Flaming Fowl, the renowned game developer responsible for the card battler Fable Fortune and the highly acclaimed adaptation of the board game Gloomhaven, has made a surprising announcement. In a post on Steam, the studio unveiled its latest project called Ironmarked, a cooperative role-playing game with turn-based combat, along with a demo. However, in a disappointing turn of events, Flaming Fowl also revealed that due to the current lack of funding in the games industry, they have decided to shelve Ironmarked's development. This unfortunate news has resulted in layoffs at the studio.

The studio, founded in 2016 by former members of Lionhead Studios, expressed both pride and sadness in a statement, stating "Although this is a difficult and sad time for everyone involved, we are very proud of what we were creating and want to share that with all of you. We also hope that by releasing this demo, we can help those people leaving us to secure new roles elsewhere, by demonstrating their outstanding work on the project."

Flaming Fowl CEO, Craig Oman, provided further context for the decision to halt Ironmarked's development and the subsequent layoffs in an interview with VGC. He explained that after securing a publisher initially, they withdrew their support last year. Since then, Flaming Fowl has been self-funding, but despite pitching the game to various publishers, none were willing to sign on. Oman noted that after completing the successful adaptation of Gloomhaven, they started working on Ironmarked and received multiple offers from publishers. However, a year and a half later, the same publishers declined the project.

As a result of the studio's inability to secure further funding, significant layoffs have occurred, with the team shrinking from about 30 members to just nine. Oman expressed concern for the affected individuals, stating, "I just hope they all find work quickly, because that's the really painful thing."

Despite the halt in development, Flaming Fowl has decided to release an Ironmarked demo, hoping to keep the project alive. Oman stated, "I just wanted the game to see the light of day... I really don't want it to be another one of these games that never come out and only a handful of people ever know about them." The studio encourages players to Wishlist Ironmarked on Steam, as a metric that will potentially attract publishers and secure funding in the future.

In the meantime, the remaining team members at Flaming Fowl will focus on developing a small, self-funded strategy title. The studio has set a goal to release this project by the end of the year.

Flaming Fowl's current situation reflects the challenging environment game development studios have faced in the past year. A combination of factors has led to reduced investment in new projects across the industry.