100 questions you never got an answer to

What is this page?

Over the years we got A TON of questions from you all.

Questions about:

  • us, Motion Twin, weirdos with our weird way of working, weird history, weird evolution ;
  • Windblown, our upcoming game, and its specificities and why we are making it ;
  • Dead Cells, and the details of its inception, how its live-ops started, the recent “end of new content” announcement, its future ;
  • (and even) our Previous Games back from the web-era, and why we completely switched from them at one point.

So we FINALLY took some time, and tried answering ALL of those questions here.

Is this page a FAQ?

Yes and no. We are using a FAQ format as it makes it easy and clear to follow, and easy to search through if anyone wants to. But it is “not simply” a FAQ, as some topics will take way more than a few lines to be answered properly.

Will you update this page?

For the typos? And the non-proper-English sentences? For sure, we are no professional writers… by far haha

For the content? Possibly, if we see that something is missing, or if something needs more details, we’ll update this (and try to make the edited things as obvious as possible).

Motion Twin

Who is Motion Twin (MT)?

We are a small indie workers cooperative game studio based in France and established in 2001. We develop and publish our own games.

What does MT do?

In short: we make games.

In (slightly) longer: we want to create games that impassion us, like for real… When starting a new project, we always ask ourselves: what do we want to play NOW? In our first years that meant community-driven web games, but that changed along the years. Since Dead Cells, we are QUITE obsessed with game-feel-based and action-driven games. In the end, all we want is to work as a team, all together, and challenge ourselves on games that matter to us.

Working habits

How is MT organized?

We work in a flat way where no one is the “boss”, or will ever be! All partners have the same right of vote, working time and pay.

Why is MT working like that?

When MT’s journey started, everyone was around the same age and had just a little experience, so having a boss didn’t make sense. So we actually started working in this flat way and we liked it. We all take the risks but also take the potential gains by solely focusing on what we like to do: making games. This free way of working can sometimes be chaotic, but it is also what made us able to bring all those ideas without any hierarchy barriers in our games. All MT games reflect all of its workers and that is really important for us.

Is MT working alone on its games?

The core team is always MT, but our games are also made and expanded with the crucial help of external companies and talented freelancers (on sound, music, communication, additional development, ports, etc.).

Evolution of the team

How did MT start?

At the end of the year 2000, there was no Motion Twin, no co-op, no shipped games, but rather just a group of young enthusiasts who simply wanted to create their own video games. Benjamin “Bumdum” Soulé and Nicolas “Warp” Cannasse had met a few years earlier, they already started a few game projects together when they got in touch with Pascal “Skool” Péridont.

At the beginning of 2001, Benjamin and Pascal made their first web-game together, the first to be branded as a “Motion Twin” game. During the summer, Benjamin and Nicolas signed some legal papers… (yeah, not Pascal, he was too young to have the legal right to do so haha)… and they created the legal “Motion Twin” entity, which officially began!

Benjamin then soon started to work full-time and was quickly joined by Sébastien “Deepnight” Bénard before the end of 2001. Then we grew, making web-games one after the other, allowing us to involve more and more people in full-time positions: Laurent “Yota” Bédubourg, François “Whitetigle” Nicaise and Nicolas in 2003 ; and AT LAST (!) Pascal in 2004.

BTW, some of those MT pioneers did create other games after their journey at MT:

How has MT’s team evolved?

Along the years we had 43 different members. Ranging from teams of 3p to 17p at the same time in the early 2010s. We tend to think about all of those like generations of Power Rangers, where colored suits go from one person to the following one haha

Like any game studio our team is evolving, and this is a normal thing: it allowed former members to create their own games or even game studios ; AND allows us to bring some new talented members to our workers’ co-op thus getting new skill-sets!

How many people are working at MT now?

We are a huge team of… 9 people! We are not planning to grow significantly (we had in the past, was a mess…).

Why don’t MT wanna grow its team?

