Two Tribes B.V. is shutting down and reforming as a new daughter studio after a sluggish last year.
Toki Tori 2, the sequel to Two Tribes' puzzle-platformer Toki Tori, took longer than anticipated to develop and sold below expectations on PC, Mac, and Wii U. The drain on resources effectively forced the company to close its doors.
"We’ve been making games for more than 13 years, so you can imagine how much it — quite frankly — sucks when after a four-minute meeting at the courthouse, the company we built was no more," the developer wrote in a blog post today. "At the same time, we knew we were kinda stuck in the past and this was our chance to change things drastically."
So while Two Tribes B.V. shuts down, a daughter studio with a smaller team is opening to continue development on future titles. Founders Martijn Reuvers and Collin van Ginkel will remain on board.
"For the outside world nothing much will change," the studio wrote. "Two Tribes Publishing is still in good shape, and all our previous games will remain for sale. With the support of you, our players, the games will supply the funding for our new titles which will be released under the Two Tribes name."
The new Two Tribes will "move away from creating custom technology and focus on what’s readily available." Its next game is a 2D side-scrolling shooter, which uses the Toki Tori 2+ engine.
"Our focus will be on the design of our games, which we plan on making more of in less time than before."
