New Beginnings

The cliché says the end of every story is the beginning of another. This was true back in 2010, when my school career ended and Jan Willem Nijman and I started a little indie studio by the name of Vlambeer. It was also true in 2020, when Jan Willem & I decided to shut Vlambeer down after agreeing Vlambeer had achieved its goals, and the two of us had diverging paths.

Vlambeer never quite fully “shut down” though - you can’t just walk away from a decade of your life and a dozen games like that. As our careers continued, with dwindling amounts of time we had for it, we tried to keep up with customer support & maintenance. In the almost half-a-decade since Vlambeer shut down, it has become clear that —while we were both happy with our new freedom and our ability to work independently from each other— we were not fully happy with where things ended up. It felt like a strange limbo in which neither of us could commit the time and effort Vlambeer needed to be maintained, but both of us were dependent on each other to take any action. 

Ultimately, we’ve come to the conclusion that Vlambeer is better off in the hands of one of us. After discussing what that means and who should be that one, I have decided to let Jan Willem buy out my share of Vlambeer. Jan Willem’s current work still closely aligns with the aesthetics of the studio, and his continued focus on small games continues to fit the brand. His ability to take decisions without having to align times and schedules with a second party will allow Vlambeer a better future. I am hopeful that this new situation gives Vlambeer a more sustainable future - even if that ends up being simply a continued hibernation.

Vlambeer will always be part of who I am, I will always be one of the founders of the studio, but starting today, I will no longer be part of Vlambeer. 

For me, that is the end of one story - and the beginning of yet another. With this newly gained freedom & time, my future as a game developer lies in a few quite different projects that are spinning up that are no longer fit within the aesthetics and brand that Vlambeer has so carefully curated over the years. And my personal interests continue to focus on initiatives that support the industry globally and locally, and in helping good people make good games in good ways. While I won’t have news on any of my exciting games projects anytime soon, I do expect to be able to share some initiatives I'm very passionate about in the nearby future. Stay tuned, and for now, thanks for all your love and support for my work at Vlambeer the past decade-and-a-half.

For those of you who want to follow me elsewhere, find me, my socials, my newsletter, and my initiatives online here at ramiismail.com.

Love,
—
Rami