"The main achievement for us was the announcement of Quite a Ride," said Sasha Goodwin of Goodwin Games about the main highlight of 2025

On the eve of the year's main celebration, we continue to review the outcomes of 2025 with experts from the gaming industry. Up next is an interview with Sasha Goodwin, the founder of Goodwin Games.

What was 2025 like for the team? What were you able to accomplish, what are you proud of, and what didn't you manage to do?

Sasha: Definitely, our main achievement was the announcement of our next project, Quite a Ride. The announcement went well: wishlists are growing, and by the end of the year, we secured a deal with a publisher and funding sufficient to complete the project.

Quite a Ride

You could say this year marked a bit of a revival for our team after the unsuccessful release of Selfloss.

Selfloss

What conclusions did you draw as a development studio by the end of 2025?

Sasha: We made the following conclusions:

• It's necessary to approach pre-production much more carefully, being more selective about the ideas we choose to develop;
• We need to work with 200% concentration at every stage of game development.

Have the practices of interacting with publishers/investors changed? Has it become easier or harder to work with them?

Sasha: Well, in some ways, working with publishers has become easier, and in others, more difficult.

Thanks to our successful announcement and the game's good performance, it was much easier to secure a publisher for Quite a Ride.

However, many developers (and I noticed this too) say that publishers are taking far more steps to mitigate their risks, especially in production, than they did a couple of years ago.

In this context, you need to approach publishers with a very good and comprehensible build. Just a prototype, even if it already has good marketing metrics, might not be enough.

What was the year like for the niche/genre in which you work?

Sasha: We shifted from developing an isometric fantasy adventure to creating a first-person horror adventure.

This year, mostly cooperative fun games were making waves; that was the main trend.

We were tempted to jump into this trend, but decided to make something closer to Outer Wilds.

It feels like nothing has changed in the horror and adventure genres.

What trends do you expect to strengthen or emerge in your niche/genre in 2026?

Sasha: I think we'll definitely see tags in stores marked "AI-content" or something similar.

The trend for cooperative games will continue, but they'll be even crazier.

I'm hoping (maybe not in 2026, but by 2027 at least) for a resurgence in more auteur-driven, yet popular single-player classic games. I believe the first signs are already showing in the form of Blue Prince and Expedition 33 (and a few other projects).

What are the team's plans for next year?

Sasha: Our full attention will be on getting the game to release-ready condition. We definitely won't take as many years developing it as we did with Selfloss.