Stray Souls

Stray Souls

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Silver Dec 31, 2023 @ 9:02am
Developer of STRAY SOULS Jukai Studio is closing down.
Stray Souls Developer Jukai Studio Shuts Down Following Poor Reception

Jukai Studio, the developer behind the action horror game Stray Souls, has shut down after the game suffered poor reception.

Jukai Studio, the developer of othe action-horror game Stray Souls has announced its shutdown.

This follows the closure (at least in its previous form) of the game's publisher Versus Evil.

According to the announcement made on X (formerly Twitter) the game's poor reception and the inability of supporting the company due to poor sales were the root cause behind its closure.

The Developers also claim they have suffered bullying online and legal action is being taken against it.

We hear that the core team of Jukai Studio included only two developers, while the rest of the work was outsourced.

You can read the statement in its entirety below.

' After much contemplation and in light of today's news that our publisher has announced closure, we have decided not to delay in informing you that we are shutting down Jukai Studio.

Some of you may have noticed that our website has not been functioning for some time, and we have not been as active as before. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that we have fallen victim to cyberbullying, received a poor reception for our debut project Stray Souls, and were completely unable to sustain the company because of bad sales, leading to the decision having to be made this year.

We are aware that you had high expectations for Stray Souls, but we never informed you that only two core individuals, along with contracted personnel, were working on the game.
We did everything in our power to bring the project to completion in the best possible form, but throughout the entire duration, we, our publisher staff, other publisher dev teams and our closed ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor, and some of you, as our community, were also tormented with unwanted messages and emails.
We understand that you did not wish to continue actively supporting us for the obvious reasons mentioned above.
The matter is now in the hands of our lawyers, so we cannot speak about it any further, but know that we will not abandon it despite the studio's closure.

Once again, we wanted to thank all of you who supported us and did not give up despite the adversities that befell both you and us.
We sincerely thank everyone for believing in us.
No one from Jukai Studio has been laid off because we never functioned as a large corporation, and together we decided that each one of us will go their separate way.

Jukai Studio consisted of a truly amazing and talented group of people who believed in the success of the project until the end.
Despite this sad news, Stray Souls remains in your hands. In conclusion, we want to add that this year has been very difficult not only for us, and we hope that 2024 will be a year of positive changes in the world of game development.
Thank you to everyone who supported us. '

Stray Souls is currently available for PC via Steam, where It currently has "mostly negative" reviews, with players criticizing the game mechanics, story, and several bugs.

This is not the first studio to close recently due to the poor reception of its game.
The same happened to The Day Before developer Fntastic, albeit things doesn't look quite as bad here.

For now, it appears that Stray Souls is staying available on Steam for those who want to purchase it and play it, despite the closure of the studio that created it.

https://techraptor.net/gaming/news/stray-souls-developer-jukai-studio-shuts-down-following-poor-reception
Last edited by Silver; Dec 31, 2023 @ 11:19am
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Showing 1-15 of 15 comments
djangodspell Jan 1, 2024 @ 7:42am 
2
Agreed, all this hating is so annoying... And that just because of a Game that is pretty decent no matter the flaws. Unbelievable how many douchebags are out there.

Would have been nice of you to fix at least everything on the game we have,
but hey, good luck for your, stay healthy
Originally posted by djangodspell:
Agreed, all this hating is so annoying... And that just because of a Game that is pretty decent no matter the flaws. Unbelievable how many douchebags are out there.

Would have been nice of you to fix at least everything on the game we have,
but hey, good luck for your, stay healthy
Jukai studios was put down because of poor sales, not because hate or "cyberbullying".
You don´t see why people are not happy to spend 30€ for an product that has many flaws that won´t be fixed and is only, as you even say it, just decent?
Might have been a seasonal cash grab. It doesn't look like it ever changed much from first hearing about it to the clunky mess it was released as.
ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ Jan 3, 2024 @ 1:39pm 
Originally posted by YouMayCallMeMurray:
Jukai studios was put down because of poor sales, not because hate or "cyberbullying".

This is what I was thinking. It just sounds like excuses, especially to get people feeling bad for them.

