Devs of Colony Ship and Age of Decadence With Problems. Youtuber Comes to Rescue
Iron Tower studio released a brilliant RPG. Still, Colony Ship isn't doing well enough to guarantee a peaceful future for the studio.
Not every turn-based RPG can be as successful as Baldur's Gate 3. For the Iron Tower studio, Colony Ship may turn out to be the last game - unless the support of a popular influencer helps.
Vince D. Weller, the lead designer of the team, has long been sharing grim news about the financial condition of the studio (via Warlockracy on X). More than a year ago, the dev said that CS might be his team's last project. Not even because its sales turned out worse than expected.
The problem is that the studio's previous game - Age of Decadence - didn't find enough buyers. Consequently, as Weller recently noted, the team had to provide the funds themselves to cover half of the production budget for Colony Ship, and gradually abandoned further ideas just to finish the title (via Steam / Core RPG). Weller wrote equally "optimistic" about the studio's situation in recent weeks on the official Iron Tower forum.
Fortunately, CS is doing much better than AoD in every respect - but it's not enough for the team to start thinking about a sequel. Even with the support of the community through Patreon or Kickstarter. Therefore, as Weller wrote, by the end of 2024 Iron Tower will focus on the development of Colony Ship. Perhaps by then the situation will improve - if the developers are lucky. Or they will receive help of another kind.
Youtuber to the rescue?
Two YouTubers: Warlockracy and Mandalore Gaming didn't like the news about the problems of Iron Tower Studios (some even mention the possibility of closing the studio). Mandalore in his post implied (via X) that he will prepare a material dedicated to Colony Ship and Weller expressed cautious enthusiasm on Steam about the possible impact of this project on the studio's situation.
The developers directly stated that Mandalore is considered as "one of the most influential figures" in the realm of tactical RPGs (his YouTube channel boasts over 874 thousand subscribers). As Weller put it, if this YouTuber's video doesn't help Colony Ship, there's no hope for the game.
Colony Ship was released on the market in November 2023 and soon gained the appreciation of players (we rated the game 8/10). Despite this, since then, the title has been rated by just over 2,000 Steam users.
