Defiant Development, makers of Hand of Fate are closing up and moving on

That's a real pity, but also very strange. I was under the impression that both Hand of Fate games sold quite well. But it seems not well enough.

Very sad news, indeed.
HoF2 is a very cool game that outstands easily above the majority of games, actually.
I agree that the market is someway very crowded nowadays.

Of all the studios I've worked with, they were the one I was most proud of. Their ideals and energy were an inspiration and I will be eternally thankful for the opportunities and friendships I found there.

Today's been enormously hard. For the second time this year, I feel like I've lost a family.

The unfortunate and natural result of an overcrowded market. Hope everyone had a plan B or at least a buffer, because indie game development without a plan B for when (I did not put an "if" here on purpose) it fails seems rather short sighted nowadways.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 24 Jul 2019 at 12:11 pm UTC

I only bought Hand of Fate 1 and it was too repetitive for me.
So the choice of not getting HoF2 was an easy one for me.
I am not so sure if the current game market is bad from a consumer's perpective.
We have more Indie games than ever and they often cost much less than an AAA title.

I am personally very sad to see this happen. I've liked what I've seen from this studio from the start. That and them being located very close to me physically makes this pretty bitter. I do wish all the staff the best. If I recall correctly they've been heavy hitters in the industry for decades since before this studio, with Total War games and stuff like that.

Damn. Was waiting for a good sale on Hand of Fate 2. :/ I really liked Hand of Fate 1.


Last edited by garpu on 24 Jul 2019 at 3:39 pm UTC

I guess we'll reach an equilibrium at some point. But loads of optimistic talented people having their dreams crushed seems a harsh way to get there.

Of all the studios I've worked with, they were the one I was most proud of. Their ideals and energy were an inspiration and I will be eternally thankful for the opportunities and friendships I found there.

Today's been enormously hard. For the second time this year, I feel like I've lost a family.

On the bright side, they're all still alive, right? So you haven't actually lost lost them.

That's a real pity, but also very strange. I was under the impression that both Hand of Fate games sold quite well. But it seems not well enough.

Depends how they spent the money though if they invested it were thrifty keeping to budget or did they go all scheffer and blow cash on parties for the studio and buy drink and top of the line equipment when it wasnt needed. We wont know we will never see the books. But i think that is why we are seeing previous hold outs run back to major publishers Ninja/Platnium we ve seen koch media group jetison their once cash cow studio darling deep silver and sell it on to THQ nordic lots of changes and scarily the march back towards there only being 5 publishers in the market seems to be plodding on. While i agree there are a ton of games released every day mostly indie many of them are to be polite crap.
I know it sounds harsh and am sure they put hard work and passion into their projects sometimes it pays off but for every shovel knight and owl boy i can show you 400 hundred pieces of crap that slimed onto steam. It does beg a question though as Hellblade sold really well, it was budgeted well in fact the game cost less than 2 million dollars to make and it recouped that and then some. However they did'nt have enough money to carry on being independent.
Lots of questions there are game developers chasing trends and features nobody asked for are game devs chasing photo realistic graphics and spending hundreds of millions on r and d for those kind of features that again nobody but the graphics snobs asked for. Personally out of all this uncertainly i am just hoping a studio comes along that just makes single player games with compelling stories and settings rather than another fps shooter with yet another battle royale mode and am aware that i am in minority i know they are popular but a guy can dream.

On the bright side, they're all still alive, right? So you haven't actually lost lost them.

I've lost access to them as a cohesive group working together towards common goals - I'll retain individual relationships (something I'm thankful for), but the sense of "family" is gone, and that is a thing to lament.