Even so, bits and pieces of 4x infuse a lot of our games, particularly AI War and The Last Federation. Finally, Arcen is doing a true 4x! People have been suggesting that we do this for years, and I’ve wanted to, but I wasn’t really ready yet. It is with great pleasure that I formally announce this next game. Part 4: 2015-2016, Beyond Reach, Rogue, Raptor – Going 3D.Part 3: 2013-2014, Shattered, Bionic, Skyward, Last Federation – Peak Arcen.Part 2: 2011-2012, A Valley Without Wind, etc.Skyward Collapse: Nihon no Mura (Expansion 1).The Last Federation: The Lost Technologies (Expansion 2).The Last Federation: Betrayed Hope (Expansion 1).AI War: Destroyer Of Worlds (Expansion 6).AI War: Vengeance of the Machine (Expansion 5).AI War: Light of the Spire (Expansion 3).AI War: Children of Neinzul (Expansion 2).AI War: The Zenith Remnant (Expansion 1).

And it doesn’t sound like Arcen is lucky.Indie game development studio since 2009. This is more and more common for the gaming market, and some people call this phenomenon the “indiepocalypse.” That’s a way of saying the market is so crowded that only a very few, lucky companies stand out. “And mostly in the 250 s at that, top-seller-chart-wise.” “We have mostly hung out in the 200s instead of in the teens,” he wrote. 2 at one point.”īut this time? On Steam in 2016, which is overrun with dozens of new indie games every day? The company’s latest release is coming nowhere near those previous highs. 6 spot a couple of times, briefly, and if memory serves we might have very, very briefly been No. “In the past, when we have done a launch, generally we wind up on the Steam top sellers list in the top 40 at around the low side, and peak somewhere in the top 10,” reads the blog. “And in the meantime our steady stream of income from our 2014-and-before titles started to dry up.”Īnd it doesn’t look like Starward Rogue will come to the company’s rescue. “All this time spent in extra development more than doubled the cost of making the game,” wrote Park. The game was becoming fun, inch by inch.” “And then went to beta, and found out how much the early versions kinda sucked. “We spent a ton of time in research-and-development mode,” wrote Park. That evaporated as the company began spending more and more time on Stars Beyond Reach. Overall our gross income for 2014 was about $700k, which was huge for us.”įrom all of that, Arcen had about $200,000 in the bank. “Our income actually has grown every year except for 2015, but in 2014 it jumped a huge amount from our previous high of about $400k gross income. “The company was really flying high in 2014,” he wrote.

He highlights his decision to over invest in another one of Arcen’s projects, the 4X strategy game Stars Beyond Reach. Something similar could happen this time, but Park is adamant that the company’s situation is his fault. The studio faced similar layoffs in 2010 - although when fans learned about those problems, they started buying the game specifically to support the studio. This is not the first time Arcen has gone through something like this. “By contrast, about 2,100 people have bought the game across Steam and Humble,” he wrote. Join gaming leaders live this October 25-26 in San Francisco to examine the next big opportunities within the gaming industry.

Stars beyond reach steam