TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 1,989
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Being a game dev "is not something a corporation can take from you" says solo developer releasing a game alone after last year's Microsoft layoffs.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
"Hark Elm! We've been missing you back at the party, it's such a shame you got laid off," reads a scroll on my desk in the opening minutes of Dungeon Bodega Simulator. "I heard you opened a shop! What a quaint way to bounce back, I'll try and stop by next time we adventure in that area."
I can actually feel my heart rate spiking, reading those words. Early in my career I was laid off from game development. Twice. Sadness, anxiety, even a little bitterness as still-employed coworkers "reach out" with hopes that you'll "find something soon" are all swallowed stones that fester in your stomach. You start asking yourself if you deserve to "bounce back," if everyone is quietly condescending to you, if you should cut your losses from the industry entirely.
Years of post-pandemic studio "restructurings" have made it a nearly ubiquitous experience in the industry, including for the solo developer Alien Fruit, who got laid off from Turn 10 Studios last year and wound up surviving the job hunt doldrums by making a shop sim about a laid off adventurer.
Dungeon Bodega Simulator is immediately charming. Other than the brief existential flashbacks it gave me, I had a lovely hour playing its demo. The low-poly characters and crunchy textures harken to the lo-fi PS1 aesthetic trend while the picking stuff up in front of my face with my invisible hands makes me think of the little joys of goofing around in Phasmophobia.
Former adventurer, now dungeon shopkeeper Elm Myrkwater, has been laid off, and is now (literally?) locked in a dungeon, growing apples and bananas inside an abandoned cell and concocting potions to sell to passing adventurers from beneath a portcullis.
Each day I wake up in my roomy dungeon flat and walk downstairs to water my incarcerated apples. I fill a cauldron with water and chuck in an apple and banana together to brew potions to place on my store shelves. I check my magical chest to find that my new item stock has arrived overnight: more apple seeds, refreshing drinks, and "bandages" that look like toilet paper for some reason. I pick a cassette tape to play as my day's soundtrack, pet my bodega cat, and open the portcullis to fill the requests of a waiting line of adventurers. Life of a s...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
"Hark Elm! We've been missing you back at the party, it's such a shame you got laid off," reads a scroll on my desk in the opening minutes of Dungeon Bodega Simulator. "I heard you opened a shop! What a quaint way to bounce back, I'll try and stop by next time we adventure in that area."
I can actually feel my heart rate spiking, reading those words. Early in my career I was laid off from game development. Twice. Sadness, anxiety, even a little bitterness as still-employed coworkers "reach out" with hopes that you'll "find something soon" are all swallowed stones that fester in your stomach. You start asking yourself if you deserve to "bounce back," if everyone is quietly condescending to you, if you should cut your losses from the industry entirely.
Years of post-pandemic studio "restructurings" have made it a nearly ubiquitous experience in the industry, including for the solo developer Alien Fruit, who got laid off from Turn 10 Studios last year and wound up surviving the job hunt doldrums by making a shop sim about a laid off adventurer.
Dungeon Bodega Simulator is immediately charming. Other than the brief existential flashbacks it gave me, I had a lovely hour playing its demo. The low-poly characters and crunchy textures harken to the lo-fi PS1 aesthetic trend while the picking stuff up in front of my face with my invisible hands makes me think of the little joys of goofing around in Phasmophobia.
Former adventurer, now dungeon shopkeeper Elm Myrkwater, has been laid off, and is now (literally?) locked in a dungeon, growing apples and bananas inside an abandoned cell and concocting potions to sell to passing adventurers from beneath a portcullis.
Each day I wake up in my roomy dungeon flat and walk downstairs to water my incarcerated apples. I fill a cauldron with water and chuck in an apple and banana together to brew potions to place on my store shelves. I check my magical chest to find that my new item stock has arrived overnight: more apple seeds, refreshing drinks, and "bandages" that look like toilet paper for some reason. I pick a cassette tape to play as my day's soundtrack, pet my bodega cat, and open the portcullis to fill the requests of a waiting line of adventurers. Life of a s...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?