Our absolute limit is around 10, which is the maximum we experienced where we can keep things balanced…

Ok that sounds a bit “corporate-ish”, let us explain a bit: we want us to make games close to each other, so we’re all able to have a real and meaningful impact on what we do. That just can’t be done when you work in bigger companies (some of us experienced it…) where you need leads ; and leads of leads ; then suddenly, you need a significant HR department ; and then you need to create woohoo parties where people can meet each other and so on…

We are also limited by our flat approach, which will add way too much extra time-burning if we need to have talks about every subject, and everyone has to give their point of view on this ; and this ; and this, etc. We already try to AVOID MEETINGS as much as possible… even with just 9 people haha

We just want to make games, not this… Yes, it's annoying, isn’t it? We keep repeating it… but we’re like KIDS: when we REALLY want something we do that… “WE WANNA MAKE GAMES! WE WANNA MAKE GAMES! WE…”

How can I apply to join MT?

We do not have a permanent recruitment process… BUT when we have a new position open, we always post about it on our X/Twitter account!

Where is MT’s team located?

Until COVID’s world premiere: we were all working on-site in Bordeaux. Since then: anyone can choose to work wherever he/she wants in Metropolitan France. The majority of us are working remotely, but some do share an office. We gather regularly every year.

Control and ownership

Who controls/owns MT?

We are fully independent and solely controlled by ourselves, the current workers. Our legal status, “Société Coopérative Ouvrière de Production” (SCOP), actually REQUIRES the workers to control the company. We thus do not personally “own” MT forever, as it would have been the case in a more “standard” company.

So… Do the previous MT workers still own something?

Nope. When we vote to have a new partner, they acquire their shares. When they leave, those shares are automatically bought back by MT at the same price. All intellectual property remains MT’s property, so another generation can continue the journey.

Since all our projects are collaborative in terms of creativity and production, and due to our horizontal hierarchy, no one is entitled to claim ownership of any MT project: they are part of MT's common good.

Does MT have any subsidiaries?

Well… not the kind you may think about. Back when we had our own offices, we had one for the sole purpose of owning and managing those offices… It was quite a boring company tbh.

Can any other company or individual take over control of MT?

NO, because the French law overseeing our status states that a SCOP must always stay under the control of its workers. AND the only legal way for us to stop having this co-op status would be to have the French Government, like yeah… the real one, the BIG state… signing a paper to allow that. Not sure that ever happened to any other SCOP in the past haha

Let’s talk about money

Is the money REALLY equally shared at MT?

YES. When we have gains, a part is saved and won’t ever be distributable to the partners. The remaining part is SHARED EQUALLY between the partners. When we had losses… well, we didn’t share that much but it pushed us to do better!

This can sound surprising, especially when compared to traditional companies, but we deeply think that creating meaningful things requires to take risks. This system removes safety belts and pushes us to go forward, to innovate. We create good things, or die… but we have already survived for 23 years! We were close to the end a few times, the last one being back in 2015… and it led to Dead Cells.

Alright, sounds nice… but doesn’t MT have investors financing its projects?

We never had any external investors. Neither our company, nor any of our games have been financed by any external company or individual.

Everything is paid thanks to the previous projects we made. So our first web-games allowed us to make the following ones ; as those did for Dead Cells ; as it now does for Windblown ; and so on…

Don’t MT get financial help from the state?

Like a lot of countries, France does help its video game studios. So YES, we applied for it on several projects, and had got public help from the “Video game help fund” (“Fond d’aide au jeu vidéo”, FAJV) which is managed by the “Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée” (CNC).

We actually THANK THEM VERY MUCH, as those do help a lot of studios in trying to create new cool games!

Windblown

What is Windblown?

Windblown is our new upcoming fast-paced rogue-lite action game playable in single player AND co-op!

What’s so special about Windblown?

Windblown's experience? A superfast action game, with a dash at the core of its combat and exploration where you can zip freely in all directions on floating islands. Its world? Your playground, with hidden secrets and several "generated on the fly" biomes to discover. Its possibilities? Endless, with several unique weapons, all with their own unqiue playstyle and special hidden "Alterattack" ; passive Gifts ; handy Trinkets and even droppable Fishes (?!), tons of crazy builds and synergies are unlockable so you can wreak havoc on your foes. Oh, and did we mention it's all playable in co-op up to 3 players if you wish to? Imagine the high-octane, stylish gamefeel of Devil May Cry in a top-down view, where teamwork can take the front seat.

