Life By You Dev Only Found Out About Job Loss When Announcement Went Public

Highlights

Paradox Tectonic was shut down by parent company Paradox Interactive, leaving 24 developers unemployed after Life Is You cancellation.
Game designer Willem Delventhal, informed of layoffs after game cancellation via public announcement, expressed frustration and disappointment.
Despite exceeding internal metrics and having a game approval, Delventhal is critical of industry practices and lack of communication.

In what seems like a never-ending cycle now, Paradox Tectonic was shut down this week by its parent company, Paradox Interactive. The studio, which was developing The Sims-like game, Life Is You, closed its doors for good only 24 hours after their game got canceled. Now 24 of its hardworking developers are out of work.

One of those devs, game designer Willem Delventhal, has described the entire emotional situation as a “real shit show” while also stating that the development team at the studio “spent a month in purgatory” to do everything they could to prove the studio could make it work.

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Willem Delventhal is a seasoned game designer specializing in edutech and UGC projects but, unfortunately, he and others from Paradox Tectonic who had been working on The Sims competitor, Life Is You, found out he was being laid off only hours after the game was canceled.

In probably the worst way you could ever find out you are jobless, Delventhal states on their LinkedIn page that the team only knew about the closure from the public announcement that went up on Paradox Interactive’s homepage. Delventhal said that he had “known for some time that we might be getting shut down,” but the team had been doing “extremely well” on their current game. He also goes on to say that the team spent a month in “purgatory” and during that time, they tried finding potential buyers and budgeting costs, as well as going independent, but nothing seemed to work and the team hasn’t had anyone explain to them why.

“I cannot share specific numbers, but I can say that we had an internal metric we were aiming for that had been approved and that we exceeded that number by a significant portion,” Delventhal mentions. “We also got a thumbs up a few weeks before launch.”

Even though Delventhal expresses that they have been told that speaking out about their experience could land him in legal trouble and even harm their career, he says he has “chosen to ignore these warnings.” As anyone in his position would be, Delventhal is angry over how the situation has been handled, but he is also trying to remain calm despite his current feelings. “But I’m trying to stay kind and respectful. So instead I’ll say: this industry has become a place in which you can deliver more than expected, have AA money behind you, and still have the rug pulled two weeks before launch.”

In the public announcement, Mattias Lilja, Paradox Interactive’s deputy CEO, said that the closure was an “incredibly difficult call to make and is a clear failure on Paradox’s part to meet both our own and the community’s expectations.”