OtherSide Entertainment – the studio behind co-op stealth game Thick as Thieves – has announced that it has been hit by layoffs. According to Game Developer, 17 of the studio’s employees are being affected by these layoffs, which have been attributed to another one of its projects, codenamed Argos, falling through.
“After the cancellation of a game under development codenamed Argos, OtherSide Entertainment had to sadly say goodbye to 17 team members, effective end of May,” said a spokesperson for OtherSide Entertainment.
While no details about Argos have been revealed, the spokesperson described it as having the potential to be “a huge success in normal times.” However, the current state of the industry is “brutally challenging”, making Argos “unviable for now.” Whether this means that OtherSide wants to potentially work on it in the future remains unknown.
“To any studios out there hiring, we cannot recommend these impacted people highly enough,” continued the spokesperson.
Former world builder and level designer at the studio, Apryl Arrogante, confirmed that they are one of the employees affected by these layoffs. “Even though I was just there for a year, this team truly taught me a lot, and I’ve learned so much from them,” they wrote on LinkedIn.
Senior 3D artist Elizabeth Walcher was also part of the layoffs, confirming this through their own post. “A few weeks ago I was laid off from my job at OtherSide Entertainment after the Argos project was canceled. As a result, I’m back on the job hunt again and am available for work!”
OtherSide Entertainment has only released one title so far – Thick as Thieves – which came out on PC just last month. Featuring industry legends like Warren Spector (known for Deus Ex and Thief: Deadly Shadows) and Paul Neurath (known for Thief: The Dark Project and Thief: The Metal Age), Thick as Thieves offers a short gameplay experience with only two levels, and is appropriately priced at $4.99.
Thick as Thieves revolves around players taking on the role of thieves and heading into one of the game’s two maps – Constables’ Guildhall or Elway Manor – to loot them of anything that isn’t nailed down before making a successful escape. True to its Thief heritage, Thick as Thieves doesn’t really give players any way to fight back against enemies, so stealth gameplay is paramount.
Interestingly, despite its short runtime, director Jeff Hickman has said that the studio didn’t want to go with an Early Access release, finding the label too constraining. Referring to Steam’s Early Access as “a very specific thing on Steam and behind the scenes,” Hickman said that the team wanted to avoid “a bunch of rules” that Early Access games are expected to follow.
“We want to be able to pivot wherever we need to,” Hickman explained. “Do players just love solo and co-op play? Okay, great: no PvP for the future. Do players love solo and co-op, but are screaming about PvP? Oh, maybe we should do PvP. Like, we have a whole bunch of baseline plans, but none of them are set in stone.”
For more details on Thick as Thieves, check out our review, where we gave it a score of 7 out of 10.
