Ivy Road boasted a dream team of independent game developers. Davy Wreden created The Stanley Parable. Karla Zimonja was behind Gone Home. Daniel 'C418' Rosenfeld wrote some of Minecraft's iconic songs. When these famous names and countless others came together, Wanderstop was born. TheGamer's Tessa Kaur was not the only one to express her love for the soulful, “cozy” title.
But navigating this industry is like walking on hot coals. The fire led to another fire, with Ivy Road closing on March 31, 2026, just three days after this was written.
The final surprise?
My heart goes out to the team at Ivy Road and I hope they all find work in this horribly cruel industry as quickly as possible. There is one good news in all of this. The promise is that Wanderstop is still preparing a “final surprise”. According to a company blog post:
“There’s still one last surprise left, something we’ve been working on for the past year to help Wanderstop find ways to reach new players. The great folks at Annapurna Interactive will be sharing more news about this in the coming days, and we look forward to seeing what it is for you all!”
That's really interesting. But what led to Ivy Road closing? They were working on their second game, Engine Angel. Unfortunately, “financing did not come to fruition and we had to close the studio.” The search for a publishing partner progressed quickly, but no deal was found. “This is a particularly challenging time for fundraising for games, so while we weren’t necessarily surprised, we were disappointed that we couldn’t bring Engine Angels together as a team,” the blog post said, adding with hope for the future:
“Liz’s concept is truly amazing. I hope to see it come to fruition one day!”
If you're looking to hire a developer, Ivy Road has put together this Bluesky thread full of insights about people currently looking for a new job. This is a great resource to showcase your team's talent, so don't hesitate to do so, even if you can only pass along your name and portfolio to someone else.
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