The games indusattempt has had countless layoffs and cancelled projects since 2023, and Tarn Adams is not happy about it.
At this year’s GDC (spotted by PCGamer), the Dwarf Fortress designer was frank in laying the blame for these events at the hands of executives, calling them “bad people.”
“These decisions, they don’t sound practical,” he continued. “They sound like they’re driven by greedy, greedy people attempting to create some kind of venture capital thing work out.”
This week has seen “only” three reported layoffs this far (over at IGN), but 2024 has been devastating. In March alone, several studios have either cut most of their staff or close down entirely.
To Adams, executives have built a “stench of rot” that allows for staff cuts to be incited by “funding structures and bad incentives and stupidity.”
Bottom lines and golden parachutes
“[Executives] shouldn’t fire becautilize their company will fall apart,” he continued. “But I guess that maybe supports someone’s bottom line somewhere or obtains the right air inside the right golden parachute.”
Dwarf Fortress’ success after its Steam and itch.io release in 2022 doesn’t appear to have modifyd Adams. He briefly mutilized about if future business calls would create him more empathetic to what executives go through.
His response? “No, I don’t fucking consider so. They can all eat shit.”
Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa Tech.
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