Permanent Closure Ensues: Islands of Insight Servers Shut Down Next Month in Favor of Offline Puzzling Experience

Islands of Insight’s Offline Mode Saves the Day

In a surprising twist, the shared-world puzzle game Islands of Insight will be shutting down its online servers at the end of August, but don’t worry – you’ll still be able to play the game without an internet connection.

Offline Mode to the Rescue

An offline mode was released in July, allowing players to continue exploring the game’s beautiful biomes, solving puzzles, and completing daily quests without requiring an internet connection. Social functionality isn’t available in offline mode, but honestly, it wasn’t the most engaging aspect of the game anyway.

Community Feedback and Player Counts

The IoI team said that the offline mode would "expand our play experience and provide more players with the opportunity to join us in the islands," but unfortunately, player counts have been in a steady decline since a giveaway in June brought in an all-time peak concurrent player count of 7,755. SteamDB recorded this decline, and it’s likely due to the game’s inability to find a broader audience.

Final Update and Farewell

The final Islands of Insight update, set to roll out on October 30, will permanently modify the game to be offline-only, allowing players to continue exploring the game world without relying on online servers. The community team has promised to focus on their next projects, and players have until October 30 to transfer their online progress to the offline version.

Bugs and Performance Issues

Some players were unhappy about the lack of bug fixes, particularly regarding the offline mode’s save frequency, which was causing performance issues on some PCs and putting significant stress on SSDs. The publisher, Behaviour Interactive, has since reduced the frequency of player position saving in response to community feedback.

A New Beginning for Lunarch Studios

As for Lunarch, the original developer of Islands of Insight, they’ve got a new project in the works, although it’s not ready to be fully revealed just yet. The studio has been working on several upcoming projects, including a new single-player logic puzzle game featuring the same team of world-class puzzle designers who worked on IoI.