DotAGE - the merciless citybuilder about an impending apocalypse - justified its nine-year-long development cycle with unexpectedly strong sales, and now its lone developer wants to implement the ideas they never had the time for.
We recently interviewed the sole developer behind the hit roguelike, Michele Pirovano, when it reached 20,000 in sales. At the time, Pirovano called his unexpected success "life-changing," and since then, the game has passed a whopping 30,000 units sold.
DotAGE’s relatively giant success means that Pirovano now has the bandwidth to complete and add all the ideas they never could during its lengthy development. "Currently preparing a 2024 plan for dotAGE by reviewing my 9 years of 'don’t do this or you will never release it' notes," the developer writes on Twitter. "Oh, I’m cooking, I’m cooking alright!"
Pirovano doesn’t reveal what those notes include or which ideas are being revived in post-launch updates, unfortunately, but at least we know that dotAGE has plenty more content incoming. "I am reading my endless design notes on dotAGE and there is so much doubt in there and so much iteration," Pirovano writes in another post, "so many versions of dotAGE that people never even saw." Perhaps some of those versions - or some parts of those versions - can make a comeback.
For the uninitiated, dotAGE has you doing the regular citybuilding chores: assigning tasks, micromanaging economies, and building up settlements. The twist comes from its roguelike structure, which chucks new variables into the mix with every run, from disease and earthquakes to loveable kittens. All wrapped up in a quirky pixel art style, the game has already reached an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating based on over 1,000 Steam user reviews.
Keep your eyes on our upcoming indie games guide to discover more unexpected hits.
