Narrative role play 1000xResist became a critics' darling when it released in May 2024 – but like so many other great indie games, it didn't receive the flowers at the Game Awards in December. However, according to Sunset visitor Remy Siu, the founder and creative director of 斜陽過客, a lot of excitement has been building for the game since the nominees for the TGAs were announced. Now, Siu reports that the game's highest sales day ever was January 2, 2025, almost exactly seven months after release.
Mainly, says Siu, the excitement was due to anger at the voting machine, which excluded the title from the nominations.
“I was on the plane on the way home – after my first vacation in four years – and I was buying internet on the plane to watch the announcement of the Game Award nominations. Unfortunately we weren't nominated for anything. I was a little sad about it, but thought, yeah – that makes sense, we're a little experimental game,” Siu told me in a Bluesky message. “But almost immediately after the announcements, people started posting how upset they were that we weren’t included.”
Siu said the game's “off-sale resting rate,” or sales rate under normal conditions, increased slightly following nominations announced in August. A series of fall sales in September, October and November meant more wishlists and more purchases, and Siu said the Dec. 12 Game Awards sparked further reactionary discussion about the game. The last domino to fall? The game's win for Narrative Game at the first-ever Indie Game Awards.
“Sales numbers were not bad before January 1,” Siu said, clarifying that developers expected fewer sales overall at that point. “You have to think about that 1000xRESISTANCE is a strange, experimental narrative game with no traditional gameplay that talks about things most games don't talk about – and also we wanted to keep a lot of things secret.”
Siu said the game's release and reception development taught him the value of post-launch marketing, but that mishap was worth the risk to keep the game's secrets, well, secret. “I think we always knew that if we were going to be able to create an immersive enough experience, it would come down to word of mouth. That people would have to discover it over time,” he said. And that's exactly what happened.
It's a rare but encouraging success story that underscores the power of the indie community and decentralized forms of marketing like word of mouth – despite Siu's claim that “the indie game distribution apparatus isn't always well-equipped to facilitate these types of experiences.” “. what I can say.”
Siu attributes several factors to the game's recent surge in sales – the opportune timing of the industry's shift to Bluesky, Steam deals and giveaway collaborations with other indie developers, mentions on best-of-the-year lists like ours and Collaborations with other games like Balatro. But, Siu surmised, not attending the Game Awards and the response from fans who really understood the game was an unexpected blessing.
“I hope word of mouth continues to allow more people to discover the game,” Siu said. “I think there is enough evidence now that it really works and will allow us to develop more games in the future.”
