Dead Cells Developer Reveals End of “Creative Development”

As far as Rogue-like games go, Dead Cells is one of the few that come to mind when I think of a game with a long-standing legacy and development cycle. From Early Access to media tie-in updates, Dead Cells has had an enduring lifespan of more than 6 years. Now it seems that as far as new content goes, that time is coming to an end, and some people are unhappy about it.

In a new Steam update, Motion Twin announced the closure of creative development for Dead Cells, stating: “First off, Update 34 is set to arrive on mobile later this year – sorry about the wait. Our initial plan was to release it alongside Update 35, but as things unfolded, we had to adjust our timeline to get everything where we wanted it to be.

Speaking of Update 35, your patience and enthusiasm since its alpha release have been awesome. We really wanted to bring this update to you quickly, but it turns out we can’t release it just yet. We are all hands on deck trying to figure this out, so please look out for more updates in the future.

Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game. After an incredible 5-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells’ live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can’t wait to see what they come up [with] next. This comes after much reflection, especially following the awesome success of the “Return to Castlevania” DLC last year.

Our commitment to avoiding the “more of the same” trap and keeping Dead Cells fresh and original has led us to this point; as we’ve seen with other long-running series, it’s crucial not to overextend and risk diminishing the unique charm that makes Dead Cells special to us all.

This change explains the recent quiet period on updates, as concluding such a partnership required careful planning to ensure a smooth process for everyone, including the community. As always, we will of course continue to find solutions to make sure that all quality-of-life issues and bugs are properly fixed across all platforms to provide a worthy experience to all of you.

With all that said, we are committed to continuing the journey in this amazing world with some really cool new stuff outside of the original game, so that more and more people can enjoy Dead Cells in totally new ways. Stay tuned for more updates about the Animated Series, the Board Game and… the Beheaded appearing in another world?!

In closing, we are wishing the best to Evil Empire on their upcoming projects and want to express our deepest gratitude to you, the players, for your unwavering support and passion for Dead Cells. Your enthusiasm fuels our commitment, and we’re eager to embark on the next chapter of this journey together.”

Sebastien Benard, a former lead designer of Dead Cells who left Motion Twin to form Deepnight Games in 2020, was critical of this decision. He referred to this decision in a statement to PCGamesN as the “worst imaginable a**hole move” in regards to its treatment of Dead Cells co-developer Evil Empire.

For reference, Evil Empire was a splinter company of Motion Twin formed by several Motion Twin staff in 2019. Thus far it has only worked on Dead Cells but will now be working on “a new game (or two)”. Benard made a more involved statement to PCGamesN about his feelings on the situation, though he also referred to Motion Twin’s update about the game as “total marketing bull****.” We will keep an eye on the situation and see if any further news arises.