Why was 1000xResist’s best sales day 7 months after launch? ‘Do not participate in The Game Awards,’ says developer

Narrative RPG 1000x resistance became a critical darling when it released in May 2024, but like so many other great indie games it didn’t get any flowers at the Game Awards in December. But since the TGA nominees were announced, there has been a buzz around the game, according to founder and creative director of Sunset attendee 斜陽過客 Remy Siu. Now Siu reports that the game’s all-time highest sales day was January 2, 2025, almost exactly seven months after the game was released.

According to Siu, the buzz is mainly due to anger over the voting system for excluding the title from nominations.

“I was on a plane flying back home – after my first holiday in four years – and I bought internet on the plane to watch the Game Award nomination announcements. Unfortunately we have not been 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 that they were angry that we weren’t there.”

Siu said the game’s off-sale residual rate, also known as its sales rate under normal conditions, rose slightly after the nominations, which were announced in August. A slew of fall sales in September, October and November meant more wishlists and more purchases, and Siu said the Game Awards on December 12 sparked a new reactionary conversation 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 lower sales overall by then. “You have to remember that 1000xRESISTANCE is a weird, experimental narrative game without traditional gameplay, that talks about things most games don’t talk about – and we wanted to keep a lot of things secret.”

Siu said the game’s release and reception journey taught him about the value of post-launch marketing, but that mishap may have been worth the risk of keeping the game’s secrets, well, secret. “I think we always knew that if we could have an engaging experience, it would come down to word of mouth. That people should discover it over time,” he said. And that’s exactly what happened.

It’s a rare but encouraging success story that underlines 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-tuned to make these kinds of experiences possible.” to make, from what I can tell.”

Siu attributes several factors to the game’s recent sales surge: the right timing of the industry shift to Bluesky, Steam deals and giveaway collaborations with other indie developers, getting mentions on Best of the Year lists like ours, and collaborations with other games like Balatro. But, Siu theorized, not being in The Game Awards, and the response from fans who truly understood the game, was an unexpected blessing.

“I hope that word of mouth will continue to allow more people to discover the game,” Siu said. “I think there’s now enough evidence that it really works, which will allow us to make more games in the future.”