To know more about the game, go to Windblown's Steam page where the first Gameplay Trailer and a full description of the game mechanics are available.

Is Windblown’s experience different in single player and co-op?

Feature-speaking, be reassured you’ll have access to all features in both single player and multiplayer. You can ofc enjoy the full game as a solo player, and we did everything in our power to allow that.

What is great, actually, is to play both (we play like that ourselves):

  • solo when we are offline or when we wanna take the time to explore / theory craft without pressure ;
  • online when we wanna play with friends or when we struggle against a particular biome or boss (or wanna try some unexpected synergies).

This tends to bring the mood we had in World of Warcraft instance-rushes, but in the frantic thrill of an action combat game ; and with almost no level-gap. Disclaimer: beware, co-op might make your session funnier, thus, longer.

LoooOOOOoore

Who will I embody in Windblown?

You’ll be one of the Leapers, in charge of finding the hidden secrets lying in the eye of the world-eating Vortex that threatens your home village “the Ark” which orbits it.

Windblown looks peaceful, doesn’t it?

Yes it is… until you encounter the Sentinels that guard the Vortex. Suddenly, the mood will… change :)

How does the weapon and powers work in Windblown?

The Leapers absorb the memories of the fallen warriors who came before, learning how to master the fighting styles of their predecessors to unleash their full potential.

What is the Vortex? Who created the Sentinels? Who was the 1st Leaper???!!!

Wow, hold on. Sorry but you’ll first have to play the game to find that!

Is Windblown a story-rich game?

Windblown has a proposed narrative, not a forced one (think of Dark Souls' games approach). We avoided interrupting the action too often. That helps a lot of the cooperative sessions for not being stopped in motion all the time.

That said, Windblown does have quite a deep lore that's beneath it, most of it will be revealed during the Early Access. If you want to deep-dive it, you’ll be able to do it freely by digging below its friendly skin.

Game’s development

Why make Windblown?

Well… we asked the same question again: what do we want to play NOW? And we actually wanted a super fast-paced action that is fully playable with friends. This is something we never saw and really wanted to make… it would kind of blend the community-driven approach we had in the past with our web games, with the feel and level of action we wanted for Dead Cells. But it actually took years… as there was no such thing as a “how-to formula”.

When did development start on Windblown?

In mid 2019, while developing Dead Cells’ first DLC “Rise of the Giant”, we started kind of game-jamming around internally in smaller “prototyping groups”. This led to a lot of different ideas which finally converged in early 2020 around one sole project (which continued to evolve quite heavily ofc.). We set the base-tech of the project by that year’s fall.

How long did it take to find Windblown’s formula?

It took us a few years to materialize our intentions into a core experience that we felt effective. Does that make the game already “complete”? No, ofc not, a game is nothing without real players' feedback. Windblown is still in its infancy and will grow up and get better thanks to all of you!

How many people are developing Windblown?

All of our internal team is working on Windblown (9 persons) ; plus, depending on the periods, the great help from 5 to 7 external persons (working on sound/music, doing additional level design / programming, etc.).

Our core crew is:

Who? Does mostly what? When joined MT? Pre-Windblown work?
Alix “Apox” Michel tech-art Oct. 2023 was doing advanced tech-art “stuff” at a big company
Yannick “Bidju” Berthier design & creative dir. + code Oct. 2020 was lead designer in a “too big” studio
Thomas “Carduus” Vasseur art + creative dir. Jan. 2013 Dead Cells
Noémie “Grouny” Szmrzsik-Cohard art dir. + characters Oct. 2018 Dead Cells
Gwenaël “Gwenichou” Massé enviro art dir.
+ level design		 Nov. 2016 Dead Cells
Pascal “Skool” Péridont tech (tools, engine, multiplayer) architecture … even before we officially became a company Dead Cells
Stéphane “Tef” Versini bestiary design & code Feb. 2023 was tech-designer at a studio he co-founded: Spiders!
Vincent “VAB” Abric tools & engine code May 2021 was in charge of the core code base of a game studio
Sébastien “Zeb” Violier gameplay design & code Jun. 2021 he was doing gameplay programing at a “gigantic” game studio

Who is Windblown’s music composer?

