In a surprise announcement, the minds behind the Risk of Rain franchise has revealed it is now working under Valve. The studio Hapoo Games has not been involved with Risk of Rain since 2022, but the latest move has meant that the indie studio"s upcoming project has been canceled.
"Today, we have an exciting update: Duncan and Paul, alongside many other talented members at Hopoo Games, will now be working on game development directly at Valve Software," says the social media post on Hopoo Games" official X page.
The studio founders Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse first came up with the rogue-like smash-hit Risk of Rain in 2013. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign to launch on PC in 2013, the title went on to land on PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox platforms in the coming years, while also receiving continuous updates.
"It"s been an exciting and transformative 12 years," studio adds. "We feel lucky for the opportunities we"ve had, and deeply appreciate both our team and fans that have supported us and our games."
The studio also went on to make Risk of Rain 2. The 2020 release of the sequel, following a year in early access, was a fully 3D third-person roguelike unlike the original"s 2D experience. However, the Risk of Rain IP was fully acquired by Gearbox Entertainment to continue sequel"s updates and develop future projects, while the Hopoo team remained independent.
The move to Valve by Hopoo Games has meant that its upcoming project, an unannounced game named titled Snail, is now canceled:
"We"re incredibly grateful to Valve for their partnerships in the last decade, and are excited to continue working on their awesome titles. However, this does mean that we are stopping production on our unannounced game, "Snail"."
We love making games - and will continue to do so, for years to come. We"re excited to be working side-by-side with the talented people at Valve. But for now - sleep tight, Hopoo Games.
— Hopoo Games (@hopoogames) September 3, 2024
It"s unclear on what games will the Hopoo Games team work on at Valve. Outside of its live-service titles like DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike 2 , Valve is confirmed to be developing Deadlock, a third-person shooter that mixes hero shooter and MOBA elements. Of course, there are always rumors of other titles and sequels being in development, even Half-Life, at the company too.