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.
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.
Stardew doesn’t bother me because the updates are free. As soon as there’s more content for the game, I have it. If I feel like playing Stardew again, the new content is a reason to jump back in to playing it again.
However with Dead Cells, whenever I think about going back and playing it I think about all the new content that I haven’t bought for it. It feels like my options are spend money for the current complete game, play an incomplete version, or just don’t play it right now. I’ve been deciding on “don’t play it right now” for years now.
My issue with Stardew Valley content updates is that they change how the game works. It is not just adding extra postgame missions or something. The content updates tend to fundamentally change how some things work. Your possible/preferred routes to reach endgame today are much different than they were in 2016. It makes it feel like perpetual Early Access.
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.
I feel this with Terraria. Yeah the updates are free and they try many ways to freshen the game up. But, I’m almost begging for the game to land itself in a comfortable level of finishing itself and just polish it off. It is a radically different game when I try it than when I first did back in 2015.
still haven’t tried it! it’s in my library
