A small game from Stuttgart has surprisingly become a success on Steam. At its peak, the €5 title “Halls of Torment” reached 26,005 players on Steam. The main reason for its success was the Twitch streamer Asmongold, who fell right into the developers’ trap. Because Halls of Torment combines the addictive gameplay of “Vampire Survivors” with players’ nostalgic feelings for Diablo: and Asmongold perfectly represents the target audience they wanted to reach.
What kind of game is this?
- “Halls of Torment” is a variant of “Vampire Survivors.”
- The player controls a hero, while enemies relentlessly rush towards them, and the player must fend them off by shooting wildly. The player determines the hero’s weapons and skills by leveling up the hero. The genre designation is “Roguelike Shoot’em Up”. It involves looting, shooting, and leveling up.
- “Halls of Torment” was developed by a team in Stuttgart, Chasing Carrots, and was designed to reach players who enjoy Diablo. They wanted to capitalize fully on the hype that Blizzard would create for Diablo 4 in the summer of 2023: Halls of Torment was released on May 24 – Diablo 4 on June 5.
Twitch Streamer Shows the Game to 21,000 Viewers
What was the breakthrough? The Twitch streamer Asmongold discovered the game in July 2023 and played it live for 13 hours, averaging 21,282 viewers.
Other major streamers like LIRIK, Sodapoppin, and the German channel Bonjwa also started to take notice of the game.
This led to player numbers for the title increasing by 450% in July 2023, peaking at 26,000 viewers. Apparently, many who discovered the game through the Twitch streamers liked what they saw, as the reviews for “Halls of Torment” on Steam currently show an excellent 96% positive rating.
Although the hype was not sustainable and player numbers have now settled at around 900 players online on average, this “second spring” triggered by Asmongold was a welcome windfall for the studio.
Team Capitalized on the Hype Blizzard Created for Diablo 4
What does the developer say about it? In a podcast (via okcool), the mastermind behind the game, Paul Lawitzki, spoke quite calmly about the hype: Before “Vampire Survivors,” the team had worked for years on the simulation “Good Company,” which did not sell well and required a lot of effort:
- Good Company had an absolute peak of 199.7 players on average and 1,222 players online at peak times on Steam.
- Halls of Torment had an average peak of 8,264.6 players and 26,005 players online at peak times on Steam.
The studio lost numerous employees for various reasons during the development of Good Company, was financially on the brink, and had to take on contract work. Lawitzki was not happy about that at all.
Ultimately, they recognized the opportunity to develop a “Vampire Survivors” clone with minimal effort. Even though Lawitzki was initially resistant because he distrusted such a “current hype game,” he realized the fascination of the gameplay and “swallowed his pride.” Ultimately, they wanted to create something that would generate some revenue.
They then specifically tried to steer their version of “Vampire Survivors” towards Diablo and play with the fact that fans were eager for “more Diablo,” that there were few alternatives available, and that Blizzard was stoking the desire further. Already in October 2021, Lawitzki recognized the opportunity to profit from the players’ hunger for Diablo:
“I saw a preview of Diablo 4 the year before, and then […] I thought: Ah, I would love to play Diablo now, but Diablo hasn’t been released yet and won’t be for a long time. What happened then? I started playing Path of Exile. I looked for a substitute. And then I thought: I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way. We can use that to our advantage.”
It seems that this worked perfectly. At the moment Asmongold, the “typical Blizzard player,” talked about Halls of Torment on stream, played it later, and enjoyed it, it was clear that they had something special.
Just one YouTube video, showing Asmongold playing “Halls of Torment” and titled “This Game Changed My Life,” reached 1.3 million views. That’s an audience and advertisement for the game that is priceless.
Halls of Torment costs €5 on Steam and is currently in Early Access.
More about the game’s inspiration: Indie game for €2.39 conquers Steam with vampires, looting, and leveling – 99% positive reviews
