OlliOlli developer Roll7 is stepping away from support of its latest release Laser League to “reflect and re-energize,” handing the game off to publisher 505 Games as a result. In a pair of blog posts from both Roll7 and 505 Games, the companies addressed the issues leading up to the decision and the struggles the game has faced so far.
In Roll7’s case, the developer notes that making a game on the scale of Laser League, a neon multiplayer showdown for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, was an ambitious project for the indie team and something that has become signifcantly difficult and stressful. While the team notes that it is taking a step back to breathe for a moment, Laser League won’t be Roll7’s final release.
The post from 505 Games dives a bit deeper into the struggles Laser League faced, summing up some of those issues in a phrase other game devs might find all too familiar: “Laser League is a complex game to explain but when people play it the reaction is almost universally and overwhelmingly positive.”
505 Games notes that overcoming the complicated challenge of explaining what the game itself was about to would-be players was something the team struggled with through out the title’s lifespan. That problem ultimately that led to a small playerbase that, in-turn, further exacerbated matchmaking issues since Laser League is a solely multiplayer title.
The publisher says that it is looking to cross play to boost the game’s presence going forward and that it worked with Roll7 to get a number of features in place to help boost the game’s presence before the developer stepped away from active support.