Usually when a studio is dropped by a significant writer, it leaves them in dire straits. The story is all too frequent and sometimes ends in layoffs or outright closure.
Not so for Guildford-based Glowmade. The company’s online multiplayer title King of Meat shut down earlier this year as part of Amazon Game Studios’ shifting focus. The developer’s co-founder and studio head, Jonny Hopper, tells GamesIndustry.biz that the break up was “very amicable”.
Glowmade owns all of its IP, and Hopper says that the studio was cautious to not burn by the tech and retail big’s cash whereas the partnership was in impact, leaving it with a battle chest to fund it by the approaching years.
In truth, Hopper believes that Glowmade is within the strongest place it has ever been in as an organization. “We have got an awesome group. We have got cash within the financial institution. We have got monetary independence, and we have a group who know how one can ship video games,” he says. “That could be a actually robust place for anybody to be in. I am not sitting right here worrying how I will pay folks. They’re outdoors of my workplace making cool stuff for me. That is a very nice place to be.”
Hopper says that the corporate was “accountable” with the cash Amazon gave it, attempting to steadiness paying Glowmade’s employees good salaries and offering advantages whereas additionally seeking to the longer term.
“It is advisable to take into consideration what is the enterprise long-term, what occurs when you get an absolute rug pull?” he says. “We weren’t essentially anticipating it as a result of I feel everybody desires their sport to succeed. However when that does occur, you needn’t freak out since you’ve been planning for this. That is why we’re really in a extremely robust place proper now.”
With King of Meat and Amazon within the rearview mirror, Glowmade has been engaged on a brand new title, a single-player sport referred to as Rogue Fortune that marries a Hades-esque roguelike with a Tetris-inspired stock administration puzzle sport. The baseline replayability of principal sport pairs with the range provided by the stock administration: selecting up Tetris-piece relics and slotting them into the participant board in several combos grants the participant totally different powers and skills, to usually excessive impact.
“The thrilling bit is when gamers play this they usually go, oh man, I’ve damaged the sport as a result of I’ve immediately obtained massively overpowered,” grins Hopper. “The purpose is you are imagined to develop into strolling Armageddon as you go round, and every part’s on fireplace and exploding and the unhealthy guys are all combating one another since you forged a spell on them.” The branching choices are what elevates the replayability past the procedurally-generated maps, and after the participant’s inevitable dying – it is a roguelike, in spite of everything – ranges, unlocks and weapons persist.
Improvement began in January – a month earlier than Amazon announced the King of Meat shutdown – with a intentionally restricted scope.
“I despatched fairly a small prototype group off in the beginning of the 12 months and stated: ‘Let’s examine what we are able to give you in this type of house, however you possibly can’t have any artists’,” Hopper explains. “There have been no artists on the group for about three months as a result of we needed them to only completely deal with mechanics and constructing out this type of thought.”
Rogue Fortune is the polar reverse to King of Meat by design. Glowmade’s earlier undertaking was initially pitched in 2020 focusing on a September 2021 launch date. “Clearly that did not occur,” Hopper laughs (the sport finally launched in October 2025). Rogue Fortune was introduced at Gamescom 2026, and Glowmade is focusing on a 2027 launch date.
“The thought is that it is a palate cleanser; how can we do one thing that is actually enjoyable that we’re actually enthusiastic about, but in addition not make it take endlessly or price the earth,” Hopper continues. “Once we began out this course of, I stated to the group: ‘Let’s construct an concept that we are able to do in 12 months’. That wasn’t essentially as a result of I needed to do it in 12 months, as a result of issues at all times take longer than that, but it surely’s extra like constraining the considering and giving these constraints and focusing the thoughts on we’re not going to construct an MMO or one thing monumental. We’re not going to try this. We will attempt to have a small thought that may clearly increase just a little bit.”
Amazon advised Glowmade in the beginning of 2026 that King of Meat was going to be shut down. Hopper and the remainder of administration advised the group internally at that time, which means that the studio might “quickly begin altering our focus”.
