There's a bit of unintended irony in our 2018 preview of Orphan Age, a life-sim game about orphans attempting to survive in the midst of a cyberpunk warzone. "Not sure this one will have a happy ending," we said at the time, a reference to the game's grim premise that turned out to be prescient in an unexpected way.
A demo for Orphan Age was released in 2019 but a full early access launch never happened, and now it never will. Studio Black Flag, the developer, has announced that following a split with its publisher, funding has dried up and the studio has ceased operations.
"The last few months we've been going through bankruptcy procedures in France," Studio Black Flag wrote on Steam (via Game Developer). "This started when communication broke down between us and our publisher, leading to payments not continuing. Alas, with our publisher not continuing funding and no other sources of continued funding to finalize the game, the French government has elected to shut down the studio effective immediately.
"So with that, we are deeply saddened to announce the end of our time working on the development of Orphan Age, and that Studio Black Flag will no longer be sailing as of the end of this month."
Studio Black Flag attributed the shutdown to the "current downturn in the videogame industry," and said its publishing contract means "we simply do not have ownership over Orphan Age in a way that would allow us to shop it to another publisher." Even if it was able to secure full ownership rights, the current state of the industry means it would be "an incredibly difficult, lengthy process to find someone open to supporting our project."
A successful 2018 Kickstarter for Orphan Age raised more than $35,000 to support development, but that money is long gone. Studio Black Flag is looking into releasing the "most finalized" build of the game to backers, but legal issues need to be worked out first. Even if it does happen, the studio warned that the build "will not be anything approaching a final, polished product," although it will be significantly more advanced than the demo.
Failed Kickstarters typically leave angry backers, but in this case most of the responses on Kickstarter and Steam express disappointment but are largely sympathetic to the plight of the developers. That may be due in part to the possibility that the publisher, which goes unnamed, could continue development of Orphan Age, "but at this time that is entirely out of our hands."
"Today marks the end of Black Flag in a pretty brutal way and in slow motion at the same time," studio founder and game director Adrien Forestier said. "I'm not sure if it signifies the end of Orphan Age as the project may end up in other hands, but it is my hope that it finally sees a release. I'm alternating between shock and numbness and it's just too early for me to address what's next and why we're in this situation.
"We've been so close to a release, several times, and there's a lot to regret after all the work done along the many iterations and restarts we went through. Orphan Age was always a slippery concept and when it's time I'll reflect publicly on this even if it matters only to a dozen players."
Forestier also allowed for the possibility that Orphan Age might eventually see the light of day: "It's heartbreaking to end this adventure on these words and to think about all our supporters we are letting down. As I said earlier, while it's the end for Black Flag, I'll do whatever I can so it's not the end for Orphan Age."
