The Snusmumrikken launch saved Hyper Games from laying off employees

The recent launch of Snusmumrikken: Melodien i Moommidalen has resulted in strong sales figures and a good reception.

The game has reached over 100,000 copies sold across PC and Nintendo Switch, and several hundred thousand have put the game on their wishlist on Steam.

The Oslo studio Hyper Games reports this in a press release.

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In the run-up to the launch, however, not everything was rosy. Just two weeks before the release, Hyper Games CEO Are Sundnes had to send out layoff notices to all 13 employees due to low liquidity. Of these, half were on leave for four days.

But because of the quick success, Sundnes was able to call all laid-off employees back just four days after being let go.

Sundnes tells Gamer.no that all those laid off ended up getting paid as normal during these days, since the leave period was so short. And with that, the crisis was averted.

– It has been a demanding period for me, and for all our employees. It is, in a way, both heaven and hell at the same time, and a lot of mixed emotions, says Sundnes.

Biggest success on Switch

Both PC and Switch sales should have gone well, but the most popular platform has been Nintendo’s console. At the end of March, Nintendo reported that Snusmumrikken was among the 15 best-selling Switch games in both Europe and Japan.

– Japan is a very important market for us. Not everyone here in the Nordics knows it, but the Moomin characters are very popular over there, and the game has so far sold more in Japan than all the Nordic countries combined, says Sundnes.

Our reviewer referred to the game as “balm for the soul” and that he “wished we had more games like this”.

– I believe that we humans seek out more cozy and stress-free entertainment when the world is experienced as more and more stressful and unsafe. We also have a number of themes in the game that strike a nerve in the present day, such as the focus on nature conservation – and skepticism towards powerful people and authorities in society, says Sundnes.

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An anti-authoritarian sting

Snusmumrikken: Melodien i Moommidalen is loosely based on Moomin creator Tove Jansson’s book, Farlig Midsommer.

In the game, you follow the wanderer Snusmumrikken who returns to Moomin Valley. There, the park service has taken over and put up signs prohibiting everything from pipe smoke to noses, and much of the forest has been replaced by parks with fences guarded by park rangers.

It will be the player’s task to find out what has happened and clean up the sulamite.

– It is probably surprising to many that the game has such a clear sting, in something that many perceive as “just a child’s game”. Our aim has always been to reach both adults and children, just like Tove Jansson’s own stories, and it is actually mostly adults who play the game, says Sundnes.