"The indie scene is under pressure, interest in such games is decreasing, and the demand for quality is growing," Anton Mikhailov from Tortuga Team on the results of 2023

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the game teams. Next up is an interview with Anton Mikhailov, creative director of the indie studio Tortuga Team.

What was the year like for the studio? What have you done that I would like to highlight in terms of achievements?

This year, the Tortuga Team studio released the Knights of Braveland cooperative roguelike bitmap on Steam. This was our first project with the possibility of realtime online and, in our opinion, the network chat has stood the test of the players. We have transferred the release on the console to our partner, so we think that in 2024 it will be possible to play Knights of Braveland on Switch, Playstation and Xbox.

Knights of Braveland

How has the situation changed for the studio in the market? What new challenges did she face?

It feels like the gaming market is rather stagnating. The market for paid games is exactly the same. The number and quality of games is growing. Competition is growing. During the year, there was news about the closure of quite good studios. So the situation is turbulent. We can also recall the failure of Daedalic with The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, where, one might say, a large indie studio aimed at a serious project, but did not satisfy the requirements of the market.

As for us, we are exploring new genres, making prototypes. In our opinion, just to make a "good game" is no longer enough. You need to take a more careful approach to choosing a project.

What was the year like for the indie scene in general?

I think the Steam platform remains the barometer of the indie scene. This year, the site has closed access to monitoring visits to the game page through Google Analytics. It is suggested to trust the Steam admin panel itself, but it is somewhat limited in functionality. There is also a reduction in traffic "on average in the hospital." Therefore, the indie scene is under pressure, interest in such games is decreasing, and the demand for quality is growing.

In 2023, I would describe the situation as uncertain. Some very small indie developers turn development into a hobby and get a permanent job. Indie studios have some margin of safety, but it becomes more difficult to do "faster, higher, better".

What are the studio's plans for next year?

We are prototyping ideas for new games. We test our ideas for strength, including showing mini-demos to players. We think that next year the situation for our studio will become more definite. We will also continue to develop our turn-based strategy Braveland Heroes. I would like to please our players with good updates in the new year.

Braveland Heroes