"but we never informed you that only two core individuals, along with contracted personnel, were working on the game."

And? there have been games made by a single person. It doesn't mean anything.

"throughout the entire duration, we, our publisher staff, other publisher dev teams and our closed ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor"

So, why mention this now? should have mentioned it before, if it really happened.
Hannibal Jan 3, 2024 @ 5:37pm 
Thats assuming the soo called bullying even happened. They might of gotten one email that said the game sucked eggs. Lets go with the obvious. Bad game, poor reviews = bad sales devs quit and run and throw a distraction out as an excuse.
Silver Jan 4, 2024 @ 2:33am 
Originally posted by Hannibal:
Thats assuming the soo called bullying even happened. They might of gotten one email that said the game sucked eggs. Lets go with the obvious. Bad game, poor reviews = bad sales devs quit and run and throw a distraction out as an excuse.
Excatly
This is what I was thinking. It just sounds like excuses, especially to get people feeling bad for them.

"but we never informed you that only two core individuals, along with contracted personnel, were working on the game."

And? there have been games made by a single person. It doesn't mean anything.

"throughout the entire duration, we, our publisher staff, other publisher dev teams and our closed ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor"

So, why mention this now? should have mentioned it before, if it really happened. [/quote]

Well it was easy when following their discord... They hyped it more than they could deliver.
When game and negative reviews came out, they tried to delete them in discord and in Steam. Even the moderator here have vanished...
For patching the game they reacted really slow and disrespectful.

Tinybuild laid off Versus Evil so its not about "cyberbullying" or just parting ways...

They just made a ♥♥♥♥ product with lots of assets, couldn´t handle critisism and didn´t want to take the time to fix it. Without publisher it would have been pointless to carry on so they just cashed out.
Last edited by YouMayCallMeMurray; Jan 4, 2024 @ 1:47pm
Cojac XD__ Jan 7, 2024 @ 11:37am 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv-Fx8-mtE

WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO IT EXPLAINS THE BAD PRACTICES OF THE DEVELOPER ARTUR LACZKOWSKI. THIS MAN IS TRUELY A TERRIBLE PERSON AND A FRAUD. DONT BUY THIS GAME
Originally posted by Cojac XD__:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv-Fx8-mtE

WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO IT EXPLAINS THE BAD PRACTICES OF THE DEVELOPER ARTUR LACZKOWSKI. THIS MAN IS TRUELY A TERRIBLE PERSON AND A FRAUD. DONT BUY THIS GAME


Thanks for spamming this in every Stray Souls topic.
Magos Flibble Jan 7, 2024 @ 3:38pm 
Good riddance lul
good :)
forth Mar 26, 2024 @ 7:12am 
2
Originally posted by Cojac XD__:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv-Fx8-mtE

WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO IT EXPLAINS THE BAD PRACTICES OF THE DEVELOPER ARTUR LACZKOWSKI. THIS MAN IS TRUELY A TERRIBLE PERSON AND A FRAUD. DONT BUY THIS GAME
I'm still on fence who is more cringe, Laczkowski whining, or the woke police Bobvids.
Some people can't differentiate the Artist (Asset compiler) from the Art.
I guess moral crusades in lack of a real war over asset flips is the call of day.

Because of this video I'm more compelled to buy it, (when on deep sale) out of morbid curiosity. You're a good salesman Cojac. :WololoDE:
Last edited by forth; Mar 26, 2024 @ 7:12am
This game is so very BORING it could have put me in a 420 year coma!
Cthoolhoo Aug 12, 2024 @ 12:34pm 
this game is pure silliness and dumbness.
Christmas Man Oct 31, 2024 @ 8:48pm 
Originally posted by Cojac XD__:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv-Fx8-mtE

WATCH THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO IT EXPLAINS THE BAD PRACTICES OF THE DEVELOPER ARTUR LACZKOWSKI. THIS MAN IS TRUELY A TERRIBLE PERSON AND A FRAUD. DONT BUY THIS GAME

Thank you i will buy because bobvids is annoying pos.
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