HomeNewsRisk of Rain 2
Risk Of Rain creators wind down work on unannounced project and take jobs at ValveHopoout
Hopoout
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Hopoo Games, the studio who made chewy roguelikeRisk Of Rainand its moreish 3D sequelRisk Of Rain 2, are shutting up shop and taking jobs at Valve. They’re no longer working on a previously unannounced game called “Snail”, say the developerson Xitter. Instead, the studio co-founders Paul Morse and Duncan Drummond (plus “many other talented members”) are taking up game development roles with the Steam owners.
“It’s been an exciting and transformative 12 years,” say the developers. “We feel lucky for the opportunities we’ve had, and deeply appreciate both our team and fans that have supported us and our games.
This is not the first time a small indie team has been absorbed into the opaque Valve hivemind. As our Eurogamer colleaguespoint out, Campo Santo, the creators ofFirewatch, effectively canned their next adventure gameIn The Valley Of The Godsto go work at the studio. Even if it still has a release date of, uh,December 2029.
The dissolution of Hopoo happens in the wake ofa poor reception to Risk of Rain 2’s most recent DLC. Though it should be noted that Hopoo Games aren’t the custodians of that series anymore, since they sold the rights to Gearbox in 2022. And Drummond, for one, sympathised with the Gearbox development team now working on the roguelike, saying they “did the best they could with what time and resources they were given.”
As for precisely what the (ex) Hopoo crowd will be working on, we don’t know. We know Valve is working on multiplayer shooterDeadlock, so that’s one possibility. Otherwise, there are likely other game ideas floating around the company, gaining or losing traction according to the unpredictable internal psychic weather of Valve’s offices.