MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Dungeon Defenders developer Trendy Entertainment has rebranded as Chromatic Games.
Original co-founder Augi Lye returned to the studio in December "to help return Trendy to its indie roots". As reported by GameDaily.biz, the studio has seen some changes across many departments, but now stands at around 30 employees, with veteran Colin Fisher taking the creative director role.
"In December of this past year, Augi Lye, one of the original founders of Trendy, came back as CEO to help return Trendy to its indie roots. The development team and I worked with him to figure out how we can have a good plan to move forward and start creating Dungeon Defenders games in the way they were meant to be made: for our players," Fisher said via apost on the Dungeon Defenders official forums.
"One of the things we wanted to make clear was that Trendy was no longer really Trendy. There’s brand-new leadership, a new creative direction, and new energy at the studio that was just waiting to be released. So we decided that we’re not really Trendy anymore.
"We’re not answering to external people anymore. We’re in control of our own destiny. We were able to keep the majority of the development team around, but we had some people move on to newer pastures. We’re so grateful for their years of service. We love and respect all of our previous Trendy family, but now the Chromatic team is focused on the future – and that future is to keep improving DD2 and crafting Dungeon Defenders: Awakened."
Development on Dungeon Defenders II "is going to slow down" but "will keep going" as the team maintain "limited updates and content". In the meantime, the studio has taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for Dungeon Defenders: Awakened, and has currently raised $173K of its $250K goal.
As GI.biz points out, the rebrand may help Chromatic shake off its undesirable reputation following a 2013 Kotaku investigation that made troubling claims about the studio’s dire culture and toxic environment.
