The critical success, but financial difficulties of the beautiful tactical RPG Arco sparked a discussion about the risks of developing games with unusual pitches and mechanics, compared to standard genres that can bring more regular success. Lee Williams, who you may know from bizarre-o dungeon crawler Cryptmasterwhich has over 1,100 “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steamset a finer point “One lesson I learned from Cryptmaster was, ‘Next time, make a roguelike…’ A lot of people say they want innovation and risk-taking, but it seems that very few actually want that.”
Franek, the Arco developer who initially expressed frustration that Arco was “selling so poorly” that “we are far from recouping the profits or making a decent income after the split,” seemed to agree with Williams. “(I’m not going to lie) my roguelike instinct was so tingling,” Franek replied.
Michele Pirovano, the sole creator of the quirky city-building roguelike DotAGE, which in the end became a great success that far exceeded Pirovano’s dreamspresented an interesting branch of the argument. “You can also make an innovative roguelike,” he said in a post I share Williams’ comment. DotAGE would certainly be an example to point to – its mix of turn-based strategy, village-based survival and retro vibes is unusual, but it’s clearly found an audience given its 1,832 “overwhelmingly positive” Steam reviews.
“Yes, that’s true,” Williams told Pirovano. “I do that myself – it’s always smartest to stick with what you know you like (I eat the same ice cream every time!). What frustrates me is that many players (and journalists) are vocal about their desire for new things, but perhaps don’t realize they have to support them.”
“Be aware that you are taking a very big risk”
I reached out to Williams to talk about the challenges and potential trade-offs of making indie games, and he was quick to say, “I feel bad for singling out roguelikes now, especially since they’re one of my favorite genres!” He also says, “My first piece of advice to anyone would be to not come to me for advice! I rarely have good answers!”
“My point is actually that indie developers are on the safe side if they want to make a living by sticking to a handful of popular genres,” he continues. “I don’t mean to disparage those genres, it’s just a shame that it’s such a big risk to innovate outside of those genres.”
“Similarly, I don’t criticize anyone for buying ‘safe’ games. I do that myself – it’s always wisest to stick with what you know you enjoy. I guess what frustrates me is that a lot of people are vocal about their desire for new stuff, but very few seem willing to take a risk on new concepts when they come out. You can’t really have it both ways.”
Williams singled out roguelikes, which have exploded in popularity, especially in the last decade, but he believes genres like life sims and deck builders are in a similar situation. “I think what most of these have in common is that they’re relatively easy to make on a budget because they’re based on procedural content or reward repeated play. It’s a lot less work to make a game where content is repeated and recombined than a more linear game where everything is bespoke. Plus, these genres are fun and produce a lot of great games!”
Rather than directly discouraging creativity or risk-taking, Williams recommends that developers who develop or propose more unusual games “know that they are taking a very big risk.” He concludes: “I would honestly advise anyone who really wants to sell a lot of copies to develop a game in one of those top-selling genres and to be cautious about innovating within that genre.”
“Maybe it seems mercenary to only think about copies and money, but unfortunately indie developers have to eat just as much as everyone else,” Williams adds, pointing out the gap that sometimes exists between pre-release interest and actual sales. People may say they want something new and weird, but when it comes time to actually buy it and take some risk with their time and money, they may look back to their old, genre faithful instead.
“In the past, I would probably have advised people to test their idea on social media first to see if it would catch on. But lately I’ve noticed a trend towards more unusual games that generate a huge amount of buzz and followers but then fall short of expectations in actual sales. Again, I think that’s a big part of the problem – a lot of gamers think they want new things (actually, that’s too condescending of me – they actually want new things) and they love it when these ideas come along, but they’re not necessarily willing to buy them over safer alternatives.”
“I still believe that being indie is about being original.”
I also spoke to Pirovano again, and he agrees that “you can find roguelikes in almost any game genre today,” thanks to the genre’s significant growth over the past 10 years. He describes roguelikes as “a set of dynamics that are constantly engaging, fun, and expandable. They are strategic, engage players because of their many inherent risk-based mechanics, and use gambling-like elements that stimulate the brain. I think a lot of indie developers are attracted to making a roguelike because they are gamers first and foremost, and they want to make something they would enjoy playing themselves.” Many of the best roguelikes, like Hades and Slay the Spire, embody these qualities.
Pirovano observes comparable trends, pointing to casual gaming, which is often defined by mood rather than mechanical or stylistic terms, but remains a driving force among indie developers. “Another trend I see is taking a popular specific game like Pokémon and making an entire genre out of it, with many indie developers creating their own version of the formula driven by their love of the franchise,” he adds, alluding to the likes of Cassette Beasts And Anode heart.
“I applaud any indie that tries to do something new and I think that’s a great strength of indie games, but unfortunately that means you have to rely on luck whether it works out or not,” says Pirovano. “I got lucky with my venture into merging city-building and roguelite games, but maybe it wouldn’t have worked if I’d released it a year earlier… I think to reduce the risk for indie games and still be original, you have to make smaller games to reduce development time and I see that advice given a lot, but that doesn’t translate well to Steam sales as players prefer longer and deeper games.
“That said, I still believe that originality is key in indie games. So to support the effort to make an original, deep and risky game, safety should come from other ways, either through funding or contract work (I developed DotAGE while working as a freelance developer for nine years), but not by following safe trends in indie game development! Unless of course that’s your passion, but that’s still luck!”
This whole conversation has been an interesting bit of art as business, and it hasn’t escaped me that in the background, games like turn-based strategy game Tactical Breach Wizards and red-hot farming sim Fields of Mistria are driving up Steam’s top sellers. LocalThunk, the creator of the instant hit roguelike Balatro and another staunch Arco supporter, put it best: “This industry can seem like a lottery sometimes.”
Another interesting special case: One of the best Metroidvanias of 2023 was created in 4 months by a self-taught developer – now it has earned him a life-changing amount of money.
