Danish indie studio Die Gute Fabrik is going on indefinite hiatus, having failed to find funding for its next project. While not technically a studio closure, staff are looking for new work opportunities, including CEO and creative director Hannah Nicklin and co-founder Nils Deneken.
Deneken plans to return to Die Gute Fabrik as CEO should funding be found for the studio’s next project, hopeful to return to production at some point in the future. In the meantime, the studio’s previously launched titles will continue operations.
Then and now
Deneken founded Die Gute Fabrik in 2008 and has long focused on narrative-driven games from Rückblende to Saltsea Chronicles - the studio’s latest title set in a post-flood world. Die Gute Fabrik’s games have been met with critical acclaim over the years, but even so, in the current landscape finding new funding has proven a great challenge.
Nicklin joined the team in January 2017 to help with writing the first mobile game in Die Gute Fabrik’s repertoire, Mutazione, and soon rose the ranks to lead writer and narrative designer. In January 2019 she was promoted to CEO and studio lead, ahead of Mutazione’s launch later that year.
An adventure game full of personal drama, the title released on console, Steam and Apple Arcade, with gameplay involving making friends, exploring a community, planting musical gardens and embarking on a spiritual journey.
Mutazione was followed by Saltsea Chronicles in 2023, though it didn’t see a mobile launch. A new project was intended to be in the works next, but four months on from Saltsea Chronicles’ launch, the lack of funding has meant an indefinite shelving of the unannounced prototype and the studio behind it.
"We’re sad to share with you all the news that Die Gute Fabrik is halting production. The publishing and investment scene is so tough for companies and projects of our scale right now it’s made it extremely difficult for Die Gute Fabrik to secure funding for our next project without a gap in income," the company posted on BlueSky.
"We've been making games since 2008, and are so proud of the work we've put out and the people we've made it with. Thank you for playing our games."
This makes Die Gute Fabrik the latest in a growing list of companies struggling to survive the current landscape, victims in the long procession of post-pandemic economic woes that have led to so many closures and redundancies already. Even the likes of Tencent subsidiary Team Kaiju hasn't escaped this fate, and neither has Gameloft.
