Dead Cells, released in 2018, is one of the best roguelikes ever—"a stellar action platformer with gorgeous presentation and excellent combat," we said in our 90% review, a reputation that only grew over seven years of further development, 35 updates, and a whole spin-off studio. You might think that Dead Cells 2 would inevitably follow, but no: Developer Motion Twin instead opted to go for an entirely new game called Windblown.
The reason, co-creative director and game designer Yannick Berthier recently told PCGamesN, is simple: Motion Twin is a nine-person team, nearly all of them are partners in the studio, and they aren't beholden to anyone else. "We are driven by what we want to make," Berthier said.
"If we were a 'business,' we would be talking about Dead Cells 2 right now. We are not talking about Dead Cells 2. We are talking about Windblown, because we are a collective of individuals that are creative and want to create stuff."
Of course, there's no overlooking the practical foundations that enable that approach to game development in the first place: Dead Cells was a massive hit, surpassing 10 million copies sold back in 2023, when the updates were still flowing, and that's the kind of banger that sets you up to do pretty much whatever you want for the rest of your life.
Which isn't to say that Motion Twin is free of such pressures. "Externally, it's super strong," Berthier said. "Every post we do, we tend to have a few comments like, 'OK, cool, when Dead Cells 2?' But it's fine. That's our reality."
It bears noting, too, that Motion Twin hasn't been directly involved in Dead Cells' development for several years now. That responsibility actually fell to Evil Empire, a spinoff studio founded in 2019 that subsequently released a half-dozen Dead Cells DLCs before going on to find continued success with The Rogue Prince of Persia earlier this year. That was the crux of some unpleasantness when the end of Dead Cells development was announced in 2024: Dead Cells designer Sebastien Benard said "[Motion Twin] did the worst imaginable asshole move against Dead Cells and [Evil Empire]," and expressed thanks that he was no longer involved with the project. Benard later elaborated that Evil Empire had plans for Dead Cells DLC "for at least 2024 and 2025" when the end was announced.
Having a hit game that people want more of isn't the worst reality to be living in, especially when it affords you the opportunity to not do that. Although sometimes you do want to do that: Hollow Knight leaps immediately to mind as a huge success that enabled its developers to do whatever they wanted, and they decided that what they wanted was more Hollow Knight. There's also the hallowed middle ground, embodied by Eric Barone, who despite his protestations about Haunted Chocolatier, I'm pretty sure is just going to keep making Stardew Valley forever.
Which is fine! The point, as far as there is one at all, is simply that it's nice to be able to do what you want, and everyone wants to do different things—but they all need to take that same first step (ie., hit game, lots of money) to make it happen. Motion Twin's latest effort, Windblown, hasn't met with the same level of success as its predecessor, but is still undergoing active development in early access on Steam.
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