After nearly a decade in business, Austin-based indie studio Renegade Kid is being shut down as cofounders Gregg Hargrove and Jools Watsham go their separate ways.
But there’s an interesting twist to this too-common story of indie studio closure: Watsham and Hargrove will each continue to make games under new studio names, splitting the catalog of Renegade Kid properties on a purely dimensional basis.
That means that Watsham will continue to make games at Atooi, a company he founded in 2015 that’s focused on making “retro inspired” games and now owns all of Renegade Kid’s 2D game properties like Treasurenauts, Xeodrifter and Mutant Mudds.
Meanwhile, Renegade Kid’s 3D game properties (games like Dementium: The Ward and Moon Chronicles) will become the property of Infitizmo, the multimedia company Hargrove founded this year.
“With their friendship and respect for each other still very much intact, Watsham and Hargrove will continue developing videogames under the names of their new companies,” reads a press release on the Renegade Kid website today. “We hope you will share in the excitement that both Jools and Gregg feel for their new journeys.”