Solo indie dev behind hit city builder says devs should have more room for failure because “your first game always fails” and “their 10th game might be the next AAA studio”

Tomas Sala, the solo developer behind hit city builder Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles, wants indie devs to have a little more room for failure.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Sala was asked to comment on the difficulty indie developers face building financially viable games and studios, specifically with regards to Steam’s infamous 30% tax it charges developers, which Sala previously decried as a “relic” that “needs to go down”. 

This time around, Sala spoke more broadly about how the video game industry can support indie developers, saying “it’s a given” that their first games fail commercially.

“We should add more pathways to make people learn where they can have a failure, because the developer that’s failed at one game will make the second game [that’s] better, and the third way will be even better, and their 10th game might be the next AAA studio.”

Sala also made the case that major platforms “like Valve or Xbox” should invest more in indie developers because they won’t have to rely as much on existing IP to drive business and so “there’s something new in 20 years. If people like me die out, and it’s all Fortnite for now, for 20 years, at some point, that’s going to impact the big guys as well, because there’s no cheap talent anymore, there’s not people coming in because they’re not learning the trade, they’re not learning how to tell stories.”

Taking place in the same universe as Sala’s previous release, 2020’s The Falconeer, but switching genres from aerial combat game to city builder, Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles launched back in March and currently has more than 700 Steam reviews, 81% of which are positive.

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