Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

"It was conceived under very different market conditions"

Frostpunk developers 11 bit studios have cancelled a new, console-oriented game in response to both "shifting market trends" - in particular, declining player enthusiasm for "narrative-driven, story-rich games" - and specific problems during development. As a consequence, a number of 11 bit staff are going to lose their jobs, though at least half of the affected development team are being offered the chance to move to other projects, including a few unannounced ones.

As detailed in an investor release this week, the cancelled game was known as Project 8 internally, and had 37 team members as of September 2024. For context, 11 bit studios currently have over 150 staff, according to their recruitment site. It began development in early 2018, with total development costs of about 48.4 million zloties - around 9.4 million pounds or 11.8 million dollars - by this September.

"Our vision for Project 8, which was intended to be our first title designed specifically for console gamers, was bold and exciting," 11 bit's president of the management board Przemysław Marszał observes in the release. "However, it was conceived under very different market conditions, when narrative-driven, story-rich games held stronger appeal."

Gloominess about the layoffs aside, I'm predictably both intrigued and worried that 11 bit think there's less interest now in games with a pronounced narrative component. Then again, the reasons for the cancellation aren't all macroeconomical. "With Project 8, we experienced both breakthroughs and setbacks," Marszał went on. "During the COVID-19 pandemic, stabilising the development team proved particularly difficult, yet progress continued.

"While we achieved noticeable quality improvements in certain areas, several critical aspects of the game and its development process remained problematic despite multiple iterations," he said. "Over time, delays accumulated, and with each milestone, the project's budget grew."

During the unannounced game's last project milestone review, Marszał explained, "our findings revealed unresolved issues and challenges that would require further extensions of the production timeline and corresponding budget increases to address. This, coupled with revised sales forecasts, largely reflecting the changing market environment, raised significant doubts about the project's overall profitability."

It's not yet clear how many people will be laid off thanks to the cancellation, as it'll be a "phased" reduction. Marszał did specify that "more than half" of the Project 8 team will "be offered opportunities to transition to other existing teams or to new, as-yet-unannounced initiatives".

I wasn't aware 11 bit were working on a console-focussed game. Their recent Frostpunk 2 enthused many reviewers, though our own Sin Vega was pretty mixed on it, and her conclusions chime with my misgivings at the preview stage.

I'm also not entirely sure what to make of next year's The Alters, a fancy sci-fi yarn in which you play a castaway who clones himself in order to operate a rolling space base, and then has to deal with his proportionately-multiplied psychological baggage. I think it'll be memorable, whatever happens. In-house projects aside, 11 bit have also published some wonderful third-party creations, including acerbic religious fable Indika and fantasy reshelving sim Moonlighter.

I'd have been interested to see Project 8, assuming it also shipped on PC. Best of luck to everybody affected by the cancellation. Hopefully this will be 2024's final layoff post. It's certainly been a long year, and not just for video game developers.