Hand Of Fate Makers Are ‘Ceasing Development’

The Queensland-based studio behind the Hand of Fate games, Defiant Development, has announced on Facebook that they are “ceasing development” on new titles and switching to “caretaker mode to support our existing products”.

Defiant was founded nine years ago and has been one of the shining lights of Australian indie development in the years since, but the studio’s future has effectively come to an end as of Wednesday. “The games market has changed in ways both big and small in the 9 years we’ve been in business,” Defiant wrote on their Facebook page and Twitter.

“We have not been able to change quickly enough to continue with them,” the post says.

As a way of honouring their efforts, Defiant posted a short trailer on YouTube showing what would have been their next project: A World In My Attic. A digitised board game featuring hexes, the video showcases some features that look similar to the procedurally generated encounter system first used in Hand of Fate.

Defiant closed their announcement by thanking all staff who supported the team at any point over the last nine years, both fans and employees. “Thank you so much for sharing your work and yourselves. Studios rise and studios fall, but people are always more important,” the studio wrote.

Sad to announce that Defiant are ceasing development of new titles. pic.twitter.com/OgMd61aLkp — Defiant Development (@DefiantDev) July 24, 2019

Morgan Jaffit, the founder of Defiant and one of the longest standing representatives for the video game industry in Australia, wrote on Twitter that he was “exceptionally sad”.

Defiant has reached the end of it's nine year journey. I am exceptionally sad, but that's not really germane. What is important is that some of the best game developers on the planet are now looking for new roles. Please get in touch if you'd like to help them land. https://t.co/0Uudiz8LmU — Morgan Jaffit (@morganjaffit) July 24, 2019

The Art Of Hand Of Fate 2 It's always a good day when we get to feature the work of Australian games and artists, and an even better one when the game in question happens to be Hand of Fate 2. Read more

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