KeokeN Interactive lays off entire staff

Deliver Us the Moon and Deliver Us Mars developer KeokeN Interactive has laid off its entire staff, the studio announced.

“Heartbroken, we’ve had to lay off our team at KeokeN because of nothing substantial materializing directly after our visit to [Game Developers Conference 2024 in March],” said KeokeN Interactive CEO Koen Deetman and managing director Paul Deetman in a message. “We’ve unfortunately exhausted all our possible options for publishing, work for hire, and co-development.”

The studio’s “top priority” at the moment is helping its laid-off staff find work elsewhere. It is also preparing a Kickstarter campaign for the new title Deliver Us Home, “a solitary astronaut experience about finding home” which it first pitched in an open video to publishers in March.

Here is the full message from KeokeN Interactive on the lay-offs:

Heartbroken, we’ve had to lay off our team at KeokeN because of nothing substantial materializing directly after our visit to GDC. We’ve unfortunately exhausted all our possible options for publishing, work for hire, and co-development.

It is our utmost priority to make sure our lovely team finds a new home somewhere else, so if you have any positions available in programming, tech art, porting, level design, audio, animation, production, office management, contact us, so that we can introduce you to the very best people who have been at the heart of KeokeN over the past 10 years.

Paul and I are heavily beat, but far from beaten. It’s our personal mission to rebuild KeokeN brick by brick like we’ve done before, in the name of our people and to continue the legacy of our games.

It has become abundantly clear that what is most important to us and our team is you, our community. You play our games, you make our games shine, you make us feel special as you believe in us. You have showed up consistently in both the good and the bad times, from our debut Kickstarter in the past to our recent video asking for help. Because of you, we’ve reached millions of people. We have always needed you and continue to do so.

Personally, we are preparing a Kickstarter soon for our much-anticipated Deliver Us Home. This is one small step for KeokeN, one giant leap for Deliver Us Home. A game we will build for you and with you.

—Koen Deetman (CEO), Paul Deetman (Managing Director)