Firefly, best known for the Stronghold series, has taken its next step into publishing by unveiling a new label dedicated to strategy games, Wuselfaktory. The debut title for the imprint, Fool King, was showcased at UKIE’s For One Night Only event earlier this year. Fool King comes from first‑time developer Loot Donkey and bills itself as a tactical autobattler with roguelike influences, where players assemble and position their forces before the AI runs the combat automatically. Nick Tannahill, the studio head, tells GamesIndustry.biz that the decision to become a publisher is “like every other indie developer at the moment,” but he believes Firefly’s long‑standing experience with strategy titles gives it a unique edge.
While the strategy niche has already been proven by veterans such as Paradox Interactive and newer entrants like Hooded Horse, Firefly’s ambitions are more modest in terms of both scale and the number of releases it plans to support. For Fool King, Firefly is providing development funding and marketing assistance, while its parent company Devolver is contributing a producer to oversee localisation and quality assurance. Tannahill notes that the studio intends to bring those localisation and QA responsibilities in‑house over time, leveraging its existing 50‑person team. “We already have a small publishing unit, which is why we can do this,” he explains.
Firefly’s publishing know‑how is built on a decade of self‑publishing experience dating back to 2010. The company has refined workflows for localisation, marketing, and distribution and maintains solid relationships with platform holders. More importantly, it has spent years crafting strategy games, giving it the ability to support developers beyond the usual publisher duties. “Because we’ve been on the other side of negotiations and relationships, we can also help with actual development work,” Tannahill says.
“We have three online titles that we maintain; Fool King includes an asynchronous auto‑battler component, so the developers can call us to discuss that, get UI advice, and receive multiple rounds of feedback on the core game.” He admits that providing this hands‑on assistance takes time away from internal projects, but argues that a brief, focused conversation can accelerate a partner’s development dramatically. The push into publishing was encouraged by Devolver, which recognised its own lack of expertise in the lucrative strategy segment.
“We were acquired by Devolver in late 2021,” Tannahill recalls. “They basically said, ‘You know strategy, we don’t, so why don’t you lead that space?’” Firefly’s constant monitoring of upcoming strategy releases positioned it well to spot promising titles—Tannahill even discovered Fool King after reading a Rock Paper Shotgun article. Playing smaller strategy experiments on Steam, Itch, and other platforms helps Tannahill keep the Stronghold series fresh.
“I browse indie titles for inspiration. When I see something I love, I think about how funding, guidance, or partnerships could help the creators,” he says. Devolver is comfortable letting Firefly handle both the sourcing of games and the marketing outreach, trusting the studio’s deeper connections with press, content creators, and niche communities. Understanding the audience is critical in a genre that demands a shared language.
To stay close to players, Firefly embeds short surveys into every demo, asking about price expectations, desired features, and future game ideas. “We get about 6,000 responses each time, which gives us a solid sample,” Tannahill notes. The data has revealed a surprisingly young player base, with a strong contingent of 18‑ to 25‑year‑olds. The studio therefore meets these gamers where they hang out on social media, hoping to draw them into its IPs and future releases.
Tannahill sees the strategy genre as both massive and under‑served. “If you look at the top‑hundred‑plus wish‑listed games on Steam, many are strategy titles,” he observes.
Yet classic franchises such as Command and Conquer have faded from the spotlight, not because the IP lacks appeal, but because few new entries have been made. This gap, he believes, is an opportunity, especially as higher‑profile genres encounter headwinds.
“It’s not sexy anymore, but it’s quietly one of the most successful categories on Steam,” Tannahill says. In a gaming landscape dominated by Roblox’s explosive growth and a console market that’s feeling pressure, Steam remains a strong platform for deep, systems‑driven experiences. Players who enjoy spending hours tweaking tactics and watching emergent outcomes are exactly the audience that titles like Hooded Horse’s games cater to. Firefly is hedging its bets across the strategy spectrum.
The studio continues to produce classic‑style 2.5D isometric games reminiscent of early Command and Conquer or Age of Empires, while also developing fully 3D projects such as Stronghold 4. The current resurgence of pixel‑perfect, isometric visuals is popular now, but Firefly acknowledges that trends shift, so it aims to diversify without over‑committing to a single style. Wuselfaktory’s first release, Fool King, represents a single “egg” in the publishing basket, with the potential for a few more.
Since joining Devolver, Firefly has shipped four games and six expansions, with additional titles in development. Third‑party publishing will be part of the long‑term plan, but the studio will integrate those projects into its existing schedule rather than overloading its capacity. “We’re not going to announce a label and immediately have three baked‑in titles, because we can only spin so many plates,” Tannahill cautions. “Initially we’ll focus on smaller releases, work in compact teams, and keep it sustainable—that’s the most important thing.”