Risk of Rain studio Hopoo sunsets itself as its founders join Valve

Hopoo Games was a Seattle indie studio best known for the Risk of Rain action-roguelike series.

That crowdfunding a weird roguelike as UW students could build a franchise valuable enough that its makers would end up inside Valve.

Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse founded Hopoo in 2012 as UW students. Their debut, Risk of Rain, debuted on Steam in 2013 and became a sales success; the Unity-built sequel, Risk of Rain 2, followed in 2019.

In November 2022 Hopoo sold the rights to Risk of Rain 2 to its publishing partner Gearbox Entertainment (Borderlands) while remaining independent; Gearbox continued development with expansions like Seekers of the Storm. On 2 September 2024, Hopoo announced its founders and 'many other' team members were going full-time on internal projects at Valve — it ceased production on its codenamed 'Snail' project and shut its doors: 'But for now – sleep tight, Hopoo Games.'

The studio closed; the team now develops games inside Valve, which has not said what they are working on — Valve's highest-profile internal project is the hero-shooter/MOBA hybrid Deadlock.

The Gearbox sale had already monetised the franchise; the team itself was the remaining asset.

Valve hires proven shipping teams, and a compact indie studio fits its famously flat structure.

Sunsetting voluntarily let the founders choose their landing instead of risking a slow fade.

Selling the IP while keeping the team is a half-exit that often precedes the whole exit: studios are their people, not their catalogues.

Neither Valve nor Hopoo revealed what the team is building; Valve's most prominent internal project at the time was Deadlock.