91-Rated City-Builder on Steam Cracks 1 Million Sales and Has DLC on the Way
Though Cities: Skylines 2 hasn’t been what people wanted it to be, the city-building genre still got one massive win towards the end of 2023 – the full release of Against the Storm. Fusing aspects of the city-building and roguelike genres, it’s truly a one-of-a-kind strategy game. And it looks like this unique mixture of elements is making some waves among players: Publisher Hooded Horse announced that Against the Storm passed one million sales on Steam over its entire lifespan – which includes the two years it’s been available in Early Access.
With games like Palworld, Enshrouded, and Helldivers 2 selling millions of copies in just a week, this doesn’t sound all too impressive – but given that Against is Storm is part of what we’d call a niche genre compared to these titles, this is definitely a milestone worth celebrating for Hooded Horse and developer Eremite Games.
Eremite Games / Hooded Horse
Eremite co-founder Lukasz Korzanowski had a lot of praise for Steam as a platform in the press release accompanying this announcement: “We find it incredibly reassuring that even such a small and relatively unknown studio like ours can thrive on Steam. Treating players with respect and listening to their feedback has been an integral part of Against the Storm's success.”
Against the Storm has been a textbook example of an Early Access model done right: Eremite delivered an update to the game every two weeks on the clock, being very transparent with its community about which changes had been made based on player feedback. This approach is among the reasons for Against the Storm’s triumphant Early Access run and enabled the team to hit just the right formula as well as build up a very positive relationship with players.
Far from abandoning this attitude after launch, Eremite is still actively updating the game and brand-new content in the form of an expansion is planned for later in 2024.
When it comes to indie success stories, Against the Storm is a shining example of a creative idea executed to perfection with just the right attitude.
