The developers of Deliver Us Mars, KeokeN Interactive, announced that they were laying off all of their staff after the studio failed to get sufficient funding moving forward.
The company said that the layoffs were decided on after they had "exhausted all our possible options" but also noted that they plan to "rebuild brick by brick" moving forward.
The statement that was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, revealed that the decision was made after a visit to the Game Developers Conference (GDC).
Deliver Us Mars Developer Lays Off All Staff
(Photo : KeokeN Interactive / Screenshot taken from official website)
The post also urged any company that has openings in programming, tech art, porting, level design, audio, animation, production, and office management to contact them. This is so that they can introduce them to the people who have been at the heart of KeokeN Interactive for the past decade.
CEO Koen Deetman said that he and managing director Paul Deetman were heavily beat but far from beaten. They said that it was their personal mission to rebuild the studio similar to what they have done before to continue the legacy of their games, according to Rock Paper Shotgun.
The statement by the developers also concluded by saying that they are now preparing a Kickstarter campaign soon for their highly anticipated title Deliver Us Home. This comes as KeokeN released Deliver Us The Moon in 2018 and its sequel Deliver Us Mars in 2023.
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The game was praised for its combination of planet-sized problems with gripping interpersonal drama among its characters. However, some players have complained about the title's "rote puzzles."
Deliver Us Mars was published by Frontier Foundry, which is the publishing arm of Frontier Developers that experienced its own round of layoffs last year. The past two years have been considered a terrible time for the gaming industry in general.
Failing To Secure Sufficient Funding
Prior to the announcement of the layoffs at KeokeN, it was clear that the studio was already in trouble when the founders posted a video in March earlier this year.
It revealed that they had been unable to land a publishing deal after spending two years pitching five games to more than 40 publishers, said GameInformer.
The Deetmans instead decided to publicly reveal their projects in order to generate interest and include Deliver Us Home and two Deliver Us The Moon spin-offs that include a VR game. The company had previously employed 45 workers but this was reduced to 20 by March 2024.
This came before four more employees were laid off that month and the founders revealed in an interview that they went on several months without collecting a salary to help the studio stay afloat.
The situation also comes as both Deliver Us Mars and Deliver Us The Moon, despite experiencing some technical issues, were well-regarded titles among players. However, it is no longer enough to make good games to survive in the gaming industry.
KeokeN is only the latest in a long line of video game studios that have undergone mass layoffs since the beginning of 2023. Another example is Palia developer Singularity 6 and Company of Heroes studio Relic Entertainment which laid off staff earlier this month, according to PCGamer.
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