Lucky Frame, creators of the recent
Nightmare Cooperative, as well as
Gentlemen! and the IGF nominated
Bad Hotel and
Pugs Luv Beats, have decided they can no longer make games.
In a blog post on the company's website, founder and director Yann Seznec details how, despite critical success and multiple showings at awards, the company was unable to make a sustainable income, especially in regards to its latest release,
Nightmare Cooperative.
"We could probably have scraped by and figured out a way to make another game," Seznec explains, "but the time was right to move on. It had become increasingly clear to me personally that I did not have the burning desire to sell games. My primary concern has always been to make creatively interesting work. I have never been interested in growing Lucky Frame - for me the studio was entirely about creative output, and as such I devoted far more time making things than trying to sell them.
"Money is only a small part of the picture, however. If anything, a lack of money is usually a good way of showing where priorities lie. I can't speak for the others, but certainly in my case my own projects have started to take up more and more time over the past year. I was unfortunately starting to find that both my own work and my Lucky Frame work was starting to suffer in my attempts to both all of the time."
Lucky Frame's games will continue to be available for purchase, and the company itself isn't being dissolved, although the team is going their separate ways. Sean McIlroy, Lucky Frame's lead artist, is going to work for
Blazing Griffin, while Jonathan Brodsky, the chief technical officer, has moved back to the U.S. to work as freelance.
"We spoke our minds, refused to make violent or sexist games, we avoided exploitative design models and we paid all our bills on time. We won a BAFTA, we were nominated for two IGF awards, and most importantly for three years we made our own games and released them to the world. I would call that a success."
