The current sole creator of immersive sim-shooter Fortune’s Run has abruptly announced that the project will be going on hiatus, because they are going to jail. Team Fortune’s lead developer, Dizzie, has been handed a three year sentence for a “violent crime”, following around five years of legal proceedings. The other developer, Arachne, recently left game development after recovering from a mishandled surgical procedure last year. According to Dizzie, her departure doesn’t have anything to do with the aforesaid violent crime, which pre-dates their relationship.
The news comes in the form of a developer Steam post that accompanies what may prove to be the final Fortune’s Run update. “It’s a long story, but I’ve lived a very different life before I was a game developer, and I wasn’t living very well,” Dizzie writes. “My case is about 5 years old now, I have been going through the legal process the whole time I’ve been working on this.
“I have finally been found guilty and sentenced, and I’m going away next month. It’s a shame, but it’s the consequences of my actions. I was a very violent person and I hurt a lot of people in my life. Unfortunately, the sentence isn’t going to help with that at all, but I guess we all know that.” The post doesn’t specify the violent crime, beyond qualifying that it wasn’t sexual in nature.
As for Arachne’s departure, Dizzie adds that “my case dates from before I met the other dev” and that “she is not related to it in any way”. For context, Dizzie blogged about Arachne’s hospitalisation in July last year. “If you want to accuse me of something, accuse me of stressing her out with my legal problems and my crazy work schedule,” today’s Steam post adds.
Arachne had been in charge of Fortune Run’s QA and “a few level segments”. Following her surgical procedure, Dizzie has been working on the game solo, trying to finish as much as possible before beginning their period of incarceration (it’s not clear when, exactly, the sentence was given). “It’s been very difficult to do alone but I actually managed, by basically not sleeping, to complete all of the work in time so that it could be released before I’m sent away,” the post adds.
“Since [Arachne and I] decided to part ways, development will be completely interrupted until I’m released,” it continues. “I know many of you will be upset and disappointed but please understand that there’s absolutely nothing I can do, these wheels were in motion long before I started making this game and it’s just been slowly unraveling in my face the whole time.”
Existing sales of Fortune’s Run have been strong enough that Dizzie should be able to afford rent after they’re released from prison, and there’s “a chance” they’ll be able to resume development of Fortune’s Run. “In fact, there’s not very much content left to work on, I’ve been making stubs and prototypes of the missing levels in my spare time,” the post continues. “I am extremely passionate about this stuff and I’m never going to stop making games. I’d like to finish this one, but I don’t know what will happen.”