Hopoo Games, the original creators of the Risk of Rain video game series, have announced that they will be sunsetting their current project and studio to work for Valve Software in Bellevue, Washington. The founders of Hopoo, Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse, alongside other team members, will now focus on internal game projects at Valve, leading to the end of production on their current project codenamed “Snail.”
Founded in 2012 by Drummond and Morse while they were students at the University of Washington, Hopoo Games gained recognition with their debut project, Risk of Rain, an action game where players must escape a hostile alien world while fighting waves of monsters. The game, crowdfunded through Kickstarter and created with the GameMaker engine, was a commercial success with over three million copies sold by 2019. Risk of Rain Returns, a remake, was released in 2023 for PC and Nintendo Switch.
In 2019, Hopoo released a sequel, Risk of Rain 2, developed with the Unity game engine. The rights to the game were sold to publishing partner Gearbox Entertainment in 2022, with Gearbox continuing development on the game with expansions like Seekers of the Storm. Despite this, Hopoo Games maintained its independence as a studio. With the founders and team members transitioning to Valve, Hopoo Games has temporarily closed its doors and expressed excitement in working with Valve on their future projects.
While the specifics of Hopoo’s projects at Valve have not been disclosed, Valve’s current high-profile internal project is Deadlock. Deadlock features gameplay that combines elements from “hero shooters” like Overwatch and online battle arenas such as Dota 2. The move of the Hopoo team members to Valve marks a new chapter for the studio, with a focus on contributing directly to game development alongside the talented individuals at Valve. Hopoo Games remains committed to creating games and expressed optimism for the future of their collaboration with Valve.