Franck Rivoire aka “DANGER”! He already made a tremendous contribution to all of us gamers, with the kick-ass soundtrack of Furi, from the studio The Game Bakers.

Availability

Is Windblown already released? Can I get it?

Not… yet BUT it will be available on PC Steam Early Access starting this year (2024), and you can already add it to your wishlist here.

We haven’t defined the when super precisely because… a game is ready when it is ready ; and right now, it is, well… not haha

I saw there is a Closed Alpha running for Windblown, can I participate?

Places are limited and people are selected randomly, so we can’t promise anything. BUT you can always try your chance by filling up the form here!

OK, so when will Windblown 1.0 be released then?

We don’t know yet. But we do know that we’ll stay in Early Access for at least a year.

We want to make sure we are happy with the state of the game before making it available as a full release. We want to keep the flexibility to use more time if it allows us to improve the experience for everyone.

When we’ll learn more about Windblown?

We’ll keep you updated ASAP through our social networks:

Why? Why? Why?

OK, but why is Windblown… another rogue-lite?

This wasn’t a goal on its own at the project’s inception, but then, this question popped out:

How do we allow players of different power/skill levels to play and enjoy the game together without flattening the experience?

The rogue-lite formula is fully suited for that, as we can reset most of the unbalancing between players at each new run, thus erasing level gaps you may encounter in such a game playable in co-op.

Windblown is a rogue-WHAT?

Windblown is a rogue-lite, a game where you make several attempts to reach the end goal through randomized runs. So, let’s say you start an expedition, right? You collect stuff, you die (whoops). BUT you go back to your camp, you get beefier and… TRY AGAIN, now full of your new learned knowledge and stuff unlocked.

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? So, maybe the best would be to check Windblown’s Announcement Trailer which was aired at the last TGAs. It is mostly made of kick-ass animation by the super-talented folks at Bobby Prod, but it also includes some gameplay shots too. And, above all, it can better explain the concept than us… who are obviously not that efficient after 2 paragraphs fully bloated with text haha

Why make Windblown playable in co-op?

Because it’s been yeeeeeaaaaarrrs of wanting to play a fast-paced action combat game like that together. Development felt even longer because of that haha

It also allows for direct/meaningful help between players, which is something we kinda missed when working on single-player-only games.

Windblown + Dead Cells-related questions

How many people from the Dead Cells team also worked on Windblown?

All but one of Dead Cells’ game developers have worked on Windblown, and half of them are still actively working on it. The other half is made of talented new recruits that joined us from as early as the start of pre-production.

Does Windblown belong to the same universe as Dead Cells?

No, we don’t think so… but no one can really know the full power of the Time Keeper, right?

Will there be a Dead Cells collaboration in Windblown?

That’s possible, we don’t know yet.

Why is Windblown a 3D game and not in 2D like Dead Cells?

To unleeEEAAaaasssshh… our 10-polygons models! haha Well, as always, to challenge ourselves, to see if we had anything interesting to propose there. And… BECAUSE IT'S COOL AS HELL TO LEARN NEW THINGS!

Fun fact: most of Dead Cells’ art was made in 3D and “morphed” into 2D!

Multiplayer cooperation

Is Windblown a single or co-op game?

It is BOTH! You’ll be able to play it on your own and/or gather with others whenever you want. It has a similar approach to this as a game like Monster Hunter Rise for example.

How many players can play together in Windblown?

“UP” to 3. So YES, you can bromance with your best friend (without a 3rd player) if you wish to!

Does Windblown have  local (split-screen) co-op?

No, solely online co-op.

Compatibility

Will Windblown be released on consoles and/or on mobiles?

We don’t know yet on which platforms we will release it in the end. For sure, we would love to have as many players as possible able to enjoy the game, whatever their preferred devices.

Will Windblown be cross-save compatible?

That will depend on the platforms the game will be released on ; and their constraints, so we do not know yet.

