A big indie game studio cut half its staff. Here's why that matters
League of Geeks was one of Australia's biggest independent game studios – until Wednesday.
In a country where most game studios consist of less than 10 people, League of Geeks has been something of a relevation. It was a blueprint that showed developers could expand off the back of success. Starting with five employees, it created a hit game that generated millions and expanded to a team of over 70.
That is why Wednesday's announcement it would cut 30 staff and indefinitely pause development of its ambitious next title, Jumplight Odyssey, is a disappointment – and not just for gamers.
There are two overarching contributing factors to League of Geeks' strife: game development costs have ballooned, and funding has deflated. Jumplight Odyssey was around six months away from completion, League of Geeks cofounder Blake Mizzi told Capital Brief. Kowloon Nights, a video game investment fund cofunding the game's development alongside League of Geeks itself, decided against providing the cash for that runway, as did several other prospective backers.
Kowloon Nights and League of Geeks struck the cofunding agreement in 2021. Since then the studio’s development costs have spiked as the tech sector competes for engineers, developers and designers. That is a problem for a company that spends 80% of its money on payroll, as Mizzi says League of Geeks does.
