One More Game scrapped its first game after $22M and rebooted into co-op shooter SWAPMEAT
Backed by a $22M round in 2022, One More Game shelved its 1v1 strategy game Spellcraft and rebuilt itself around a paid co-op shooter, SWAPMEAT.
What was changed
Seattle studio One More Game, founded by Blizzard and ArenaNet veterans Patrick Wyatt and Jamie Stormbreaker, spent more than three years building Spellcraft, a hybrid real-time strategy fantasy game. Shortly after closing a $22 million funding round in 2022 from investors including Lightspeed and Andreessen Horowitz, the team shelved the game entirely and started over. "I am really proud of Spellcraft — the game was good," Stormbreaker said.
The trigger was a market shift: player interest was moving away from competitive matches with strangers in random lobbies toward games played with friends coordinated on Discord, like Among Us and Lethal Company. The team also decided a 1v1 PvP free-to-play business model did not fit its values. The reboot, SWAPMEAT, changed everything at once: a goofy third-person squad co-op shooter with a body-swapping mechanic ("meat mixing"), a new graphical style, writing style, game engine and player count — and an upfront purchase instead of free-to-play.
Through 2025 the 13-person fully remote studio ran what it calls alpha-driven development, hauling builds to PAX East, Gamescom and PAX West, tweaking the game mid-show and putting it back in front of players. Thousands played it on show floors; the PAX West booth was busy all weekend. SWAPMEAT opened for Steam Early Access the week after GeekWire's October 17, 2025 report — six years after the company started.
Why it worked
Player interest shifted from competitive games with strangers to co-op games played with friends via Discord.
The team lost confidence that a 1v1 PvP free-to-play business model fit its company values.
The co-founders' shipping background — StarCraft, Diablo, Guild Wars — favored getting builds in front of players early and iterating.
What can be applied
Six years of work means nothing if the model no longer fits: scrapping a finished-looking game early cost less than shipping into a dying market.
Aftermath
SWAPMEAT became the studio's first shipped title, entering Steam Early Access in October 2025 with a 13-person fully remote team. The convention tour doubled as its research loop: shows in Boston, Cologne and Seattle fed mid-show tweaks. Stormbreaker described the PAX West return as a full-circle moment — he and Wyatt met on the same show floor nearly 20 years earlier at the ArenaNet booth.