10 Chambers co-founder departs after a decade
Hjalmar Vikström, co-founder and chief development officer at GTFO and Den of Wolves developer 10 Chambers, has parted ways with the studio after a decade.
Announced via LinkedIn yesterday, Vikström said he "said goodbye" to the company last week, which he co-founded and was part of building since 2015.
"If you know me you've heard this before: Making games is hard," he wrote. "And these past years have taken their toll. But thinking back I'm proud of how we managed to punch above our weight and deliver GTFO."
Vikström specifically highlights two moments from the development of the cooperative horror shooter: the early access release "from a team of nine," and also the releases culminating with GTFO 1.0 in December 2021.
As for what's next, the developer is going independent, making "way smaller games, focusing on health and family, and just enjoying game development." Vikström says there'll be "more on that later," and concluded by saying he's looking forward to reconnecting and collaborating with friends in the years to come.
In late 2020, Tencent acquired a "major stake" in 10 Chambers. Back then, the studio said the investment would add "more muscle" to its development capabilities that will "allow it to reach new heights in the co-op FPS genre."
"To reach the heights we want to, we need to add more muscle," the announcement read at the time. "We've been in search of a partner, and we found Tencent, which has now acquired a major stake in 10 Chambers. They give us the creative freedom to reach new heights in the co-op FPS genre, and they support our long-term commitment to GTFO and its community."
As for Den of Wolves, the studio released a new gameplay trailer in December of last year. Via a press release at the time, co-founder Oscar J-T Holm said that while the 10 Chambers hadn't conducted any closed or public playtests by that time, the co-op shooter had already accrued over half a million wishlists. Yet, the studio is yet to announce a release date.
"The reason were shy about communicating a release window yet is that we learned our lesson with GTFO, which was delayed multiple times," Hom said. "We dont think it's fair to communicate fake dates for the sake of getting an announcement out."
