Hey there Archfiends!
We have some news to share on the future of Solium Infernum.
Today we announced that after more than 13 years of makin’ games day in and day out, we’re gonna take a break over here at LoG and put the studio into hibernation for a while.
If you’ve been paying attention to the games industry over the past couple of years you’ll know it’s been truly horrible with the major contractions in funding/investment and the resulting studio closures, mass layoffs, game cancellations, etc. Though we tried as much as possible to protect our team and projects, we weren't immune to these shifting winds, and admittedly our games have not made enough to ensure such immunity in a time like this.
By hibernating and reducing costs we can protect the games we have made, and ensure they stay live and playable, whilst getting a much needed break and the chance to survive our industry's economic contraction. Any roll of the dice on further development would have risked total shutdown, which would obviously have been irresponsible to our players and games' communities.
So, with Solium Infernum three months post launch, a DLC launched and the game stable and humming along in a great place, we're gonna take this opportunity to hunker down and wait out this economic winter.
“But what about Solium Infernum?!” you say. Well, I’m glad you asked.
The plan for Solium Infernum was always to release a fully realised game that we can expand upon should the game find commercial success.
While a critical success we’re immensely proud of, Solium Infernum (and every game we develop) had sales targets that it needed to meet (and sustain) to perpetuate active development on expanding the initial experience offered at launch (DLC, updates, etc).
Unfortunately, Solium Infernum has failed to hit those revenue targets that would fund ongoing and active development of additional content.
In its current state, Solium Infernum is a critical success and an experience we are immensely proud of. It remains in Open Critic’s 2024 Hall of Fame (at number eight!) and is #20 on Metacritic’s best games of the year so far! And those reviews came in at launch! Since then, there has been more than three months of additional content, major updates and a brand new DLC.
Whilst it is by no means a perfect game, and we could have easily and happily continued to expand and add to Solium Infernum for years to come, we not only feel very proud and content with the game we have today, but confident that it can stand alone as a valuable experience for years to come.
I understand that Solium Infernum is near and dear to many of you - this weird strategy game Vic bore unto this world has a way of working its dark tendrils into one’s heart - and so I empathise that this will not be the most welcome or pleasant of news. But alas, we cannot continue active development with a full team, expanding upon a game, if that game is not earning the revenue required to fund its expansion. So many of our team have moved on to new, exciting endeavours and a small core team remains at LoG with a goal of ensuring the stability and perpetuity of our existing titles, Solium Infernum included.
With full scale active development not an option, we’ll be taking a slower, long term approach to Solium Infernum's support, where we can poke and prod at the meta from time to time as needed and clean up any pesky bugs that remain - or rear their head.
We’re so immensely grateful for all of the support you’ve provided us in the lead up to and beyond Solium Infernum’s launch. From the early technical playtests through to the constant running feedback and commentary, you’ve helped us make a game that is far more than we could have achieved on our own.
I’m sure a bunch of you have questions, so I’ve posted a quick little speed round FAQ below and will answer questions for a while on this post.
Other than that, see you around! We may be taking a break, but we’ll be around keeping an eye on things and tweaking stuff when and where necessary. We're actually in the process of testing our next little update right now. So, as we always say…
See you in Hell!
<3 LoG
FAQ
Will the servers/multiplayer stay online?
Yes, multiplayer was specifically engineered to be as light as possible when it came to server overheads, and the game is making more than enough money to cover all server costs and maintenance for the foreseeable future.
So that’s it? Will there be any more updates at all?
Obviously we love this hellish strategy game, so we do still have a couple of small items up our sleeve, and are working on a small update now. Other than that, as mentioned, we’ll be keeping an eye on things and making sure it’s running as smoothly as possible.
Will there be more Archfiends or DLC?
Whilst the uptake on the Belphegor from our existing players has been great, unfortunately, the base game has not sold enough units to provide a user base large enough to support development of additional DLC. So, no, there will be no more DLC or Archfiends for Solium Infernum.
Wait! What about X or Y bug?!
We have worked hard and will continue to do our best to eliminate any remaining critical bugs (we’ve still got an active bug hitlist), but as we move through the critical bugs and the game stabilises more and more, you’ll notice we will begin to only action bugs on a must-fix basis. Fixing one bug always presents the possibility of introducing more bugs, so slow and steady is the way forward.
All that said, naturally it is in our best interest to ensure the game is functional and stable and we will outlay costs at our expense where necessary (and possible) to ensure the game remains that way.
You can’t stop development now, the game is unbalanced! Read my essay on why and how!
There's not much better than an inspired community rant on game balance so don't ever stop sharing, but I will say, we have spent the last three months post-launch listening and reading and watching and poking and prodding and iterating and are very happy with where the game’s balance currently lies. You may disagree, and that’s okay, but Solium Infernum is a large, unwieldy and maniacal beast of labyrinthian connections and devious exceptions. Our goal was never to achieve some state of “perfect balance” for this game.
Vic’s iteration of Solium Infernum was far from perfect, far from complete, far from balanced, but it provided an arena for the most dastardly and daring of us to exercise our demonic machinations for well over a decade. Our humble hope is that LoG’s re-imagining and modernisation of his classic provides that same opportunity for our community.
And fear not, should some wild meta appear that compromises SI’s integrity at some point in the future, we’ll reach into the beast and poke and prod until it sings its forlorn song once more. As mentioned, we will just be taking a slower, more methodical approach to balance and fixes moving forward.
But the Original Solium Infernum had X Legion and Y feature and yours doesn't!
Our intention was never to recreate the perfect replica of OSI. We have carefully chosen which Legions, Artefacts, strategies, features, etc, to bring into our reimagining. If there's something not in the game it was either completely out of scope or not on our original roadmap for various reasons. Of course, we had grand plans should the game have made bajillions and we could continue expanding it for years and years, but as I said earlier, the Solium Infernum you're playing today was designed to be a full product at launch and is very much our intended vision for the re-imagining.
Besides, never say never. We might chuck a Legion or two into the game in future. ;)
Hey that sucks, I’m super bummed, but thanks for all the work you’ve done so far. Love the game and I’m sorry post-launch development didn’t work out!
Hey! Thank you! We appreciate you. Honestly, whilst makin' a bunch of dough would have been great (we are a business after all) the most important objective for us was to take Vic’s masterpiece, this “diamond in the dark”, recut it and bring it out into the light so that those who never knew of OSI could appreciate its brilliance, and those of us who knew its dark embrace, could experience it all over again.
Admittedly, re-imagining Solium Infernum was likely not the greatest economic play, hence why we worked so hard to make sure it was solid before we had to go tools down. But we're so infinitely glad we had the honour and pleasure of resurrecting this magnificent cultural landmark for a new generation. So If you’ve been with us since before launch, we see you and appreciate you. And for the rest of you, we love you too. ;)