Dead Cells devs bid farewell to indie gem as they move onto new things

Dead Cells has had a long and excellent run, but Evil Empire and Motion Twin have announced that Update 35 will be the “end of our creative journey on the game.” Motion Twin discussed the news in its own update over on Steam. “Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game. After an incredible 5-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells’ live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can’t wait to see what they come up next. This comes after much reflection, especially following the awesome success of the ‘Return to Castlevania’ DLC last year. Our commitment to avoiding the ‘more of the same’ trap and keeping Dead Cells fresh and original has led us to this point; as we’ve seen with other long-running series, it’s crucial not to overextend and risk diminishing the unique charm that makes Dead Cells special to us all.”

After working with Motion Twin on Dead Cells since 2019, Evil Empire is moving on to “something shiny and new.” The developer’s statement goes into more detail: “After nearly five years of service, four DLCs, 18 updates, some epic crossovers and a mobile release with Playdigious, Evil Empire will no longer be working on Dead Cells. We are immensely proud of the work we have put into the game, we loved every minute and are very thankful to Motion Twin for trusting us and letting us play with their baby for so long.”

Evil Empire goes on to talk about how much it will miss the game’s “amazing community,” before going on to tease what’s next. “The good news is that our Dead Cells team have been unleashed to pump their talent into our secret projects, and we’ll be revealing what their crazy minds have been coming up with very soon! Meanwhile we of course wish the best for Motion Twin and godspeed to their new game Windblown!”

Motion Twin emphasized that it’ll still “continue to find solutions to make sure that all quality of life issues and bugs are properly fixed across all platforms to provide a worthy experience to all of you,” and that it is “committed to continuing the journey in this amazing world with some really cool new stuff outside of the original game.” This includes the animated series a board game, and “the Beheaded appearing in another world?!”

Update 35 is still on the way for consoles and PC, but Motion Twin says it “can’t release it just yet.” We’ll keep an eye out for more news on that update, especially for confirmation of whether it’ll add new Dead Cells achievements. In the meantime, we have the base game itself: one of the best roguelikes and roguelites on Xbox.