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20,000 Leagues Above the Clouds has been cancelled

After a long development period, developers are calling it quits on the Steampunk adventure

Today, Swedish developers That Brain did something that no indie developer ever wants to do. They announced that they were pulling the plug on the development of their game. 20,000 Leagues Above the Clouds has been in development for a very long time but today the steampunk adventure ceased to be. Well, not entirely. There is a demo over at itch.io if you want to check it out.

In a statement, That Brain explained that there has been a number of reasons which have forced the cancellation. Funding being one of the main ones. Given that the game has been in development since 2011, the eventual scope and the developer’s ambition had made it too big for many indie investors to be interested in it. That Brain stated:

“Though our pitches were met with many oooohs and aaaahs, eventually it became clear that from a financing standpoint the game was just too big to be small, and too small to be big.”

The game is set in the fictional floating continent of Pinefiord, in a world where humans and automatons live together. The inhabitants have found ingenious ways of navigating around the floating islands by using steampunk inspired airships. Couple the day to day runnings of an aerial civilization with the unknown mysteries of what lays on the ground below them, there was a lot of adventure to be had in the game.

The cancellation of the game also brings about the disbanding of the studio. The folks at That Brain are also going their own way. Two are going to continue working together at Really Interactive while another is working for Avalanche Studios. Whatever the future holds for the former team at That Brain, we wish them all the best for the future!