Hey folks, Ariano here, the solo developer and creator of Craftlings. I am writing to you in my own name to give you some heads-up on things going on with the game right now.
I would like to start and recap what happened so far and how grateful I am to be here, despite the fact that certain things did not always go optimal in the past.
To be honest, it has been an incredible journey for me in the last 3 years! Full of emotions, ups and downs, with big opportunities and wins and also some heavy crisis and doubts – all needed for great learning and boosting my XP level!
Craftlings is my first Steam project. It started as a hobby during my parental leave back in 2022 when my kid was in kindergarten. Of course, I have dreamed about building something which could sustain my life as solo developer – who is not? But as I said, it was just a dream at that point.
In January 2023 I should go back to work, and before that I wanted to release a demo and see what you think about the game in its current state.
From this moment, plenty of things have changed… I got laid off, but the demo got some great attention. It was even streamed by a big German streamer, Gronkh, to 28.5k viewers!
I gathered a few thousand wishlists in just a few months and had to make an important decision – what to do next?
On the one hand, I was forced to secure my family financially – as simple as quickly getting a job would do this! On the other hand, I wanted to continue working on Craftlings. I felt that with family duties I could not do both in parallel.
After a longer discussion with my wife, we decided I should stay at home and continue working on Craftlings – The Settlings at that moment, for those who still remember the old working title :)
With some savings and a limited amount of money for living, I should try to secure some funding and find a way to build the game. I guess it was quite naive to believe that I could do this, having just a few thousand wishlists and some traction on Twitter, but I had to try it. I felt that life was telling me I have to go for it!
While working on new versions of the game and constantly updating the demo based on your feedback in 2023 and 2024, I also put a lot of effort into marketing. I was quite active on Twitter and also ran paid ads with really limited money on different platforms, trying to find a way to simply just get seen. This effort and the additional time spent on building relationships with influencers and participating in several Steam events helped quickly to reach over 50k wishlists.
The momentum was there, publishers started knocking on the door. Next to the game development and marketing work, I also started a series of workshops on how to create and run a company in the game industry in Germany. This was an additional and necessary thing in my eyes that I had to do to increase my chances for sustainable success and also protect myself from making simple mistakes, since I am not a native German speaker and not a German citizen.
Still with limited money for living but with huge hopes for the future, I started talking to several publishers. During this time, in the negotiations, I learned a lot about how the game industry actually works and what my position is in the hierarchy. I learned how fast some scouts can get excited about the game after seeing a big YouTuber playing the demo and how the excitement diminishes once you start talking about concrete steps, needs, deadlines, and scope!
I was incredibly lucky that I even had the chance to go through it, and in the end I secured a deal which gave not only the desired financial security for plenty of months but also some extra resources for additional work on audio & visuals and a significant marketing budget!
This changed my life. I was optimistic, and I met great people who helped me bring Craftlings to a new visual level, with Milan and Dubi from Croatia putting their hearts into improving the look and feel of the game – thank you guys for your hard work!
I had financial security and could focus only on game development, leaving a game with 85k wishlists to a team of professionals who would lift it even higher! And I did it – I thought that if I worked hard, stayed transparent, and was a good team player, with a game that had strong momentum on social media and an easy-to-understand, strong marketing hook – everything would be good, right?
And things changed again... The publishing contract was terminated. I am not allowed to talk about anything what happened, what was inside the contract, what the consequences are for me, how the cooperation went, what I did, what they did — absolutely nothing...
I was aware of the fact that a sudden termination can happen while signing the contract, but my initial optimism, need for financial security and the great marketing performance of Craftlings that I achieved with limited money in 2023 and 2024 completely covered the fear this might ever happen.
Unfortunately I was wrong and my life changed again in just a matter of days. I lost my financial security; I now have an unfinished game.
Why did it happen? I really don’t know, but at that point it doesn’t even matter anymore! The world is moving fast, things change all the time, and the whole publisher story is already past. I want to look ahead and find paths to bring a great game to you. I don’t want to disappoint the 125k of you who wish the game will release at some point soon! So now I have to answer the question again: what to do next?
And I can promise you that I will do my best to find a way to finish and release Craftlings soon. I just need some time to create a plan. I have to wear multiple hats again, find alternative paths for going forward, estimate personal risks, design the final scope, implement missing parts and — last but not least — recharge my human batteries.
Believe it or not, as grateful as I am for everything that happened to me and to the game (I have probably reached more than most starting indie developers dream of), it cost me a few hit points and I need them back to be able to finish and release the game.
So if you want to help, do not turn away from Craftlings — have some understanding of my current situation and the short break I need now, and give me a 💙 or whatever you want to share with me in the comments.
Thank you for being here, for reading this, and for your patience!
Coming back to you soon,
Ariano – an independent game developer