We continue to wrap up the year 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams. Up next is an interview with the representatives of Door 407, the studio's founders Oleg Sakharov and Andrey Belousov, as well as its marketing director, Stas Ignatov.
How has the year been for the studio? What achievements would you like to highlight?
The year has been incredibly productive.
First and foremost, we officially launched Diplomacy is Not an Option out of early access. Sales for the release month alone exceeded one hundred thousand copies, and the total number of wishlists since the project's inception surpassed one million. We received a high rating on Metacritic, and our recent Steam rating is 93%. Players and influencers have embraced the game warmly; they eagerly awaited this release and a full-fledged story campaign.
Diplomacy is Not an Option
Secondly, we announced another project that was developed concurrently with Diplomacy is Not an Option. This is Abra-Cooking-Dabra—a very cozy deck-building game about cooking in a Victorian setting. We plan to launch it in the first half of next year. This game is not yet widely known to the general public, which we hope to change as soon as possible.
Abra-Cooking-Dabra
How do you see the situation changing in the gaming market?
Globally, the industry continues the trend of increasing the number of projects released on PC, making it harder each year to capture player attention. Developers now have to be even more active in marketing, have a better understanding of trends and how online stores work, and collaborate with each other—in essence, run twice as fast just to stay in place. Fortunately, the right approach and a stroke of luck pay off these endeavors.
We are currently placing much emphasis on collaboration—organizing bundles and cross-promotions on social media with other studios and planning deeper integrations with other similar games. This is a great lever for boosting sales, and we are noticing that this positively affects Steam algorithms, especially regarding visibility in the similar games section.
Don’t overlook this—it yields results. And if you have ideas or just a desire to try something for your own games, let us know, and we can brainstorm together.
How has the year been for the genre in which you work?
Rumors of the demise of the real-time strategy genre have always been greatly exaggerated.
The phenomenal success of Manor Lords or Against the Storm shows that strategy is a genre that still has a lot to offer today. This is not an overcrowded niche. It’s clear to us that people are interested in new games in this genre.
Manor Lords
And this is despite the fact such games have a long lifespan. It’s easy to see this by looking at the online presence of strategy games released five or even twenty years ago, often surpassing the online numbers of fresh releases in other genres.
We see that working in this niche is the right path.
What trends do you anticipate strengthening or emerging in your niche in 2025?
Developers are actively seeking ways to successfully introduce new mechanics into an established genre. Some are making such attempts right now, and we are not sitting idly either. It does not seem like this tendency is waning.
Teams will also continue to work on enhancing replayability. This is unsurprising, as for the current indie segment, high online presence is one of the keys to success.
What are the studio's plans for next year?
Ambitious. We have several significant updates planned for Diplomacy is Not an Option, including a map editor. Additionally, we will continue our ongoing efforts to improve what already exists.
We also hope for a successful launch of Abra-Cooking-Dabra.
Beyond that, we have several important announcements planned, which we cannot discuss just yet. Strategy enthusiasts, get ready!