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by ehsankia 1461 days ago
It definitely seemed like they had done most variations of the idea, and they wanted to try something new. It is interesting that they don't want to try the new things under the Zachtronics names, but it also kinda makes sense, since their fan maybe has certain expectations from that brand? I definitely can relate to how making the same kind of game for 10 year can become tiring. The article also hints that some of them maybe want to try opportunities that has more room for growth than a small indie studio.

Definitely interested to see what they do in the future, the fact that it'll be under a different name doesn't really matter to me.

2 comments

>It is interesting that they don't want to try the new things under the Zachtronics names, but it also kinda makes sense, since their fan maybe has certain expectations from that brand?

Given that the studio is disbanding, I don't think it would make any sense for any of the former members to continue a new project under the Zachtronics name. They're not just continuing to work together on something else. To quote:

>"We all have different ideas, interests, tolerances for risk, and so on, so we’re still figuring out what we want to do next."

Sounds like everyone just grew up. Or at least, their lives went in different directions during the 10 years they were Zachtronics.
That's how I read it as well. There are lots of electronic music artists that I enjoy that publish different styles of music under different monikers to avoid upsetting the fans of one style of music they produce. More invested fans may decide to check out releases under their other artist name and if it's not for them they know not to follow those releases.

For game developers it's probably more risky with platforms like Steam prominently showing the aggregate user reviews for a particular title. If they decide to go in a different direction they risk alienating their previous customers and giving the release a very negative rating when it could be a hit if it had a new name behind it.

Imagine if FROMSOFT (a renowned developer of tough 3rd person dungeon crawlers) decided to develop a straight chess game; it might be first in class and have absolutely everything a chess enjoyer might want, but I imagine it would be roundly derided if published under the FROMSOFT banner.