Stronghold Developer Firefly Launches Publishing Label to Target Strategy Market

Firefly, the developer behind the Stronghold series and a studio owned by Devolver since late 2021, is expanding into publishing with the launch of a new strategy-focused label named Wuselfaktory. The initiative debuted its first title, a tactical roguelike autobattler called Fool King from first-time developer Loot Donkey, during UKIE's For One Night Only showcase earlier this year. Studio head Nick Tannahill noted that while moving into publishing is a common path for indie developers, Firefly's decades of experience in the strategy genre place it in a strong position within one of PC gaming's most successful categories.

For Fool King, Firefly is handling funding and marketing support, while parent company Devolver provided a producer to assist with localization and QA. However, Tannahill explains that Firefly plans to manage localization and QA internally moving forward, utilizing its existing 50-strong team and established publishing workflows that have been active since 2010. Beyond financial and marketing backing, Firefly's long history of developing and maintaining online strategy titles allows the studio to offer direct development consultation, UI feedback, and asynchronous multiplayer guidance to partner teams.

The push into publishing came at the suggestion of Devolver, which acknowledged its own lack of familiarity with the strategy space and trusted Firefly to lead the curation, press outreach, and community engagement. Tannahill highlights that strategy is a massive and underserved market on Steam, noting a surprisingly youthful audience demographic, with a strong contingent of players aged 18 to 25. Firefly intends to keep its publishing ambitions measured and sustainable, focusing on smaller titles so the studio can balance its ongoing internal projects and maintain its publishing operations without overexposing itself.