GamesRadar spoke with former Ubisoft developer Jean-Philippe, who after working on the Assassin’s Creed team for several years decided to leave to start his own studio and launch its first game. Unexpectedly, this alternative city construction work, which he described as “I don’t even know how to define it myself,” had mediocre commercial performance, but relied on its unique reputation and stable paying community to support the entire small team.
The core gameplay of this game is that there is no fixed gameplay
This city-building game has no traditional winning conditions. Players can build their ideal city in an almost unrestricted environment, and the game will automatically generate a unique development path based on your choices. This creative-first design has attracted a group of casual players on Steam.
The revenue figures are not amazing, but they are extremely stable.
The developer revealed that the revenue of this game “has never grown explosively” since its launch, but there are fixed sales every month and a group of core players who are willing to continue to pay to support development and updates. The inspiration of this model is that small teams do not need “big hits”, they only need “long-tail stable income” to maintain operations.
Why did a former Ubisoft developer choose this path?
The interviewee admitted that although he had sufficient resources when working in a large factory, the pressure of business goals prevented him from doing real creative experiments. After leaving the first game, I had to find a way to survive on my own. This pressure actually forced me to be better focused and sensitive to the needs of the players.