Surgent Studios pivots to rapid game development after near-collapse
Summary
Surgent Studios nearly shut down after its debut game Tales of Kenzera: Zau underperformed commercially despite strong reviews
The studio laid off staff in mid-2024 and put its entire team on notice for redundancy shortly after
Instead of closing, Surgent pivoted from multi-year, big-budget projects to a rapid, smaller-game development model
Two new games - Dead Take and FixForce - followed in quick succession, stabilising the studio
"We were very much close to going down the route of making a game every three to four years and going bigger and bigger. We just had to adapt and change."
01
Commercial failure forces a survival pivot
Tales of Kenzera: Zau launched to good reviews but failed to meet commercial expectations
In July 2024, Surgent laid off around a dozen employees
Three months later, the entire remaining team was put on notice for redundancy
A pitch for a new game triple the budget of Zau was rejected by Pocketpair's publishing arm as too ambitious
The rejection forced a rethink that ultimately saved the studio
02
Ridley Scott's work ethic shaped Surgent's new model
Director Abubakar Salim drew inspiration from his time working with Ridley Scott on Raised by Wolves
Scott's ability to produce films rapidly was attributed to deep, long-standing relationships with his core crew
"Because they understand one another, he's able to build these films out and put these things out, which should take years to make."
Salim applied the same logic to Surgent - shared team workflows and institutional knowledge enabling faster output
03
Dead Take proves the smaller game model works
After the Pocketpair pitch was rejected, Salim quickly pivoted to a low-budget FMV horror concept
Dead Take - a short narrative horror featuring Neil Newbon and Ben Starr - launched in 2025 and was well received on Steam
Lower overheads meant the game did not need a large audience to be financially viable
Success validated the shift toward smaller, faster, more sustainable projects
04
FixForce targets family-friendly co-op multiplayer gap
Surgent's next release, FixForce, is a colourful co-op "friendslop" game built around fixing contraptions from everyday objects
Inspired by a viral Baldur's Gate 3 clip and the sandbox chaos of Garry's Mod
Salim identified a gap in the market - most friendslop titles skew older and carry darker or aggressive tones
FixForce is designed to be explicitly child-friendly and accessible to broader audiences
A key design differentiator - players who "die" remain in the game as a detached head, keeping everyone engaged throughout
05
Institutional knowledge as a competitive advantage for indie studios
Surgent's ability to ship games faster is directly tied to team cohesion built during the five years developing Zau
"We've now built this really nice cadence between each other, that's why we're able to make games faster."
Salim argues that today's crowded Steam landscape makes smaller, iterative projects far more viable than high-stakes single bets
He points to Supergiant's path to Hades as evidence that sustained team collaboration over time produces breakout results
"You have to do the work in order to find that voice, or find that thing that makes you kind of stick out and stand out."
06
What comes next for Surgent
Salim has not ruled out returning to larger-scale projects in the future
A sequel to Tales of Kenzera: Zau remains a possibility the studio would consider
The current focus remains on sustaining momentum through smaller, faster releases while building long-term team capability
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