Indie Studio Black Flag shuts down following "communication breakdown" with publisher

French indie Studio Black Flag has shut down, declaring bankruptcy.

In a statement posted to Steam, the studio said that following a dispute with its publisher, it had been "exploring smaller, secondary projects," but the last few months have "dried up all of [its] funding," leading to the "imminent closure" of the studio, as instructed by French law.

The team said that whilst it could not "get into the specifics of our contract with our publisher," it did not own the Orphan Age IP "in a way that would allow us to shop it to another publisher," and "the market is also heavily dried up for indie publishing."

"Ultimately, we appear to be another casualty of the current downturn in the video game industry," the studio said.

"Even if we could re-secure publishing rights, it could be an incredibly difficult, lengthy process to find someone open to supporting our project.

"It is possible that development will continue under our publisher, but at this time, that is entirely out of our hands."

Black Flag said that as the money contributed through crowdfunding campaigns "had long since been spent," it could not return monies to backers, but did hope to eventually release an unfinished build of Orphan Age to the community.

“Today marks the end of Black Flag in a pretty brutal way and in slow motion at the same time. I'm not sure if it signifies the end of Orphan Age as the project may end up in other hands, but it is my hope that it finally sees a release," said studio founder and game director, Adrien Forestier.

"I'm alternating between shock and numbness, and it's just too early for me to address what's next and why we're in this situation.

"It's heartbreaking to end this adventure on these words and to think about all our supporters we are letting down. As I said earlier, while it's the end for Black Flag, I'll do whatever I can so it's not the end for Orphan Age.”