Does Windblown require an internet connection to be played?

No, that sounded like a bad idea. The game will be fully playable offline in single player.

I have a DSL or slow internet connection, is that ok to play Windblown in online co-op?

Yes, you don’t need super download/upload speeds to play Windblown. Ofc, if your connection is unstable (with short/long interruptions), that may impact your gameplay experience.

Will Windblown be cross-play in co-op?

We don’t know yet, again, it depends on the final platforms. But we are working on tech basics that should allow that.

Will Windblown have cloud saves?

Yes, we’ve just added that during our first wave of Closed Alpha.

What are Windblown’s PC specs?

Minimal Recommended
OS Windows 7 Windows 7 or more recent
CPU Intel Core i5 6th gen / AMD FX 8XXX Intel Core i7 8th gen / Ryzen 7 1th gen
RAM 8 GB 16 GB
GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon RX 570 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 / AMD RX 590
Disk space needed

4 GB

Does Windblown work on the Steam Deck?

Yes, thanks to the almighty Proton compatibility layer.

Pricing

What will be Windblown’s pricing?

This is still to be announced.

Will Windblown’s price evolve?

That said, we can already tell that Windblown’s price will evolve. It will be starting at a lower price during the start of the Early Access' launch. Then, during the Early Access period (once enough content has been added), it will ramp up. The final price tag will be reached with the 1.0 release.

Publishing

Who is the publisher of Windblown?

Windblown is being self-published by Motion Twin. We are assisted in this by Kepler Ghost’s team.

Dead Cells

Origins

Who made Dead Cells? What are its co-creators doing now?

Everything from the pre-production, through the Early Access, 1.0, and until the first free DLC “ Rise of the Giant” has been made internally at MT.

The game’s core crew was:

Who? Did mostly what? When joined MT? Post-Dead Cells work?
Steve “Buzzard” Filby marketing Jun. 2014 founded Evil Empire in early 2019
Thomas “Carduus” Vasseur art + creative dir. Jan. 2013 Windblown
Sébastien “Deepnight” Bénard design + gameplay code Apr. 2003 founded his own company in early 2020 and made Nuclear Blaze
Noémie “Grouny” Szmrzsik-Cohard enviro. + bestiary art Oct. 2018 Windblown
Gwenaël “Gwenichou” Massé enviro. art
+ level design		 Nov. 2016 Windblown
Mathieu “Looping” Capdegelle design
+ gameplay & tech & art code		 Jun. 2015 Windblown until late 2020, is now making his own game (TBA!!)
Christophe “Quittouff” Rautou tools & engine code Oct. 2017 Windblown until late 2022, is now working as an independent specialist in the game industry
Pascal “Skool” Péridont engine & gameplay & tools & art code … even before we officially became a company Windblown
Mathieu “Tipyx” Pistol gameplay code & design Sep. 2013 Windblown until mid 2020, has co-founded Snappy Sloth and now making his own games (Hexactical)

Why did you make Dead Cells?

We wanted to make a PC/Console game for years but were quite shy. In 2012, the project started simply as “Hordes Zero”, a sequel to Die2Nite.

Its creation had ups and downs until 2015, when we were in a quite difficult situation financially speaking. The web-games that we were creating since the beginning of MT weren’t successful anymore… and we HAD TO change things heavily.

So, we focused on Dead Cells and just went ALL IN! Thus we kept working, iterating, testing, and we decided to morph this “cooperative tower-defense” game (yes! that was the original idea, and it was booOOoring)… into a single-player combat experience, thanks to the “game-feel-spices” we had tried in game jams around this period. You might actually see some of those “early-spices” in “ScarKrow”, a game-prototype made during the 32th Ludum Dare.

Who is Dead Cells’ music composer?

Yoan Laulan aka “Valmont”!… who, fun fact, also did participate in the jam and did the music of ScarKrow :D

Start of Live-ops

Who developed the live-ops of Dead Cells?

We started this period with the “0.0” Early Access launch version in May 2017 and kept doing it internally at MT until 2019 with the “Rise of the Giant” DLC.

