The team of the Deliver Us Mars studio, KeokeN, has been completely laid off

The founders of KeokeN Studio, known for the games Deliver Us Mars and Deliver Us the Moon, have announced a mass layoff within the company.

In an official statement published on X, CEO Coen Ditman and Managing Director Paul Ditman revealed that the Dutch studio was forced to make this decision after exhausting all options to complete planned projects or take on new tasks.

Heartbroken, we've had to lay off our team at KeokeN because of nothing substantial materializing directly after our visit to GDC. We’ve unfortunately exhausted all our possible options for publishing, work for hire, and co-development.

It is our utmost priority to make sure our… pic.twitter.com/3QHzJzgCfl

— KeokeN Interactive🐧 (@KeokeN) April 30, 2024

In February, KeokeN had already laid off four members of its team of 19 people, after the founders agreed to salary reductions and went unpaid for “several months.”

In March, the studio also announced that it had failed to sell five games to 40 publishers over the past two years.

“With heavy hearts, we are forced to lay off our team due to the lack of significant progress following our participation in GDC,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, we have exhausted all possibilities for publication, job orders, and collaborative development.

“Our top priority is to help our wonderful team find new employment. If you have vacancies in programming, technical art, porting, level design, audio, animation, production, or office management, please contact us so we can recommend the best professionals who have worked at KeokeN for the past 10 years.

“We are deeply saddened but not giving up. Our goal is to rebuild KeokeN brick by brick, as we have done before, in the name of our colleagues and the continuation of our gaming legacy.

“On a personal note, we are preparing for the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for our new project, Deliver Us Home. This is a small step for KeokeN but a giant leap towards Delivering Us Home. A game that we will create for and with you.”

It was also announced last week that the game Deliver Us the Moon will be released on Nintendo Switch “soon.”