Spacetime Studios has been forced to significantly reduce its staff headcount while it self-funds its operations as it continues to search for a publishing deal for science-fiction MMO Blackstar.

“Our studio cannot survive at its current burn rate without a publishing deal, so we face a necessary (though very difficult and painful) decision," the company said in a statement on its website.

"We are scaling down from thirty-two down to sixteen folks in the hopes of developing a pitch, a prototype and another publishing deal.

“Our company has been entirely self-funded for the last six months while we tried to find a publishing deal for Blackstar... We have been shopping Blackstar around but, right now, at least, the concept of a SciFi space/ground IP has proven to be a challenge."

NCsoft had been due to publish the title but cancelled plans to do so in January, resulting in 12 layoffs at Spacetime Studios.

In May the developer announced that it had acquired the Blackstar IP from NCsoft and told Edge that it was pushing “full speed” ahead with the project, which has now been in development for around two and a half years.