Narrative RPG 1000xResist grew to become a important darling when it launched in Could 2024 — however like so many different nice indie video games, it didn’t get its flowers at The Recreation Awards in December. However a buzz has been amassing across the sport for the reason that nominees for TGAs had been introduced, based on sundown customer 斜陽過客 founder and inventive director Remy Siu. Now, Siu is reporting the sport’s highest gross sales day of all time was Jan. 2, 2025, nearly precisely seven months after it was launched.
Principally, Siu says, the excitement has been because of anger on the voting equipment for excluding the title from nominations.
“I used to be on a airplane flying again house – having been on trip for the primary time in 4 years – and I purchased web on the airplane to look at the Recreation Award Nominations bulletins. Sadly, we weren’t nominated for something. I used to be slightly unhappy about it, however figured yeah – is smart, we’re a small experimental sport,” Siu advised me in a Bluesky message. “However nearly instantly after the bulletins, folks began posting about how they had been upset we weren’t included.”
Siu mentioned the sport’s “off-sale resting price,” aka its gross sales price beneath regular situations, rose a bit after these nominations, which had been introduced in August. A slew of fall gross sales by means of September, October, and November meant extra wishlists and extra purchases, and Siu mentioned The Recreation Awards on Dec. 12 kicked off one other reactionary dialog in regards to the sport. The ultimate domino to fall? The sport’s win for Narrative Recreation on the first-ever Indie Recreation Awards.
“Sale numbers weren’t poor earlier than Jan. 1,” Siu mentioned, clarifying that the devs anticipated fewer gross sales total by that time. “It needs to be remembered that 1000xRESIST is a bizarre, experimental narrative sport with no conventional gameplay that talks about issues that almost all video games don’t speak about – and likewise, we wished to maintain many issues a secret.”
Siu mentioned the sport’s launch and reception trajectory has taught him in regards to the worth of post-launch advertising and marketing, however that mishap might have been definitely worth the threat to maintain the sport’s secrets and techniques, properly, secret. “I believe we at all times knew that, if we had been in a position to make an engrossing sufficient expertise, it will come all the way down to phrase of mouth. That folks must uncover it over time,” he mentioned. And that’s precisely what’s occurred.
It’s a uncommon however heartening success story that underscores the ability of the indie neighborhood and decentralized types of advertising and marketing, like phrase of mouth — regardless of Siu’s assertion that “the indie sport distribution equipment isn’t at all times properly tuned to make these sorts of experiences attainable, from what I can inform.”
Siu credit a number of components to the sport’s latest uptick in gross sales — the apropos timing of the trade’s shift in direction of Bluesky, Steam offers and giveaway collabs with different indie devs, getting mentions on Better of the 12 months lists like ours, and collaborations with different video games like Balatro. However, Siu theorized, not being in The Recreation Awards, and the response that garnered from followers who actually understood the sport, was an sudden boon.
“I hope phrase of mouth continues to permit extra folks to find the sport,” Siu mentioned. “I believe there’s sufficient proof now that it’s actually working, it’s permitting us to make extra video games sooner or later.”