On Steam, smaller games often achieve great success. This surprises many indie developers, as they cannot imagine that so many people would buy their game. For one, it was even more unimaginable because he comes from a small village.
What game is it? After Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot was in Early Access on Steam since August 17, 2023, the full version was released on January 22, 2026. The game is an auto-battler featuring dwarves. Before a battle, you prepare your warriors, give them items, and then send them into an automated fight.
Additionally, there are roguelike elements and decisions between battles that affect how your dwarf army evolves. This is not only well received in the ratings on Steam (82% positive reviews out of over 2,300 reviews), but is also reflected in sales figures, as the developer reveals in an interview. This completely overwhelmed him, as he lives in a small village.
It was just a gradual progress
How well did the game sell? Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot is from the developer Hamma Studios and is their first game on Steam. It is partly published by Sidekick Publishing, the publishing label of the German Twitch streamer HandofBlood. In an interview on YouTube, Rafa, the CEO and developer of Hamma Studios, stated that the game has sold over 250,000 copies on Steam. Videos from HandOfBlood probably helped as well.
For him, this is completely unimaginable, as he has no comparisons. In the first month of Early Access, the game reached 30,000 players, according to the developer, and the number steadily increased over the following months and years. He can’t even comprehend the current number. It just kept getting better, and more and more players joined … I mean, that’s insane. I don’t think I realized it, but it was just a gradual progress.
He comes from a village with only 1,000 inhabitants. For him, even these 1,000 people are too many
, because he cannot know them all. Therefore, a number of 250,000 people is completely unimaginable for him. According to his x-account, he now lives in a larger city.
What’s next for him? Before his big success, it never occurred to him to pursue a career as a game developer. However, he has been developing games full-time for a year now.
Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot is not at its end, according to the interview. The developer has built a season system into the game and wants to release a new season with balance updates and maybe new items approximately every six months. In the game, about 3 new items would be enough to create many new combinations. A DLC is also expected to be released in the future.
Additionally, he is working on another game. The developer Steam page already lists Dwarves: Idle Battles as a future release.
Dwarves: Glory, Death and Loot is therefore a positive example of a small game that has benefited from Early Access and has thus developed an organic sales trajectory. Also, so-called friendslop games regularly achieve success on Steam: Chaotic game sells 500,000 copies on Steam, provides wild action with your friends
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