Firefly, the studio best known for the Stronghold series, has taken its next step into publishing by creating a new label dedicated to strategy games called Wuselfaktory. The label’s debut title, 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 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 mirrors what many indie studios are doing right now.
"We’re just following the trend of indie developers moving into publishing," he told GamesIndustry.biz, but he added that Firefly’s long‑standing expertise in the strategy niche gives it a distinct advantage. The strategy market on PC is one of the platform’s most reliable revenue generators, a space already dominated by veterans such as Paradox Interactive and newer entrants like Hooded Horse.
Firefly’s ambitions are more modest, however; it plans to release a limited number of titles rather than trying to flood the market. 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 in the future the studio intends to bring those localisation and QA responsibilities in‑house, leveraging its existing 50‑person team. "We already have a small publishing unit, which is why we can do this," he explained.
Firefly has been self‑publishing its own games since 2010, so it already possesses a full localisation pipeline, a marketing workflow, and solid relationships with platform holders. More importantly, the studio has spent decades building and supporting strategy titles, meaning it can also provide 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 relationships, and we can also help with actual development work," Tannahill said. The support for Fool King illustrates this approach.
The game includes an asynchronous multiplayer component, so Firefly’s team holds regular calls with the Loot Donkey developers to discuss technical implementation, user‑interface design, and overall game balance. "We’ve given them multiple rounds of feedback on the core game and consulted on the UI," Tannahill noted.
While such involvement consumes time that could be spent on Firefly’s own projects, he argues that a short, focused conversation can dramatically accelerate a partner’s development timeline. The move into publishing was encouraged by Devolver, which recognised its own gaps in the strategy arena.
"We were bought by Devolver in late 2021," Tannahill recalled, "and they basically said, ‘You know strategy inside and out – we don’t, so why don’t you lead that effort?’" Firefly’s constant monitoring of upcoming strategy releases also helped it spot promising indie projects; Tannahill discovered Fool King after reading a Rock Paper Shotgun article about the game. Tannahill admits he draws inspiration for Stronghold from smaller titles on Steam, Itch.io, and similar platforms.
"I play a lot of modest games to keep my brain fresh and to spark ideas for new Stronghold entries," he said. "When I see games I love that could benefit from funding, guidance, or partnership, I think about how we can help them." Devolver is comfortable letting Firefly handle both sourcing and marketing because the latter lacks deep knowledge of the strategy landscape. "They trust us to know the press contacts, content creators, and community hubs for each sub‑genre," Tannahill explained, emphasizing that strategy fans expect a publisher to speak their language.
To stay close to its audience, Firefly embeds short surveys in every demo it releases, asking players how much they’d be willing to pay, which features they’d like, and what future games they’d enjoy. The studio receives roughly 6,000 responses per survey, providing a robust data set that informs both design and business decisions. The feedback has revealed a surprisingly young player base: a sizable segment falls between 18 and 25 years old.
"We meet young gamers where they hang out—on the right social platforms—to keep feeding them new IPs and series," Tannahill said. The strategy genre, according to Tannahill, is vast yet under‑served. "If you look at the top‑hundred wish‑listed games on Steam, many of them are strategy titles," he observed.
However, classic franchises such as Command & Conquer have faded from mainstream awareness, not because the IPs lack appeal, but because few new entries have been produced. This gap represents an opportunity, especially as other high‑profile genres face headwinds. "Strategy isn’t glamorous, but it’s quietly one of Steam’s most successful categories," Tannahill asserted. "While Roblox keeps expanding and consoles struggle, Steam remains a strong home for deep, systems‑driven experiences that let players spend hours tweaking tactics and watching emergent gameplay." Firefly’s own development slate reflects this diversity.
The studio creates retro‑style 2.5D isometric games reminiscent of early Command & Conquer or Age of Empires, while also delivering fully 3D experiences like Stronghold 4. The resurgence of pixel‑perfect isometric visuals is evident, yet Tannahill cautions against putting all eggs in one basket.
"You want to diversify so you’re not overly exposed to a single trend," he said. Wuselfaktory currently represents a single published title—Fool King—but the team hopes to add a few more modest projects over time.
Since being acquired by Devolver, Firefly has shipped four games and six expansions, with additional releases in the pipeline. Third‑party publishing will be part of the long‑term strategy, but it must fit within the studio’s capacity. "We won’t announce a label and then flood the market with three ready‑to‑launch games because we can only spin so many plates," Tannahill warned. "We’ll start with smaller titles, work in compact teams, and keep the operation sustainable—that’s the priority."