After a bumpy launch period and initially lukewarm reception, one indie puzzler found "great" success through the nebulous power of social media algorithms.
Storyteller is the excellent puzzle game where you essentially need to mix and match comic tiles, settings, and characters on a tea-stained book to build your own stories. You can experiment to make non-canonical and sometimes hilarious remixes of classic stories like Frankenstein or Dracula, but the goal is to meet the brief of the given titles.
Storyteller first started development in 2009 and then shot its way onto everyone's radar when it won big at 2012's Independent Game Festival, but the game didn't properly come out until March 2023, where it was met with decent but not mind-blowing reviews.
- Balatro creator initially considered a Steam release in part to help "get a game developer job somewhere," and after 5 million sales I'd say he found one
- Balatro creator was "shocked" at his poker roguelike's high review scores: "I don’t think I would have rated Balatro higher than an 8 and I made the damn thing"
Solo developer Daniel Benmergui recently tweeted that he thought the game "would just die out," but a "weird sales curve" means the game is now "doing great" more than year after launch. Storyteller currently sits at a 'Very Positive' rating on Steam based on over 5,500 user reviews - the game is also available on the Nintendo Switch and Netflix Games.
While most games fizzle out after their release period, Storyteller seems to have boomed. But why? Benmergui says the game "blew up again before Netflix" and the only thing he did to further promote it was to "make more game" via an update that added new character, levels, challenges, and more.
Storyteller had a weird sales curve, when we luanched it seemed it would just die out but more than a year went by and we are doing *great* now pic.twitter.com/eqv5nL1DjyJuly 3, 2024
"TikTok, spontaneously," was the answer, Benmergui says in response to his above tweet. So if you're an aspiring developer, just cross your fingers and hope the almighty algorithms platform an account gushing about your game.
Storyteller is currently 38% off thanks to the Steam Summer Sale.
For more, check out the very best puzzle games to play right now.
