Lunarch Studios of Islands of Insight fame has announced today that the team is looking for contract work and potential business partners.
The announcement made by CEO Elyot Grant on the company's official X (formerly Twitter) account mentions that over 20 developers are affected by the situation due to the fact that its latest game, the shared-world puzzle game Islands of Insight, is not receiving the visibility the developers hoped.
We hear that the reception for the game (which enjoys "very positive" reviews on Steam) caused initial optimism as it was positive and included multiple 9/10 reviews. Yet, getting players to discover the game proved "incredibly hard" and it has remained a hidden gem.
While it's unclear if this announcement involves layoffs for part of the team (it doesn't specify if the 20+ developers affected will actually lose their jobs, and we've reached out to Lunarch to clarify this point), the company will continue making games and has even started on a few prototypes.
Unfortunately, the current income cannot feed the whole team despite the fact that plans had been made for this contingency. That being said, work on Islands of Insight will continue with ongoing support and further improvements.
Below you can read the full message, included in a thread with multiple tweets.
A post I hoped I would never have to make, but here we are. The Islands of Insight development team is officially looking for new work. This was quite sudden and unexpected, unfortunately. 20+ incredible, hard-working developers affected.
[...]
Obviously when you release a big online game, the dream is to be able to keep working on it for a long time, and even grow the team. We were very optimistic with Islands of Insight. It received multiple 9/10 reviews, editor's choice, great player reception, etc..
But... it's *incredibly* hard to get players to discover new games in 2024. It seems like Islands of Insight is stubbornly remaining a hidden gem, despite people playing the game for a LONG TIME and absolutely loving it.
As of a few days ago, the entire Islands of Insight development team is now looking for new work. Most of the team is available immediately, and the rest of us will be available quite soon.
These are a hand-picked set of the absolute smartest and most hard-working developers I've ever known. A legit genius-level and totally cracked-out team that can ship an open-world multiplayer game with ~30 dungeons ridiculously quickly and at a very high level of quality.
Lunarch can and will make new games. In fact, we've already started on a few prototypes. But our current income cannot feed the whole team. It's devastating for us, and terrifying, and sad. We planned for the possibility, but it still sucks.
We are open to contract opportunities, job leads, potential business partners. Basically anything that can keep our team making games.
As for Islands of Insight, we will continue to support and improve the game. Please see the official channels for announcements about patches and upcoming content.
[...]
We will be at GDC next week if you know anyone we should grab a meeting with. Thanks also to everyone who has offered their advice and support over the last month, you know who you are.
The team offers the following services and can be contacted at info@lunarchstudios.com.
- Open-world game development
- Multiplayer programming
- Tooling and editor extensions
- Backend and servers
- Procedural generation
- Unreal Engine development
- Custom engines
- Environment creation
- Lighting, materials, and VFX
- Performance and graphics optimization
- Technical art and animation
- Character customization systems
- Puzzle design and development
- Mathematical or economic systems design
If you're interested in Islands of Insight, the game is currently 40% off on Steam, while the Digital Deluxe edition is 50% off. You can also watch a trailer from last year's PC Game Show.
