“Let’s just fail quickly,” how a game meant to flop became a Steam hit. The REPO story we didn’t expect

by

Picture yourself feeling utterly drained after your efforts didn’t pan out as planned, so you risk the last bit of money you have on a modest venture, simply to create something new. And then, quite unexpectedly, you unintentionally develop a smash hit game that sells millions. The team behind R.E.P.O., who are now known as semiwork, have just shared their experiences during those challenging times.

The unexpected success story

Semiwork, a tiny independent game studio situated in Sweden, invested six years into creating their debut game, Voidigo – an energetic, action-packed roguelike featuring pixel art and sharp wit. However, despite their hard work, the game didn’t gain much traction. When it was officially released on Steam in 2023, the highest number of players simultaneously playing was barely over 600.

Of course, following the extensive effort put into it, the team was longing for a well-deserved vacation. Yet, within mere three weeks, one of the developers, Axel Landén, started feeling that familiar urge in his fingertips, as he described in a video. He simply couldn’t resist starting another project. Consequently, the team chose to invest whatever funds remained from Voidigo into something fresh and exciting instead.

The only obstacle was that they intended to employ Unity, yet none of them possessed prior knowledge about the engine. However, as Walter Tischkewitz stated,

“Despite the lack of familiarity with Unity, they decided to give it a try.

We did it anyway. Let’s just fail quickly this time.

The original concept was quite straightforward: a solitary cleaning game imbued with horror elements, in which each stage contained a chilling element to evade. They decided to give it a “Found Footage” ambiance, creating the sensation that you were watching an ancient, unsettling video recording.

Initially, during the project’s progression, they found that the cleaning aspect wasn’t as enjoyable as anticipated. This led them to brainstorm alternative ideas. One of these ideas evolved into a moving company concept, followed by another about tax collection. At some point, they pondered, “What if this was multiplayer?” And that decision marked a significant turning point in their journey.

Initially intended as a flop, R.E.P.O. unexpectedly became a smash hit for Swedish developers. The game was launched on Steam’s Early Access platform in February 2024 at $9.99 and almost immediately picked up steam, reaching a staggering player count of nearly 27,000 within the first few days. To this day, two months later, it continues to attract over 100,000 daily players.

R.E.P.O. has gained immense popularity, with over 96% positive reviews on Steam, making it one of the top-played games on the platform. This is quite remarkable given that the developers initially created the game as a quick failure project. However, an “I love R.E.P.O.” trend has emerged, and unfortunately, imitations are starting to appear on the PlayStation Store and other platforms.

Read More

2025-04-24 17:03