From AAA to Indie: 2.5 Years of Building My Own Game

[p]Hey everyone! I'm the developer of XenoHaven, our upcoming sandbox survival RPG. The free demo will launch on October 13th as part of Steam Next Fest, and if the game looks interesting, it would mean the world if you added it to your wishlist![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]For today's devlog, I want to share a bit of my personal journey and how our small team came together. If you'd like to watch the full video version, you can check it out here [/p][p] [/p][p]A few years ago, I was working at a big-name gaming company. On paper, it was a great job—but the longer I stayed, the more I felt like I wasn't making the kind of games I truly loved. Eventually, I made the risky decision to leave, and together with a few like-minded friends, we founded our own tiny studio to create what would become XenoHaven.[/p][p][/p][p]From the start, I knew I wanted to build a survival game inspired by titles like Necesse. Colony sim + survival crafting has always been my favorite genre, so it became the foundation of our project.[/p][p][/p][p]But not everything went smoothly. In early 2023, right when Vampire Survivors was making waves, we experimented with adding roguelike card-drafting elements to the game. It was fun at first, but after a while, it felt repetitive and clunky—especially when you already had powerful weapons, but still had to manage endless buff choices. Eventually, we scrapped the system.[/p][p][/p][p]We also tried a "living world" feature, where factions would rise, fall, ally, or wage wars dynamically across the map. It sounded ambitious on paper, but in reality, it was far too complex for a small indie team. The AI commands multiplied endlessly, the bugs kept piling up, and player experience suffered.[/p][p][/p][p]So we took a step back and re-focused on what we could build well. That's how we doubled down on the weapon system: bosses drop unique weapons and crafting materials, players can forge advanced gear, and upgrades keep the gameplay loop fresh and rewarding. It became the core identity of XenoHaven—a system we can expand on sustainably, without burning out.[/p][p][/p][p]Looking back, so many of our early decisions could have sunk the project. Sometimes it felt like we were one wrong step away from shutting the studio down. But we kept going, adjusted our vision, and slowly carved out the version of the game you'll be able to play in the demo.[/p][p] [/p][p]If you'd like to hear more about our development journey, let me know—we've got plenty of stories to share. And don't forget: XenoHaven's free demo will be live during Steam Next Fest in October. Please give it a try, and if you enjoy it, adding the game to your wishlist would be an incredible support for our small team.[/p]