Indie RPG dev Thought Pennies cuts staff after losing project funding

Employees at RPG studio Thought Pennies have been recently let go, according to CCO Daniel Erickson. On LinkedIn, he explained the layoffs came after funding on a previous project was pulled by its unnamed publisher, which opted to go in a new "strategic direction."

"Last week, we had to shrink the size of the studio," he wrote. "Every person you see with Thought Pennies next to their name and their brand-new 'open to work' tag was hand-picked and performed the improbable with our team." This is its second round of layoffs within a year, and this new set of eliminations further shows the industry is still going through tough times.

Around this time last year, Thought Pennies had cut several positions. At the time, the studio was working on what had been previously deemed a "multiplatform, social role-playing game," but it's unclear if this or another project was scrapped. The all-remote studio was founded by 2020 by mobile developer Tim Ernst, and has spent the years since operating in "stealth mode."

Erickson went on to say the company would "love to grab each one of these people back when our next project arrives, but first and foremost we want them all to be in the perfect place for their lives and aspirations."

Like last year, 2024 has been very layoff-heavy, and in some cases the result of cancelled projects or lost funding. Last week, Tequila Works went insolvent shortly after it had to cancel an unannounced project, and ProbablyMonsters recently cut staff from its internal Battle Barge team after a project was similarly gutted.

The governments of some countries have started funding programs in an attempt to alleviate the issue and aid the studios (and workers) who reside there. Meanwhile, studios like Tales of Kenzera creator Surgent Studios are seeking out funding on their own, and publicly showing off projects as a way to lure potential partners.