Firefly, best known for the Stronghold series, has taken its next step into publishing by unveiling a new label dedicated to strategy games, called 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 auto‑battler with a roguelike twist: players assemble and position their forces, then watch the combat resolve automatically.
Nick Tannahill, the head of Firefly, says the decision to become a publisher is "just like every other indie studio doing it right now," but he believes the company’s deep roots in strategy give it a unique advantage. While the genre is already dominated by veterans such as Paradox Interactive and newer entrants like Hooded Horse, Wuselfaktory plans to operate on a more modest scale, focusing on a limited slate of titles rather than trying to match the output of those larger houses.
For Fool King, Firefly is providing the development funding and handling the marketing push, while its parent company Devolver has assigned a producer to oversee localisation and quality‑assurance. Tannahill notes that as the label matures, the studio intends to bring those localisation and QA responsibilities in‑house, leveraging its existing 50‑person team. "We already run a small publishing operation, which is why we can do this," he explains. Firefly’s experience as a self‑publisher since 2010 means it already has established pipelines for localisation, marketing, and platform relationships.
More importantly, the studio has spent decades building and supporting strategy titles, so it can also offer hands‑on development assistance. "One of the real benefits a publisher can bring is that we’ve been on the other side of negotiations and we can help with actual dev work," Tannahill says. In practice, this support has taken several forms for Fool King.
The game includes an asynchronous online component, so Firefly set up regular calls with the Loot Donkey team to discuss networking, UI design, and overall gameplay balance. "We’ve given them multiple rounds of feedback on the core game and consulted on the user interface," Tannahill adds. While such involvement consumes time that could be spent on Firefly’s own projects, the team believes a brief, focused conversation can accelerate a partner’s development and lead to a smoother final product.
The push into publishing was encouraged by Devolver, which recognised its own lack of expertise in the strategy niche. "We were acquired by Devolver in late 2021, and they basically said, ‘You know strategy, we don’t – why don’t you fill that gap?’" Tannahill recalls. The studio’s constant monitoring of upcoming strategy releases also helped it spot promising candidates; in fact, Tannahill discovered Fool King after reading a Rock Paper Shotgun article.
Playing smaller strategy titles is a habit for Tannahill, who says he regularly samples indie games on Steam and Itch to keep his ideas fresh for future Stronghold projects. "When I play these bite‑size games I think, ‘These could benefit from funding, guidance, or partnership if the developers want it,’" he says.
Devolver is comfortable handing over both sourcing and marketing duties to Firefly because the latter has stronger connections within the strategy community. "They don’t really know the strategy space, so they trust us to know which press outlets, content creators, and sub‑genre communities to engage with," Tannahill explains. In a genre where the audience expects developers to speak its language, those relationships are vital.
Firefly also gathers direct feedback from its audience by embedding short surveys into every demo it releases. Players are asked how much they would pay, which features they’d like, and what future games they’d enjoy. "We get around 6,000 responses each time, which gives us a solid sample size," Tannahill notes. The data has revealed a surprisingly young demographic; a large portion of the community falls between 18 and 25 years old.
To reach them, Firefly focuses on the social platforms where younger gamers congregate, aiming to draw fresh eyes to its IPs and studio. The strategy genre, according to Tannahill, is both massive and under‑served. A quick glance at Steam’s most wish‑listed titles shows that many are strategy games, yet classic franchises such as Command & Conquer have faded from the spotlight not because the brand lacks appeal, but because new entries haven’t been produced.
He sees this as an opening, especially as other high‑profile genres encounter market headwinds. "It’s not the flashiest genre any more, but it quietly remains one of the most successful on Steam," he says.
"While Roblox keeps expanding and consoles face challenges, Steam is well‑positioned for the future. Deep, systems‑driven games appeal to players who love to sit at their PCs for hours, tweaking strategies and watching emergent outcomes. That’s why studios like Hooded Horse are discovering a huge appetite for high‑quality titles." Firefly is hedging its bets across several strategy sub‑genres. Besides publishing, the studio continues to develop 2.5‑D isometric games reminiscent of early Command & Conquer or Age of Empires, as well as fully 3D experiences like Stronghold 4.
The retro‑styled pixel art aesthetic is currently popular, but Tannahill acknowledges that trends shift, so the studio aims to diversify without over‑committing to any single approach. Wuselfaktory’s launch currently represents a single “egg” in the basket—Fool King—but the team hopes to add more over time. Since joining Devolver, Firefly has shipped four games and six expansions, with additional projects in the pipeline.
Third‑party publishing will be part of the long‑term plan, but it must be balanced against the studio’s internal development schedule. "We won’t announce a label and then roll out three big titles at once because we can only spin so many plates," Tannahill cautions. "We’ll start with smaller projects, work in tight teams, and keep it sustainable—that’s the priority."