Witchfire dev on why Metacritic and Steam reviews matter and how Epic Games deal helped studio stay independent
Witchfire appears to be a success for Polish studio The Astronauts, which recently summed up the first results of the game’s Early Access launch on Steam. The team also explained why the devs care about critic and user reviews.
- As The Astronauts pointed out in a blog post on Steam last week, Witchfire has received over 3,600 user reviews since its EA launch on the platform on September 23. 92% of them are positive.
- The studio didn’t disclose sales figures, but its creative director Adrian Chmielarz noted that “we have sold enough copies not only to secure the studio’s future, but also to be able to invest more in the game and make our Witchfire dreams come true.”
- On October 8, The Astronauts announced that Witchfire had generated over 1 million wishlists across Steam and the Epic Games Store, when it initially launched in September 2023. Another 100k users have added the game to their wishlists since then.
- It is unclear how revenue is split between platforms, but analytics services like VG Insights and Gamalytic estimate that Witchfire has grossed over $3 million on Steam alone.
- According to SteamDB, the game also peaked at 5,042 concurrent players following its launch on Valve’s store.
- Overall, The Astronauts said the Early Access launch on Steam “went better than we dreamed.”
In his post, Chmielarz also discussed the studio’s partnership with Epic Games, saying that it was beneficial to all parties. The deal allowed The Astronauts to remain independent and continue development without selling part of the studio, while Steam players got a more polished and improved version of the game.
“I would genuinely recommend any indie studio that can go this route to go this route,” Chmielarz said. “I am glad we did. We have just copied what Supergiant has done with Hades, and it seems to have worked well.”
While Witchfire has been generally well received so far, reading some of the “unfair” reviews and seeing the game’s rating go down is still painful for the team. Chmielarz noted that these scores are important for developers in terms of both sales and funding.
Whether we like it or not, Metacritic and OpenCritic matter. A simple example: you need an investment for a future project. When you explain to the potential investor that your game sold well, even though the Metacritic score was merely so-so, they will start to have doubts about your ability to deliver high quality and might even consider your great sales to be a lightning-in-a-bottle thing you might have trouble replicating. But if you say you had great sales and a fantastic Metacritic score, they will now be looking at something much tastier and worthy. Creative director at The Astronauts
The Steam user score is even more important, according to the Astronauts creative director. A lower rating can not only scare off potential buyers, but also affect how the platform’s algorithm interacts with your product.
And the Steam algorithm worked really well for the team: “As an example, when the initial two-week 10% off promo ended, we expected the sales to cool down until the next big update or news or sale. But …no. Daily sales are still great, relatively to where we are, of course.”
The Astronauts is an independent studio based in Warsaw, Poland. Adrian Chmielarz, Michał Kosieradzki, and Andrzej Poznański co-founded the company in 2012 after leaving People Can Fly, which they also started back in 2002.
Prior to making Witchfire, The Astronauts released narrative horror adventure game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It received positive reviews, won multiple awards, and sold over 1 million copies globally.
