Meh. You can blame crypto bros but the original owners sold out. Once a studio has been swallowed up by a conglomerate it is only a matter of time before it turns to shit.
Comment on Phoenix Labs (creators of Dauntless and Fae Farm) just laid off most of their dev team
Shadow@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Fuck Forte labs.
Phoenix was the best place I’d ever worked until they came along. Fucking bitcoin bros destroyed everything because they didn’t understand the games industry.
sosodev@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Shadow@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
I wish I could get more into this, but yes there were some major missteps during the covid/post-covid “stocks are crazy high, money is free!” period. After that there just wasn’t really a way to recover.
Unfortunately it’s pretty hard to avoid VC money, the tech industry runs on it.
sosodev@lemmy.world 1 week ago
It’s hard but not impossible. You’ll make less money but have much more stability.
After multiple layoffs I started freelancing. The autonomy and multiple streams of income has been great for my mental health.
electric@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I think the issue is more that VC’s prioritize draining money out of what they acquire instead of continuing with what works for longer term gains.
electric@lemmy.world 1 week ago
If you worked on Dauntless, just want to say I appreciate your part! Only played it for a while at release because the grind turned me off but it’s been sad seeing news pop up of how it has been going downhill. Was such a fun game.
Sucks that good game devs get laid off because the leaders are asleep at the wheel unless it involves monetization.
simple@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Woah, you worked there? Got any stories on how things went down?
Shadow@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Many. Unfortunately I also can’t talk about them, yet.
simple@lemm.ee 1 week ago
That sucks, I hope you’re doing alright after the layoffs. Hopefully things improve in this industry…