An indie developer released his game on Steam, 3 years later he was bankrupt – but not because it had not been successful.
Who is this developer? This is Alex Mochi, founder of Dapper Penguin Studios and lead developer of the economic simulation Rise of Industry as well as the management game Recipe for Disaster.
Mochi opened his studio in 2015, 4 years later, his first own game Rise of Industry was released on Steam. But just 3 years after release, he was bankrupt, burned out – and sold his IP for only 5,000 euros, as he now explains in a clip on TikTok.
Here you see a trailer for Rise of Industry:
Developer bankrupt, although his game was successful
How did this bankruptcy happen? It was not due to a lack of success, Mochi says. On the contrary: Rise of Industry generated 4 million euros and was prominently featured several times on the Steam shop’s front page.
The lead developer claims that “the part that no indie wants to talk about” was his downfall:
“It was the deals, the margins, and the cost of running a studio.”
On the one hand, there is Steam: The platform takes a 30 percent cut per sold unit of a game – a “massive cut,” the developer explains. Refunds cost developers even more. Online retailers selling keys at bargain prices are also a problem.
“Then you have taxes, contractors, payment delays, and publisher deals that you didn’t push back on because you were too f****** naive!”
A longer video on the topic has been uploaded by Alex Mochi on his YouTube channel.
Rise of Industry 2 is no longer from Mochi and Dapper Penguin Studios. Publisher Kasedo Games had it developed by SomaSim. The sequel was released on June 3, 2025, but on Steam, it is currently rated “mixed.” In contrast, the original has a rating of “mostly positive” on Steam.
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