Flaming Fowl will shift to a smaller game they can fund themselves
The developers behindFablecard game spin-offFable Fortuneand the digital adaptation of dungeon-crawling board gameGloomhavenhave revealed a new upcoming co-opRPG… only to announce at the same time that the upcoming game’s development has been put on pause amid layoffs at the studio and difficulty finding funding.
Between working on DLC for Gloomhaven, it seems that Flaming Fowl found time to work on something brand new for the studio, revealing it this week.Ironmarkedis aco-opRPG for one to three players with turn-based combat - keeping that lineage from Gloomhaven alive - set in a fantasy world inspired by Renaissance-era Italy that you cango and try for yourself on Steamright now thanks to a fresh demo.
Unfortunately, that demo might be all we get of Ironmarked for a while, as alongside revealing the game and launching its demo, Flaming Fowlannouncedthat they would be putting the game’s production on hold and had laid off multiple staff in an effort to “downsize”.
The studio attributed the unfortunate combination of events to “the current lack of funding in the games industry”, with the release of Ironmarked’s demo both an effort to secure future funding for the game and, somewhat soberingly, provide a portfolio for those now needing to find employment elsewhere in the industry. (With the number of developers I see on social media often expressing frustration at so much of their work being locked behind NDAs for cancelled projects, this is at least a welcome change.)
With Ironmarked on pause until funding is raised, Flaming Fowl said they would shift to developing something smaller that they’re able to fund themselves.
It’s a fairly tragic situation for the studio, albeit one that’ssadly far from rare these days. Good luck to those former Flaming Fowl folks looking for their next job, and to those still at the studio working on whatever comes next.
