Nerial, the studio behind Reigns and Card Shark, is closing and laying off staff as its founders return to their roots

Background: A Studio Defined by Reigns, Card Shark, and The Crush House

For 13 years, Nerial was the studio behind Reigns and Card Shark, and later The Crush House. Led by CEO Tamara Alliot and creative director François Alliot, and operating under parent company Devolver Digital, Nerial built a reputation for games that compressed complex systems into small, strange, memorable formats.

Reigns presented a royal comedy as an elegant, lightweight strategy game played through swiping right or left. Card Shark turned the obscurities of cheating at cards into a beautiful, mannered period puzzler. The Crush House examined how gamified surveillance systems can reduce people to Content. Those games gave Nerial a distinctive place in the indie scene, which is why its shutdown announcement landed with more weight than a routine studio closure.

Development: The Decision Was Announced After Talks With Devolver

The closure was disclosed by Tamara Alliot and François Alliot in a joint letter on social media. The two leaders said, “we have decided together with our partners at Devolver to end development at the studio.” The announcement described the outcome in two ways: Nerial was shutting down, or at least entering hibernation mode. The language around the affected team was the familiar one of a studio winding down: the entire team was now seeking new opportunities.

The letter did not provide a detailed explanation for the closure beyond the founders saying they needed a change after 13 years at the helm. In the same message, they said, “While this marks the end of Nerial as we know it, it's not the end of game dev for us.” They added that François Alliot’s unrelenting drive to make games remained as strong as ever, but that the pair first needed a break and reflection before coming back with a new perspective.

Team: Seven Named Staff Are Seeking New Roles

Tamara Alliot also posted the news on LinkedIn, describing Nerial as a huge part of François Alliot’s and her life for the past 13 years. She said the decision was made with great sadness, while noting that the studio had the best team in the world and that the founders were also keen to take a bit of time off. She then identified seven Nerial staff affected by the decision and asked companies to hire them: Oscar Harrington-Shaw (Narrative and writing), Helen O’Dell (Art Direction), Neil Goodman (Lead Programmer), Gordon Speirs (Programmer), Ben Obikoya (Senior Programmer), Neil Bull (QA Lead), and AJ Kerr (Senior Producer).

François Alliot’s own LinkedIn message placed the next step outside the former studio: he said he was going back to being pure indie.

Context: Devolver’s Public Listing Plans Cast a Shadow

The studio’s closure has also drawn attention to Devolver Digital’s own position. The announcement invites a simple question: if the founders needed a sabbatical, why not let Nerial continue in other hands? The letter did not answer that question directly. Still, the decision also appears likely to reflect the parent company’s financial situation.

In August, Devolver Digital’s bosses told shareholders they’d like to cease trading on the London Stock Exchange, following an industry-wide “period of significant disruption and volatility” during which they’ve had to swallow “several impairments of underperforming titles amid an increasingly competitive and unpredictable market environment.” A parent company weighing the costs of remaining a listed publisher can make studio closures, hibernation modes, and team layoffs look less like isolated creative decisions and more like part of a broader market squeeze.

Current Stage: A Pause, Not a Confirmed Return

At this point, the timeline ends with Nerial’s development work stopped, not with a new game or a successor studio being announced. Tamara Alliot and François Alliot have said they are going back to their roots and plan to reflect before returning with a new perspective. François Alliot’s LinkedIn comment suggests the next phase may be smaller, more personal, and independent of the old studio structure.

For readers, the practical result is clear: the studio that made Reigns, Card Shark, and The Crush House has entered hibernation mode after 13 years. The founders may keep making games, but the team is now dispersed, seven named developers are seeking new opportunities, and Devolver Digital’s own market pressures remain part of the story.