I've written and said this intro to my game so much in the past few months and years, it almost happens automatically. Two and a half years have gone by way too fast. I still remember making the prototype and showing it to my wife. We both saw that it had potential, so I kept working on it.
And here we are. In a recent twitch stream, I was asked if the launch has "beaten my expectations". It's hard to say. My expectations were all over the place before launch. On the one hand, people said it's great, on the other I had people tearing into it, finding flaws and bugs. I knew the truth would come out on November 12th. Would it only get like 4 reviews? Or a thousand?
Well, I did see the wishlists in the backend. Based on that, I could pretty much forecast how it was going to do. And the forecast was on point. It sold a couple hundred units, and it now is sitting at 42 reviews. The meaning of life.
Did I try my best? I think so. I got a marketing person (shoutout to the great Flo) to help me out with press and influencer outreach, and he got people like Celerity, aliensrock, and Wanderbots on board. I got an artist last-minute to add 20 new angel cards (say hi to Lyfeu), with more art to come. I spent days and weeks going through how roguelike deckbuilders tick, playing games and taking notes, reading negative Steam reviews, and devouring books on game design and dopamine. I networked at Gamescom in 2024, Twitchcon EU 2025, Gamecity Vienna 2025, and Gamedev Days Graz 2025. I was part of mentorship programs both as mentor and mentee. I did regular playtests, had a Discord up, automated bug reporting, and an invaluable in-game feedback form.
The game was translated into the biggest languages on Steam, including Simplified Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, and German. With French, Swedish, Turkish, and Ukrainian still in development.
I talked to industry veterans, and freelanced for a big indie game, to learn the ins and outs. Talked about pricing the game, marketing, unlock mechanics, onboarding, tutorialization, mental tricks, but also about what to do when not working on games, when you're burnt out and need to take some time off.
Faith in Despair is not only a game to me, this is the start of something new. I have learned so much. And it seems like this is only the beginning.
So, has it beaten my expectations? Has it been a success? I would say, yes. If you compare it to any of my previous projects, Faith in Despair has blown them out of the water. It might not have gotten the same attention and fanbase as Halfquake, but it is a completely new IP that I've built from the ground up with no prior recognition or community. Sure, some Halfquake people tried it out and a few even enjoyed it, but ultimately it is a different target audience.
Faith in Despair has given me so much. A place in the local (and hopefully international) gamedev community. A reason to stream and find a community there. It is not just about numbers, but the experience. And for that, I'm truly grateful. It is a dream come true to work on a game like this that also gets that many positive reactions.
Only one question remains. What next?
I'm currently working on a content update, and I have plans to add a few more systems to the game (such as unlocks and different modes). This will likely take another year. At the end of all these updates, it's going to be released on consoles, where it hopefully will be received positively as well.
I would like to work on other games of course, maybe something with horror vibes. One thing's for sure, whatever I make next, it's definitely going to have more of my music.