Tarn Adams decries industry layoffs mandated by ‘horrible, greedy people’

The games industry has had countless layoffs and cancelled projects since 2023, and Tarn Adams is not happy about it.

At this year’s GDC (spotted by PCGamer), the Dwarf Fortress designer was frank in laying the blame for these events at the hands of executives, calling them “bad people.”

“These decisions, they don’t sound practical,” he continued. “They sound like they’re driven by greedy, greedy people trying to make some kind of venture capital thing work out.”

This week has seen only three reported layoffs this far (over at IGN), but 2024 has been devastating otherwise. In March alone, several studios have either cut most of their staff or close down entirely.

To Adams, executives have made a “stench of rot” that allows for staff cuts to be incited by “funding structures and bad incentives and stupidity.”

“[Executives] shouldn’t fire because their company will fall apart,” he continued. “But I guess that maybe helps someone’s bottom line somewhere or gets the right air inside the right golden parachute.”

Dwarf Fortress’ success after its Steam and itch.io release in 2022 doesn’t appear to have changed Adams. He briefly mused about if future business calls would make him more empathetic to what executives go through.

His response? “No, I don’t fucking think so. They can all eat shit.”

Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations under Informa Tech.