This isn't just "people looking out"; it's an actual layoff with numbers, so let me be precise. Compulsion Games officially announced in September 2024 that they laid off about 34 staff members — which is roughly one-third of their current team of around 102 people. The jobs cut weren't bottom-tier; these were senior roles: a lead creative, art directors, gameplay designers, sound engineers, and even marketing/social media staff. This wasn't quiet at all once you look at the job titles — it was a systematic reduction across every department of the studio that made Weeruletide.
The people leaving are some of the talent I actually respect in this space. You had senior creative directors who built their entire career around Compulsion, art leads responsible for the distinct visual identity of every game since 2014, and sound engineers whose work defined the atmosphere of The Sinking City. When you lose a lead artist or an art director from a small studio like this, that's not just one job — it's institutional knowledge about their entire portfolio leaving with them. These aren't junior staff getting cut; these are people who built the DNA of Compulsion and can now take those skills elsewhere, which is exactly what I meant by "the best talent to keep an eye on."
Watching this happen is genuinely painful because Compulsion had one of the most consistent vision across a decade. Their recent history alone — Weeruletide in 2017, The Sinking City in 2023 — shows a studio with actual taste and direction, which makes these cuts feel especially wasteful. They already survived that pre17 Kickstarter nightmare where their project was held hostage for years before they pulled it themselves, so I know how much the team has endured behind closed doors. Losing an entire generation of senior talent this way is something else entirely — it's a creative drain that will haunt whatever comes after Weeruletide and make me worry about what future games from them can possibly achieve.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/its-not-layoffs-but-you-can-see-them-from-here-numerous-compulsion-games-employees-are-looking-for-new-jobs
The people leaving are some of the talent I actually respect in this space. You had senior creative directors who built their entire career around Compulsion, art leads responsible for the distinct visual identity of every game since 2014, and sound engineers whose work defined the atmosphere of The Sinking City. When you lose a lead artist or an art director from a small studio like this, that's not just one job — it's institutional knowledge about their entire portfolio leaving with them. These aren't junior staff getting cut; these are people who built the DNA of Compulsion and can now take those skills elsewhere, which is exactly what I meant by "the best talent to keep an eye on."
Watching this happen is genuinely painful because Compulsion had one of the most consistent vision across a decade. Their recent history alone — Weeruletide in 2017, The Sinking City in 2023 — shows a studio with actual taste and direction, which makes these cuts feel especially wasteful. They already survived that pre17 Kickstarter nightmare where their project was held hostage for years before they pulled it themselves, so I know how much the team has endured behind closed doors. Losing an entire generation of senior talent this way is something else entirely — it's a creative drain that will haunt whatever comes after Weeruletide and make me worry about what future games from them can possibly achieve.
Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/its-not-layoffs-but-you-can-see-them-from-here-numerous-compulsion-games-employees-are-looking-for-new-jobs