The solo developer of immersive shooter Fortune's Run, Dizzie, has been released from prison after serving just over a year of a three-year sentence. She announced the news in a Steam update, stating she is back to developing the Early Access game. Dizzie plans a new build in six months and a full 1.0 release after a year.
In January 2025, Dizzie paused development of Fortune's Run indefinitely after receiving a three-year prison sentence for past violent actions. The Canadian developer described it as consequences from her earlier life before entering game development. On April 17, she posted on Steam that a parole board had released her after reviewing her case, just 72 hours prior to the update. She now resides in a halfway house and is reorganizing the project solo, following the departure of former co-developer Arachne. Dizzie wrote, “Good news, everyone! I am writing this Steam post with a computer and not dictating it over the jail phone!” She subtitled the post “Dizzie is liberated from prison following an anti-climactic resolution to the season 1 finale cliffhanger,” adding that after a year of challenges, “the parole board reviewed my case and instantly kicked my ass out of jail. Hurray! The system works!” The developer aims to cut content previously handled by Arachne, conduct QA herself, and deliver a responsible 1.0 release without distractions like soldering minigames. During her incarceration, Dizzie reported harsh conditions, including over six months in reception without access to rehab or education, and claimed incidents like police discharging a fire extinguisher in her mouth. She also designed a roguelike game on paper—a parasitic mushroom that infests corpses, grafts enemy parts, and features a custom distance-field based sliced voxel OpenGL renderer—though its release remains uncertain.