Then, we started our collaboration with Evil Empire’s team, who continued to do the development. They have worked on all updates from the 13th to the upcoming final 35th update and the last 4 DLCs: “The Bad Seed”, “Fatal Falls”, “The Queen and the Sea” and “Return to Castlevania”.

Is Evil Empire a subsidiary of Motion Twin?

No, Evil Empire is a fully independent company. It has always been the case since its inception in Jan. 2019.

We do have ties, but those are human ones, as it has been founded by:

  • the external marketing team that was working on Dead Cells, which includes:
    • Steve Filby (who has been a member of MT from mid 2014 to mid 2016, handling our marketing) ;
    • Benjamin Laulan ;
    • and Joan Blachere.
  • and Thomas Pfeiffer (who has been a member of MT from mid 2010 to mid 2016, working as a programmer on our web and mobile games).

Why did MT not continue Dead Cells’ live-ops development internally?

In 2019, pushed by its fans, it was clear that Dead Cells was ready to get new content.

But… after more than 4 years of intense work, we decided that it was time for us to start working on another project, to create something that could stand alongside Dead Cells while still being its own special thing.

The trick is, we were still 8 people and weren’t wishing to grow (we still don’t) ; nor would we have liked to split our team internally (having one part on Dead Cells, and the other on the new project… we still don’t either). So we took the decision to collaborate with Evil Empire to allow Dead Cells to have new content developed.

End of Live-ops

Why are Dead Cells’ live-ops coming to an end?

After 35 major updates and 5 DLCs (which is A LOT), it became difficult to keep adding new and relevant content without undermining the game for its existing players and new ones to come. We felt that we’d achieved everything we wanted to do with the original Dead Cells game creatively-speaking. Back in 2022, we already saw that the “Return to Castlevania” DLC would become the pinnacle of what we had wanted to do originally, in the early days when we started thinking about Dead Cells’ formula and were taking HEAVY inspiration from Castlevania. BTW, big kudos to Evil Empire and Konami to have helped make this DREAM COME TRUE!

So yeah, we do not want to start adding content that is not meaningful and… we consider Dead Cells to be now achieved, complete.

Was any Dead Cells roadmap announced for content in 2025?

We did have roadmaps publicly announced filled with stuff we released until the end of 2023 (the last one being in this Steam post). But we get asked quite often about a “2025 roadmap”… that we are not aware of tbh. If someone finds it, somewhere?, please tell us.

OK… but it was announced that Dead Cells would have updates until at least 2025, right?

Well… yes. In this early June 2023 press release, we did obviously state… in bold… that it would be the case… You know what? At this time we were actually discussing the next steps for Dead Cells and, as always, a lot of possible things and ideas were on the table. Those did include a potential update in 2025, but we HAD NOT fully decided yet. The sentence stating this in that press release is a mistake, it has publicly officialized things that were still thoughts/experiments WAY TOO EARLY.

OK but did you cancel Dead Cells content that was thought for post-U35?

Yes, in late September 2023, we did stop a DLC project that was at a very early prototyping stage. Again, we did that as it just did not fit inside Dead Cells' original game.

Is Dead Cells, the original game… “dead”?

It depends on what it means to you… if Dead Cells was this game that keeps getting new content year after year after year… and you were waiting for each of those updates to get new content, well yes, that period, is over.

But does that make our game dead? Nah, c’mon we don’t think so. By essence its formula is replayable until the end of time, and everyone will be able to enjoy it. Both previous players and new ones to come.

Always remember, we LOVE Dead Cells. It has been the “final all-in” project of our studio, and it saved us from closing the doors and putting an ending to MT’s adventure. Its success just went wild, pushing us way beyond anything we could have ever dreamed of. For all of that, we are simply grateful and we thank every player that participated in that amazing journey and we’ll do all we can to keep that going on as long as possible (we mean forever here, but can’t promise it formally, as we are mortals too… damn!).

Do you plan to remove Dead Cells from the stores?

Why would we do such a thing? No, of course not.

Windblown-related questions

Why make Windblown and not Dead Cells 2?

