Despite Bauhaus Bonk being nominated for the Deutscher Entwicklerpreis (German Developer Award) and the mobile version doing quite well, Cologne-based Spoonful Games is struggling financially.
Cologne-based studio Spoonful Games, the team behind Bauhaus Bonk, is currently experiencing financial difficulties. After releasing Bauhaus Bonk on Steam in February 2025 — the game is nominated for Best Casual Game at the Deutscher Entwicklerpreis (German Developer Award) — the team financed the mobile version themselves using money made from client work. They also sought additional support from publishers and investors, but without success.
The team writes on social media: "We reached out and had many, many good talks, saw support from all kinds of industry veterans, and received several publishing offers, but absolutely nothing involved a single cent upfront (or any guaranteed spending, e.g. on marketing). When we were therefore already running on fumes, we were not able anymore to overcome some unluckily timed cases of health- and family-related issues within the team. So, we were very happy to even get the game into the stores, when we did. (...)"
The game has also surpassed 100,000 downloads on the App Store. However, the team is on the verge of closing the studio as it has experienced financial difficulties since the game's release. Although Bauhaus Bonk continues to be downloaded "hundreds of times a day and played by thousands", the revenue from ads and sales of the full version will soon no longer cover expenditure on high-score servers. Consequently, the online feature may soon be shut down, which would effectively spell the end for the game. Nevertheless, the team is proud of their achievements, their first completely self-financed multi-platform title, and would like to thank all their supporters.
They also comment on the mobile games market as follows: "For anyone not in the know: An economically successful mobile game needs at least as much development time spent on systems that hold players back and squeeze them dry, as on actually creating a fun gameplay experience. Until that point we had spent all our effort on the latter (because that's what was important for the Steam version, and to us)."
