Launching in 2013, Kingdoms Rise was a promising-looking solo project from an indie developer doing business as Flyleap Studios. It was a kind of For Honor before For Honor, a fantasy sword combat game focused on physicality and player skill. Early reviews were quite positive, despite its Early Access status, praising its gameplay and multiplayer.
Development trailed off, however, and the final real update came in 2017. Flyleap did work on another game about quadcopter drone racing in 2016, which was pretty negatively received. Now, five years later, Flyleap has called it quits on Kingdoms Rise—and game development—forever.
"Developing games has been full of ups and downs over the long years. Unfortunately in the past few years attempting to push on and work by myself in such a competitive field has generally not been good for me. With the reception of my recently games being unexpectedly poor, the income I have been getting from this line of work has stopped being reliable to pay my bills into the future. As such I have found a new career and decided to stop Flyleap Studios. This will mean that all our games will be taken off sale soon," the developer said on Steam. They also apologized to anyone who felt failed and thanked anyone who has enjoyed their games.
Flyleap Studios is now yet another cautionary tale in the hazards and difficulty of indie game development and the travails of Early Access.
Gabe Newell says no-one in the industry thought Steam would work as a distribution platform—'I'm not talking about 1 or 2 people, I mean like 99%'
Ex-Blizzard president has rather boldly called Sony's potential FromSoftware scoop 'probably a top 2 acquisition in videogames in the last 15+ years if not ever'
