The original designer of Dead Cells, Sébastien Benard, formed a new studio and has a new roguelike game on the way called Tenjutsu in which players take the role of a renegade yakuza.
Earlier this year, Benard called the decision to end Dead Cells development “the worst imaginable asshole move”.
I’m curious about how others feel about this. I think Dead Cells is an incredible game, but the amount of continued DLC releases has actually turned me off of the game somewhat. I’m actually glad development has ended in a way, so that I can rebuy the “complete” game and have everything.
The game already had tons of content, I don’t think it needs perpetual new content additions.
Reading the full statement, it sounds to me like there was more to it than just the game’s development coming to an end. It sounds like it might have been a very sudden decision by the publisher, with possible negative consequences for the development team.
In principle I agree though, there is no issue with a game just being finished at some point, especially a single player one. But I also don’t mind continued updates and/or DLC.
I am becoming the same way. Maybe I am just old, but I miss the days of buying something and having a finished product. Instead, we have games like this and Stardew Valley that release in an incomplete state and are still receiving major content updates almost a decade later.
Dead Cells released in a state that felt pretty complete to me, so I just appreciate all the extra content, especially the free updates. It’s a game that’s so good I’m glad it got such loving support, because the core is so fantastic that I really did just want some more levels and items to increase replayability.
I think it’s okay for it to end now. I’d also think it was okay if the devs kept going, but it’s in a place where it’s got enough content that it can end here and I’m okay with that.