“It was positively a bit bumpy as a result of we have come off the excessive of ending a sport, transport it, after which having to cope with these lows,” Hopper admits. “That is life and that is the sport business in the meanwhile, sadly. However you possibly can’t afford to sit down round doing nothing, twiddling your thumbs and feeling sorry for your self. You have to go: what are we going to do now? What have we discovered?”
“We have discovered a lot. We have got a group now that has shipped a sport, that itself is a large achievement. They know what they’re doing and that may be a big tick field for all of the group. We all know what we’re good at, we all know what we’re not good at. We all know what we are able to obtain and what we should always attempt to keep away from. It is about how we use all of these expertise to get again within the solar and maintain shifting ahead.”
There have been some adjustments, nonetheless. Whereas not at all in a nasty spot financially, Glowmade was now not hooked as much as the Amazon cash hose. Subsequently the studio wanted to behave like a a lot smaller firm.
“I bear in mind saying [to staff] that the angle we’d like is to truly behave extra like a startup now as a result of we are able to successfully do no matter we would like,” Hopper says. “And the problem goes to be reigning in that enthusiasm and exercise as a result of we’re not financially depending on anybody, however we have to be pressing as a result of we additionally do not have infinite cash and infinite time. It is attempting to steadiness these issues. It was actually thrilling and it was a bit chaotic.”
One other attention-grabbing limitation for Glowmade is that the studio makes use of its personal tech to energy its video games. Which means that there’s solely a sure type of scope that the corporate can deal with. “A query I am at all times asking myself is whether or not having our personal expertise stack is the correct name?” Hopper says. “There’s clearly large advantages to with the ability to take one thing that is off the shelf and begin plugging in. There are additionally points and hurdles to cope with. Our engine is completely not excellent. It does not do all of the issues that Unreal does, but it surely does not have to. It must do the issues we’d like it to do. And in some methods these limitations are helpful since you then do not have these monumental flights of fancy the place you suppose that we might make a 100-hour RPG. These type of information rails are actually helpful.”
“We have discovered that two tasks works fairly properly. Three is just a little tougher”
Rogue Fortune is not the one sport that Glowmade has within the works. The plan is for the studio to have a daily cadence of latest releases to maintain it going.
“I actually need us to have the ability to stay impartial and self-sustaining,” Hopper says. “Which means roughly engaged on two video games without delay and broadly having one title out yearly. We have got this good pipeline of stuff. We have discovered that two tasks works fairly properly. Three is just a little tougher.”
The Glowmade ethos “flexes and adjustments” as the corporate adjustments. When it comes to what the studio desires to make, the agency’s high brass – Hopper, design director Mike Inexperienced and artwork director Adam Sibbick – mentioned what sorts of video games they need to make.
“Mike was identical to: ‘I simply need to make cool shit.’,” Hopper says. “Adam stated he needed to make lovely issues that win awards, which is what any artwork director ought to need to do. After which I stated: ‘I simply need to make attention-grabbing video games’. We tried to wordsmith the theme of what Glowmade stands for. On one degree, it is about creativity; the celebration line is that we stand for empowering creativity. We would like our video games to be artistic. That additionally stands for what I would like for our group as properly. I would like them to really feel like they’re artistic they usually have company.” He continues: “In the end it got here right down to what Adam, Mike and I need to see. We need to make cool, lovely and attention-grabbing issues. We have got our personal barometer with these issues.”
Requested if Glowmade is open to engaged on another person’s IP and even doing co-development work, Hopper says that “he is not averse to it in any respect” and in reality is “actually enthusiastic about speaking about” these tasks.
“What these sorts of issues come right down to is it, once more, does it tick our cool, lovely and attention-grabbing packing containers?” Hopper says. “We do not have to do it but. We have got that luxurious of alternative. If there was an IP that, as a group or as a studio, we might go: ‘Sure, completely. That’s one thing we predict we needs to be making,’ and that is thrilling. It’s very up for grabs.”
Hi, I’m Rishab. I’m a passionate pc gamer and an avid video game content writer. I have been involved with video games for over 2 decades now, and even today, after playing an astronomical number of games over the years, I’m still eager for more. In my free time, you will find me enjoying a hot cup of coffee and playing my favorite relaxing fishing game, Dave the Diver.
