The studio behind Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries is no more

Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries was an interesting take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. The game itself didn't fare well with critics. Many problems arose and Travis thought the game was flawed in its execution.

The game was suppose to have a second part to follow up with the short gameplay of the first, but it looks like that won't be happening. Grin, the studio behind Woolfe, is shutting down.

In a very interesting blog post by one of the founders of Grin, Wim Wouters, he talks about what they went through to get Woolfe in production and the aftermath of the low scores and negative reception the game has received.

Grin sounds like they went through many tough times and it also shows what can happen when you change the scope of the game. Starting out as a 2D platformer, they changed to 3D and that introduced a whole hell of a lot of new problems to the fold. I've seen this happen first hand in various projects I've worked on where somethings that were added blew up the timeline of the project. Sometimes even simple things in the eye of the client isn't so simple to implement and that can vastly affect the final product.

The studio is no more. We sometimes forget about the people who are involved in making these games and how a lot of people pour their heart and soul into the product. It may not turn out to be all they were hoping for, but making a game is a lot of hard work. Even if the game is a small Indie title, many people's lives change when their game doesn't sell well. We lose sight of that sometimes. Wim does shed some light into this area and it's a bittersweet tale of a studio with high hopes and dreams, but in the end couldn't deliver.

That said, you have to do a good job and make a solid game. It does suck that the folks in the studio are out of a job. it can't be helped sometimes and that's the risk you take when trying to develop a game. They went down a path that they couldn't turn back from because of the time and effort put in. It's a learning experience and one that I hope they benefit from. I say this as a software developer myself, having been through losing a job or two. It made me a better developer and taught me a few things.

I do hope the people at Grin find something soon and go on to make some great games in the future. Woolfe may not have been the successful game they were hoping for, but the experience coming from making that will benefit many of them in the long run.