https://x.com/Jakob_Wahlberg/status/1857831994404778021?t=w7lL_0GvjxP4-67mwc-6oQ&s=19
So this flew under the radar in the wake of the news that Thunderful was undergoing yet another restructuring, laying off as many as 100 employees, but former employee Jakob Wahlberg, who previously worked on SteamWorld Dig, Heist, Dig 2, and Quest (as well as Wavetale, another internally developed Thunderful project), has stated that none of the original Image & Form team are left at the company now. (For context, Image & Form merged with Zoink in 2017, with Thunderful being established as their parent company, and then in 2020 both were absorbed directly into Thunderful Development.) This was corroborated in the replies by an employee impacted by the layoffs, Robert Olsén, who worked on all the aforementioned SteamWorld games, as well as The Gunk:
https://fixupx.com/RobertJOlsen/status/1858157955251622366?t=NPm5z-10IEx5jUM2PjaY6Q&s=19.
Olsén believes it may be possible that someone's still around, but seems more confident than not they're all gone. Even Image & Form's old CEO, who served as CEO of Thunderful for a time, apppears to no longer be employed there as of August 2024. For those of us who've followed their games ever since they rose to prominence as an indie developer on Wii U and 3DS, this is definitely really saddening to hear. Hopefully everyone impacted can land back on their feet.
by PikaPhantom_
6 Comments
Honestly tragic. They made such great games with a fun connected world.
Sad to hear another studio going down. All the Steamworld games I’ve played were fantastic and having them all take place in one world was a clever way to have to spend less on marketing while not getting pigeon-holed into a single series/type of game.
So sad. I remember talking to some of the guys when playing Dig2 at Gamescom.
Damn this really went under the radar, all the press made it sound like they were being absorbed into a different company. Steamworld heist was one of my favourites on PS4.
Steam World series is dead… If the original devs are gone there’s no reason to buy another one in the future
This hurts. I’ve been a Steamworld fan since I played Dig on 3DS, right before Heist released in 2015. I’ve played their games countless times, and I was there day one for Dig 2, Quest, Build, and Heist 2. It looks like they aren’t long for this industry, and I wish I could tell them how truly beautiful and fantastic the Steamworld series is.