Swords ‘N Magic And Stuff Studio Is Back To A Two-Man Dev Team Due To Lack Of Funds

It’s been a very busy year for indie studio Kindred Games as its small dev team continues to develop and add new content for Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff. Over the past few months, the team has managed to revamp the multiplayer RPG’s magic system, rework its tutorial for the third time, and introduce a mount leveling system, a loadout system, a new zone, and new story quests.

Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff was also featured in the Jingle Jam charity event which the developers thought would help generate more interest in the game and drive the studio’s revenue up. Unfortunately, this had the entirely opposite effect since those that decided to give the game a shot ended up buying it from Jingle Jam instead of Steam.

All proceeds from purchases made from Jingle Jam, however, went directly to charity. While this might be good for the various charitable organizations that Jingle Jam was raising money for, it put a large dent in Kindred Games’ revenue which resulted in studio founder Michael Kocha not being able to pay his developers and forcing him to let them go.

Kocha is now working on the bedtime story-inspired game by himself while his wife Janna handles the business side of things and the occasional Unreal Engine work. Subsequently, future updates will be smaller and new zones will be added in phases instead of all at once. Kocha is also planning to add more multiplayer dungeons and his confident that he and his wife can keep the game running.

That being said, Kocha says that there will be a lapse in dev vlogs over the next few months or so as he and his wife prepare for the birth of their new baby. He explains the situation in more detail in his latest dev vlog below