Evening Star Faces Layoffs Amid Industry-Wide Turbulence
The video game industry continues to experience turbulence, as another studio faces layoffs amid widespread uncertainty. Evening Star, the developer behind the 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway, announced the difficult decision to lay off six employees, citing ongoing instability in the business.
“This was a post that I was hoping not to write,” CEO and executive producer Dave Padilla shared on LinkedIn. He explained that despite the team’s best efforts to secure new projects and keep everyone employed, the studio was forced to downsize due to challenging market conditions.
Hunter Bridges, the chief technology officer and game director, echoed Padilla’s sentiments, emphasizing that the layoffs were not a reflection of the affected employees’ talent but rather a harsh reality of the studio’s operational needs and the broader industry’s volatility.
Evening Star was founded in 2018 by developers from the Sonic Mania team, and Penny’s Big Breakaway showcased their expertise in creating compelling platformers. Described as a “deeply compelling, replayable experiment” inspired by Sonic and Mario games, Penny’s Big Breakaway earned generally positive reviews, but its commercial performance fell short of expectations. On Steam, it peaked with just 563 concurrent players, a modest number for a game available on multiple platforms.
Though the loss of six employees may seem small, it represents a significant portion of Evening Star’s team, which lists around 19 members on its website. These layoffs are part of a larger trend that has gripped the gaming industry for the past two years, with over 16,000 job cuts reported in early 2024. Recent layoffs at major companies like Microsoft and studios such as Midnight Society and Lost Boys Interactive reflect the ongoing uncertainty developers are facing.
Even as the industry grapples with these challenges, the talent and creativity of affected developers like those at Evening Star remain undisputed, leaving hope for better opportunities ahead.
