A new report on Gamasutra says that many of the developers working on indie adventure Dark Matter have been laid off from the studio, days after the game was removed from the Steam and GOG.com marketplaces because it contained no ending.

After a Kickstarter drive for the game failed in August, "most" of the team at developer Interwave Studios are reported to have lost their jobs.

Interwave Studios is yet to comment.

In a post to the Steam forums on October 20, company CEO Erik Schreuder said the idea was to make the series episodic. "Any further episodes would, however, need to be dependent on the success of the previous installment. The first installment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter," he said.

"We would like to stress that the game is exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels)--it is simply not true that the game is unfinished, or unplayable. Some people have misquoted the developer as having admitted that the game is incomplete; we should reiterate that what was meant was that this is not the $30 full-priced game, but the episodic budget version (currently selling at $13.49 at 10 percent off)."

Gamasutra sources claim that there are now not enough development staff at Iceberg Entertainment to continue production on the game.

"It is true however, that at present, the end of the game may cause confusion and is not satisfactory. We sincerely apologise for this, as it is not of the standard we would expect. We are working to offer a more conclusive and satisfying ending to the game as we speak and expect a fix to appear as soon we are able to."

"Notice: Currently there is a known issue at the end of the game. The developer is aware of the issue and they are working on a patch as a solution," reads Steam's current description for the game.