League of Geeks: "We'll fight till the last breath"
Armello developer League of Geeks has just announced that it's laying off 50% of its staff.
The entire team behind Jumplight Odyssey, which launched in Early Access in August, has been made redundant, with the title put on a hiatus indefinitely as the studio seeks more funding.
In total, 31 people were laid off, including the Jumplight team, staff on the operations and publishing teams, and contractors. Armello's support and Solium Infernum's release (due in February) are not affected by the situation.
Talking to GamesIndustry.biz about the layoffs, studio director and co-founder Trent Kusters doesn't shy away from the exec team's responsibility for the situation, all while shedding light on the context that led up to the redundancies.
He first confirms that affected team members will get "full benefits," with League of Geeks also working with union Game Workers Australia to ensure a smooth process. All staff will get access to a qualified therapist, with League of Geeks also supporting affected folks in finding new jobs – a couple of them have already started elsewhere.
50% of Jumplight Odyssey's profits for the next year is also going to the team that was laid off.
"It seemed wrong [to pull the game down] because we've spent all this time working on it," Kusters explains. "It's just sitting there, it should earn money. We're a business at the end of the day but it feels weird to make a profit. Profit sharing has been at our core. League of Geeks was literally founded on the idea that maybe you can get some people together and make something for profit share.
"We integrated a company profit share system in 2018 and so we were like, well, now is not the time to back away from [our values]. It felt like a great
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