access build will remain live on Steam, and will remain available for sale. LoG says that half its profit from any sales of the early access build for the next twelve months (or if/when development is resumed, whichever occurs first) will be given directly to the team that worked on it. If you bought the game and would prefer to get a refund, Steam will grant one through its refunds tool.
League of Geeks points to several reasons for the redundancies, tied to the current cost-of-living crisis and lingering recession fears spooking investors. Rising costs from wages to rent and software have increased at LoG, while the Australian dollar fell against the greenback. Though it says it planned for bumps in the road, all of its costs going up so dramatically, slow early access sales of Jumplight Odyssey and two major investment deals falling through in the space of just a few weeks made it clear the writing was on the wall. “Capital is more expensive and rare than it has been in over a decade,” reads the message penned by Kuster, “… and the only projects being backed right now are surefire guaranteed hits.”
Jumplight Odyssey got off to a somewhat rocky start after moving into early access. Certain bugs and assorted issues saw its Steam rating fall to Mixed. In just the last couple of months, it finally achieved a Very Positive rating after working with the game’s growing community to address common gripes.
As things currently stand, Jumplight Odyssey requires a major capital injection well beyond the scope of what a GoFundMe or Kickstarter could provide. Without this significant windfall, it is unlikely that Jumplight Odyssey will ever be revived. Unlike the vessel that ferries the game’s hopeful crew across the stars, the game could be destined to become a derelict, adrift in the void.
According to Kuster’s in-game FAQ, the studio was left with few options. If LoG sacrificed Jumplight to save Solium, which, just 2 months from launch, was closer to the finish line than Jumplight‘s projected six month runway, it could limp on. If it kept trying to push forward on both projects, it would not have been long before the studio would have had to close its doors for good.
The picture that emerged from talking to our source was of a company people loved working for. Anecdotally, in my many interactions with LoG staff over the years, I can say that I have never heard a bad word about them. I cannot stress enough how remarkable this is. In an industry as prone to unbearable working conditions and messy shareholder divorces as Australian games, LoG always felt like the one larger studio that had its head screwed on right. Several former LoG staff Kotaku Australia has spoken to on the condition of anonymity all reported Kusters breaking down in tears during the all-hands call announcing the redundancies.
A spreadsheet with the affected staff has been published in hopes of getting these many good people rehired elsewhere. Studios with vacancies, large or small, in Aus or abroad, are encouraged to reach out.
A dark day in Australian games development. Our thoughts are with everyone at League of Geeks affected by the redundancies.
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