In 2019, our team had already worked on Dead Cells non-stop for many years. So for our next project, we just flipped the table! So we were free of any constraints, able to do whatever we wanted without having any fears… which meant:

  • create something NEW that we really wanna play ;
  • having flowers! we wanted to draw those so badly haha

Did Windblown development impact Dead Cells in any way?

No, we made sure that Dead Cells’ development was fully autonomous in order to prevent any impact on it. All decisions on both games have always been made separately.

Are you stopping adding new content to Dead Cells in order to “make room” for Windblown?

We saw that question, and it… hurts tbh…
So, NO, that would be quite an illogical idea to try to kill Dead Cells to replace it with Windblown: as Dead Cells can’t be killed, like at all! The game will not go anywhere, or be shut down or whatever.

And, YES, production-wise, we could definitely have kept both Dead Cells and Windblown productions going on side by side. It would have actually been simply way easier and profitable to just be greedy and bloat Dead Cells with extra content for years and years. Sadly, we’ve seen that happen to some games in the past.

BUT, that would have diminished its overall quality, and that’s a NO GO. We want it to keep its core original formula intact, which is what this game is and has always been, that’s it.

Dead Cells and Windblown have never been in competition, not in any way. We are actually seeing quite a bright future where both of our worlds can have pretty interesting projects coming side by side :)

Does Windblown belong to the same universe as Dead Cells?

Nope… we think.

Will there be a Dead Cells collaboration in Windblown?

Who knows? We don’t.

Last Major Updates

When will Dead Cells update 34 “Clean Cut” release on mobile?

We don’t have a precise date yet, but that will be this year (2024).

When will Dead Cells update 35 “The End is Near” release?

We don’t know the date yet, but we will do all of our best to make it as soon as we can.

Will update 35 release on mobile?

Playdigious, the publisher of the mobile version of Dead Cells, has already started to port some parts of it, but we need to release it on PC/Consoles first.

Future of Dead Cells

Will Dead Cells continue to get bug / stability fixes?

Yes.

I HAVE A BUG IN Dead Cells! How can I reach out to MT?

We tend to avoid doing individual support and recommend that you check in our communities first (Reddit, Discord, Steam forums etc.). But if that doesn’t work, you can try sending a mail to contact@motion-twin.com. If we can help, we’ll do our best.

Will Dead Cells continue to get balancing updates?

All rogue-lites are never fully balanced. Dead Cells is actually known for having some special runs being especially wild! And… that’s a good thing!… a thing we like :) So, we actually think that the current balancing is… well-balanced haha People can disagree ofc… everyone has a different point of view on those topics, and may want some more damage here and less there etc.

So… finally… speedrunners can have more than 2 months in a row to be able to use exploits without fear!

What's next for Dead Cells and its community?

So, regarding the original game:

  • we are working hard on the release of the last updates (35 on PC/Consoles, 34/35 on mobiles) ;
  • we have a few opportunities to reach new players via:
  • some new bundles with great games ;
  • some ports onto new platforms in the future.

Regarding Dead Cells, as a larger “world of things”, later this year (2024) the Dead Cells Animated Series (teaser) and Dead Cells “The Rogue-lite Board Game” (trailer) will be released! Within this same year, Dead Cells might do a collaboration within another “world” (we can’t tell which one yet, but no, it is not Windblown).

And after that?

We do have plans for Dead Cells, we do work on it on a daily basis, looking into different projects that could be really cool. That said, we will take the time needed to ensure that those new things will be at the quality Dead Cells and its community deserves. If what is made is good, we’ll push further. If not, we won't release Dead Cells products for the sole purpose of doing it and milking it, we’ve never done that, we’ll not do that. We have too much respect for the community and the game. We actually already tried several projects that did not reach the level of quality Dead Cells required in the last 4 years (from concept, to prototyping phases), you never heard or saw those, because they were just not the right formula.

In any case, the community will always have access to all previous Dead Cells content and socials (Reddit, Discord, Steam forums etc.) where we can all freely share thoughts. We are also looking into ways of having some Dead Cells events about the original game, but that is also way too early to confirm or whatever.

Will there ever be a Dead Cells 2?

