Back in February, we instantly fell in love with the demo for "simultaneous turn-based" tactics game Arco. The full game finally launched on Steam and Nintendo Switch on August 15 to rave reviews – 98% positive on Steam, a 9/10 in Edge Magazine, and high praise from a suite of other critics. But in an illustration of the volatile indie games market, its creators say the game has "sold badly" – so badly that developer Franek laments that "making under minimum wage is embarrassing. Even if it means you get to make games."
In a post on Twitter, McPixel creator Sos Sosowksi argued that "it feels like indies are making the same three genres, and AAA are just remastering the same three games over and over" and advised devs to "make new stuff." The conversation began with a post from Antichamber creator Alexander Bruce, who shared a brief rap which essentially speedruns years of commentary on trends and talking points in indie development, from "what the market wants" to the value of "ideas you've never seen." Sharing Sosowski's input, Franek reasons that making new stuff sounds like "fun advice until you have to sell your game without a target audience and you got rent to pay."
"We made something new. Our game has been well rated by critics and players but it sold badly. We'd get more sales copying an already well established genre. Still, you have to make new stuff. As soon as you stop making new things the work stops being creative. Either way, my next project will [definitely] be more focused on 'Does this sell' [because] making under minimum wage is embarrassing. Even if it means you get to make games."
Developer Super Mega Team agreed with Franek, theorizing that "exactly the same thing happened with Knight Witch," a lovingly illustrated shoot-'em-up Metroidvania released in 2022. "We all want to innovate and explore new and uncharted territories, but sometimes the audience is just not there despite the public demands for originality."
Other developers, like the creator of upcoming tactical roguelike Axial Null, agreed that "'making new stuff' is rarely rewarding because there's barely any target audience for it." Mechano, the artist on on-rails shooter Candy Rangers, encouraged people to "buy new stuff."
LocalThunk, creator of smash-hit poker roguelike Balatro, which has found itself on the feast side of this famously feast-or-famine industry, was confounded. "Arco is reviewing 98.65% positive after one week. Read the reviews, they’re glowing and passionate," they said. "This industry can seem like such a lottery sometimes. Usually results make sense but Arco feels different to me. I hope this game breaks out and finds the wider audience it deserves."
Other Arco developers weighed in as well. Composer and sound designer Bibiki says "we are struggling to make people notice about the game itself, being considered already as a 'hidden gem.'" The term hidden gem is often used with endearment, but Arco highlights, in real time, the frustrating reality of having a demonstrably great game that hasn't found its audience yet.
"This is a really important time for the success of Arco," co-developer Fáyer says in a post which was shared by dev and artist Max Cahill. "If you are on the fence about it, what's stopping you? How can we help you be interested in it?"
Unsurprisingly, there's been discussion about the role and strategy of marketing in situations like this. Franek explained that "there was a marketing plan but people thinking there was not proves that it didn't go right. And yeah purchases translated very well into reviews in our case. But wishlists didn't transfer into sales much."
The most important line from Franek may be this: "We're far from recoup or making decent income after the split. The sales usually drop pretty fast after the first week, but maybe it'll work for us longer term, who knows."
All of these posts are stacked with replies from Arco players saying they loved the game, I saw multiple other people gushing about it online before writing this article, and that demo still lives in my mind after immediately pushing Arco onto my wishlist. If you're interested in Arco, it's 10% off on Steam for the next week.
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