A mix of poor Early Access sales and low investment mean the well-reviewed indie strategy title Jumplight Odyssey is now on indefinite hold.
This year has seen job losses at some of the games industry’s biggest companies, including EA, Ubisoft and Unity to name but a few. But indie developers have also been hit by what is looking increasingly like a bursting bubble across the tech sector – the latest casualty, it seems, is Australian developer League of Geeks.
For the past couple of years, it’s been working away on Jumplight Odyssey, a charming sci-fi strategy game that launched to highly positive reviews on Steam Early Access in August. Sadly, the studio has announced that a mixture of lower than expected sales and “an unprecedented withdrawal of funding opportunities” mean it can no longer afford to continue developing the game.
As a result, League of Geeks announced via X (formerly Twitter), Jumplight Odyssey has “been put on hold indefinitely.”
This in turn has had an impact on the company itself, which has seen multiple redundancies – by the studio’s own reckoning, over 50 percent of its staff are to lose their jobs. It’s a sad situation, but it must be said that League of Geeks has handled the announcement with more tact and care than most – it’s even provided a Google document which lists its impacted staff, and has explicitly asked other studios to hire those affected.
“We truly believe our crew are among the most talented in the biz,” the studio wrote in a follow-up tweet/post. “You can find a full list of affected staff here – if you are in a position to hire them, do it. You won’t regret it. Let our loss be your game.”
The developer has added that the cuts won’t affect the other game it has in development, Solium Infernum – another strategy title, this one with a much darker fantasy edge, it’s still on target for release on 14th February 2024.
