Two directors from MultiVersus are striking out on their own, forming a new, independent game studio. The platform brawler’s production director, Justin Fischer, and technical director, Brock Feldman, have joined forces to launch a new endeavor called Airlock Games. Rather than continuing to follow the AAA route, the first project from Airlock is a sci-fi sim management horror game called What the Stars Forgot. The team plans to run a Kickstarter to generate backing for the game ahead of a planned early access launch in December.

Player First Games, the studio behind MultiVersus, was acquired by WB Games last summer, but despite a promising early showing, the game was shuttered in May at the close of its fifth season. But the choice for devs to bounce back with something new and smaller is becoming a familiar refrain in the games industry after several years of layoffs and cancelations. After so many highly anticipated projects have gotten the axe as a money-saving, cost-cutting decision by large outfits, it makes sense that devs might want to have more control over their own destinies.