Red Rover Interactive plans to lay off 22 employees, and has delayed the release of its debut title Enginefall to 2027.
CEO Fred Richardson stated the extended development schedule for Enginefall requires a reduction in employees.
Enginefall participated in this year’s Steam Next Fest, engaging over 200,000 players.
“It showed us the work still ahead: new player experience, performance, cheat protection, and overall clarity,” Richardson wrote on LinkedIn.
“Finishing that work to a standard the game deserves requires more time than our previous plan allowed, and taking that time responsibly means a smaller team.”
Playtesting for Enginefall will continue, with larger-scale closed sessions scheduled to resume later this year.
Richardson said the studio has “engaged with a specialist games recruiter to support everyone affected” by the layoffs and is “activating the wider studio network to help each person find their next role.”
Red Rover Interactive was founded in June 2023 by developers with experience on titles such as Day Z, Crysis 2, Ghost Recon, and Dune Awakening.
At launch, the company secured approximately $5 million in seed funding, led by Behold Ventures and The Games Fund.
Richardson previously told GamesIndustry.biz that Red Rover was founded to capitalise on a market opportunity in the survival genre.
“Over the years, it’s been clear to many that the survival genre, which we are intimately familiar with, has real potential for breakout growth,” he said.
“However, we noticed a trend where the market was predominantly gravitating towards increasingly curated, PVE or smaller-scale multiplayer experiences.
A year later, the developer secured an additional $15 million in funding, led by PUBG developer Krafton.
New investors Tirtra Ventures and Overwolf joined the round, alongside returning investors The Games Fund and Behold Ventures.
This funding was to support Enginefall, then codenamed Project Coltrane.
