This article was originally published on February 6, 2026 - read the full issue

By Marie Dealessandri

Donna Orlowski was among the UK game industry representatives of a creative and business delegation that traveled to China last week alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer. And it's not difficult to understand why: with over 20 years in the industry, she's the COO of long-running London-based studio Chucklefish.

She joined the company in 2013, two years only after its creation by Finn Brice, and tells us that Chucklefish has maintained its startup mentality from the beginning. To this day, it remains small and nimble, with 18 employees.

The Stardew Valley effect

The strength of the studio lies in the games it makes, Orlowski says, and the "fulfilment that they bring to the players." But its publishing business has also unearthed indie gems time and time again, contributing to the company's success.

Orlowski jokingly says that Chucklefish was "foolish" and "inexperienced" when it started publishing other developers' titles. It took Stardew Valley's resounding success in 2016 for the firm to put a proper structure in place and hire specialists such as marketing and publishing director Katy Page (it's worth noting that publishing rights for Stardew Valley recently reverted to developer Eric Barone).

"Publishing was always about [delivering] a bespoke experience. We are super selective, and it's not because you have to tick certain boxes in order to get on a list… It's more that we're really seeking something that speaks to us. Obviously, they all have commonalities, like charm [and] innovation. And they seek feedback from audiences. That's another thing that's what made us who we are: listening to the audience. That's [given] us this longevity – having that connection by truthfully developing openly and hand in hand with some crazy developers and a crazy audience, coming together with good ideas."

Following a long list of published successes, from Risk Of Rain to Eastward, Chucklefish is due to deliver Wildekin and Kyora soon. And it's looking for more, with the firm having "an open-door policy for any projects to be pitched."

But the proliferation of publishers over the past few years has forced the company to think about its approach.

"Publishing shifted so much. Now, everybody's offering publishing, and it's giving everybody a bad name. It's creating a lot of confusion, and developers are losing money. Publishers are taking advantage of developers, for sure. It seemed like everybody had this sort of checklist of what publishing is. Everybody was doing it – and most people were doing it badly. We never wanted to be in the same category.

"So we sat down and asked ourselves: what does that mean for us? Where do we find ourselves? And I think we found a space where we feel very comfortable, and that is still going back to our roots, still staying very selective, and pushing only the games that we truly believe have something special. For us, publishing isn't about copy-pasting models, it's about finding a game that really appeals to even a small niche. Like Loco Motive – it's such a beautiful game, and it's tiny in terms of sales, but those people who played it will truly always remember that product. And so that's what we want to do. That's how, I think, our publishing will survive."

Meeting the expectations of a satiated audience

On the development side, 2026 will be the year Chucklefish finally releases Witchbrook after much delay, arguably the most awaited game of the year for life-simulation fans. Co-developed with Robotality, it was unveiled back in 2017, but pushing the game across the finish line has proved challenging.

"I think it's not unknown that we're trying to improve on an existing experience. The most important thing in developing this game was to ensure that what we do build is going to meet not only our expectations but expectations of an audience that has been given so much already. How can we ensure that it's not just another similar experience?

"When we went full-on on the project in 2019, we decided to slightly shift the focus from people [who] kept saying, 'It's Harry Potter meets Stardew Valley' to making something more unique. That was the cause of the delay. We're very happy where we are with the development right now. Our focus is on the simulation, so we hope that people, the moment they go into the world, will never want to leave."

The genre's audience has exploded in the past decade, with a wealth of carefully crafted experiences available, from Animal Crossing: New Horizons to the most recently released Fields Of Mistria. Even after ten years, Stardew Valley also continues to have a chokehold on the community – it experienced its peak in concurrent players only a couple of years ago and still averages around 100,000 players a day. The market has changed radically since Chucklefish started working on Witchbrook in 2016.

"This is why, for the last five years, the focus has been on improving and creating experiences that are a next level compared to what people have already seen. It's really about taking something they already know and giving them a lot more. And it's not just content, it's the full immersion simulation. So I think there is definitely space for games within similar genres, to take on the learnings from what's already out there, and do [better]."

We ask Orlowski how the team is approaching converting just shy of a decade of wishlists into a successful launch. She immediately jumps in before we even finish the sentence: "We don't talk about that," she laughs. "No, I mean, it's very hard. Because it's very easy to be away with the fairies and think, 'Oh my god, we found the golden goose'. And at the same time, this is a business, it's a market, and you can completely fall flat on your face the next day."

She praises Chucklefish's community for their continued support and acknowledges the invaluable role of regular playtesting, which "helps the team to push through."

"Community is what made Chucklefish as a company. And so ensuring that we hear them, ensuring that they're part of us, has been a principle from day one."

To fellow developers, she advises to always give "straightforward" communication to their fanbase.

"The main thing is always going to be: if you are excited about the game you're making, share that excitement, and just be honest when you meet challenges and have to make decisions. Because at the end of the day, it comes down to creating something that you want people to experience. Don't just expect some influencer to all of a sudden wake up one day and be like, 'Oh, I've seen this game'. That's so rare. Most of us are never going to be a Stardew Valley."

This article was originally published on February 6, 2026 - read the full issue