Just for the sake of doing a sequel? No, we don’t like to create games for the sole sake of enhancing our finger-counting abilities… which can be… quite low sometimes haha

BUT! If it is in order to try making a new kick-ass game… that pushes boundaries AGAIN… and that is the new thing we wanna play NOW… then, that would then make a lot more sense. Right now, we answer those intentions and questions with Windblown. But later on, who knows?

So Dead Cells 2 in the future? Maybe yes, maybe no :)

Previous Games

WHAT??? MT did games… BEFORE Dead Cells???

Yes! We were doing community-driven web games! You may know, especially if you are French-speaking, some of them: Die2Nite, MyBrute, DinoRPG, Mush, FrutiParc, Popotamo or even Hammerfest… Some of our current team, and most of our predecessors, made A LOT of them, and they’ve been quite successful!

Until when MT did web-games?

We had a lot of joy making web-games and see their community grow and live! Kudos to everyone who was on Twinoid, you just rocked!

It has been our sole purpose during all of the 2000s, and was still the main one until around 2015. Then, we started to switch focus to Dead Cells' creation.

I LOVED those web-games, why did you stop?

To simply not die. First, the wave of mass-social networks like Facebook hit us quite hard, AND then… we “kinda” failed at taking the mobile wave in the early 2010s and that really… like really… did finish us.

At one point we didn’t have enough money to pay all the forthcoming salaries and actually had to gather and collectively choose: who will stay? Who will leave? Those are dark days for us… that’s something we would rather avoid experiencing again…

So, we reached this point where it just wasn’t sustainable anymore to work like we did previously and WE HAD TO MOVE onto something new. Thankfully, it ended really well, we worked on action games that we wanted to do for years, and we found this new community of players that was (and is) amazing :)

How many people in the current MT team worked on the web-games?

Two. Yep, it’s been quite a journey for them.

Didn’t MT also make some mobile games during that period?

Yes… that… was not really successful haha

End of support

Are your servers still live? Do you still support those web-games?

No. We stopped commercializing and supporting them in early 2020. The servers got shut down in November 2023.

How long have you been supporting your web-games?

The longest support has been on KadoKado from 2004 to 2023. So ALMOST 20 years of support for our grandpa-son!

On average (median? what’s the difference…?), our games have been up around 15 years. Ok, no, we didn’t do the exact maths… BUT it is AROUND that… more or less haha

I would like to get my web-game save back, can I?

No, it is sadly too late. We have had 3 years between 2020 and 2023 where that was doable. But the last bits of information have been deleted along the servers in November 2023. We do not have any data left.

Sayonara little Dinos, Brutes and all things that connected us all.

Legacy

OK, so the servers are down… but can I still play those web-games somewhere?

Yes, for some of them! Look for Eternal Twin (association not affiliated with us) who has brought back some of our prior games. Kudos to them and every passionate member of the community that makes this go on btw!

If you don’t find the game you are looking for, feel free to follow their social networks as they may add more along the way.

Are the sources of those available publicly?

Yes, we have published all of the source code and assets we had left on this GitHub.

Cool! So can I make my own version???

YES… as long as it is WITHOUT COMMERCIAL USE and with PROPER CREDITS ; see: official license.

Do you grant support for this public source code?

No, use it at your own risks haha

Trivia

On dit “la Motion Twin” ou simplement “Motion Twin” ?

En interne, nous n’avons JAMAIS utilisé “la”. NÉANMOINS, chacun dit ce qu’il veut ! En tout cas, ceux qui disent “la” ont sûrement connu quelques moments marrants sur nos forums durant les années 2000 haha

Why is the previous Q/A in French when ALL of this way-too-long-page is in something that is close enough to English?

C’est la vie.

That’s provocation!

That is not a proper question, you also broke the rules. Equality.

Does this page REALLY have 100 questions and answers?

Dunno, but there’s surely a… metric ton? More?… or less? It sounded like a cool page name anyway haha

Did you add nonsense questions to increase the questions counter willingly?

Damn… thought we were subtle enough…

Was it time consuming to write this page?

Yes, my fingers hurt. BUT it feels really good to know that someone reached that final line of text. So thank you for that, like for real. Ouch!…