When last Augi Lye commanded his doughty band of apprentice wizards and warriors, they were furiously defending Etheria against hordes of vicious ogres, orks, goblins, wyverns and other nasty things that go bump in the night.

And for a time it appeared as though that battle — spawned in the imaginations of young indie video game developers at Lye's Gainesville-based Trendy Entertainment — must surely be won.

Under Lye's watch, "Dungeon Defenders" was at the top of its game. Within two weeks of its 2010 release the fantasy arcade-style game sold 250,000 copies. By the end of 2011 more than 600,000 copies had been purchased.

"Dungeon Defenders" became profitable enough that, in 2012, the private equity firm Insight Venture Partners invested $18.2 million for majority control of the company.

A subsequent edition, "Dungeon Defenders II," did not prove nearly as successful as the original version, however, with production costs outstripping earnings.

Now, the company is under new management. Or rather, old management.

Lye has regained ownership of "Dungeon Defenders," rebranded the company Chromatic Games, and his team of about 30 game developers is in pre-production mode with plans to launch "Dungeon Defenders: Awakened" by October.

"I bought the company back from the investors," Lye said, declining to discuss the terms of that deal. "The intent is to make it indie again. There are no external weird hands messing around. We're in control of our own destiny."

Although Lye is the sole owner, he calls Chromatic "employee owned," because employees will participate in profit sharing. "It's my baby, but there are so many good people working here that I'm 100 percent confident we're going to be a success. And everybody here will benefit."

Chromatic Games is launching a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $250,000 to help fund production costs for the third iteration of "Dungeon Defenders."

"The first game was such a cult success. I remember playing it, and it had an almost Saturday morning cartoon feel," said Colin Fisher, creative director for Chromatic Games. "We're trying to make something new and different while retaining the core experience of the first game."

For this third outing, Fisher said the company plans to take much of the content from it’s first game and a little bit from the second iteration while shaping the game in a new way.



"Even familiar locations will look drastically different to the players," he said.

Originally designed to be played on PCs, Macs, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, the next edition will be Nintendo Switch compatible as well. "We want to get it on as many platforms as possible," said Josh Javaheri, studio director.

Since co-founding Trendy Entertainment, Lye, a UF-trained computer engineer, has launched several other companies in Gainesville. He also founded HackerHouse, an academy that mentors UF engineering students to launch their own companies.

But "Dungeon Defenders" was Lye's first big commercial success, and regaining control of the brand is a milestone for the self-described "serial entrepreneur."

"About 1,000 people a day still play 'Dungeon Defenders,'" he said. "The game came out nearly nine years ago, and a whole new generation of players has come along. Some of our players probably have kids of their own now and now they can introduce their kids to it."