On August 3rd, HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia was released on Steam. This is a complex tactical Tower Defense game about defending a flying fortress, and its main feature is that all of its code was written with the help of artificial intelligence. For its creator, Anton Chuev (also known as Tearevo), the development was a significant experiment, and he shared his initial results in a YouTube video.
HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia
To start, in the video, Chuev gave a brief reminder about the creation process of HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia. According to him, the development took a total of a thousand hours — the time he allocated for himself to understand if it was even possible to create a full-fledged PC strategy game alone, utilizing AI. As it turned out, it was indeed possible.
However, the release of HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia was not entirely smooth. Firstly, due to prolonged moderation in Steam, the game's release had to be postponed by five weeks. Secondly, just a few days after launch, the new game faced criticism from AI detractors, who in just a few hours dropped its rating to a “mixed” 55% and impacted the initial sales negatively.
Additionally, Chuev pointed out that the game's excessive difficulty and somewhat high price were additional pitfalls.
There were positive aspects, though. According to the developer, three days before release, the wishlists for HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia nearly doubled to 4.9 thousand, thanks to its inclusion in users' personal Steam calendars. As a result, on the debut day alone, he managed to sell 250 copies, and by the end of the week, 1.2 thousand copies. This resulted in $11.1 thousand in gross weekly revenue, or roughly $6 thousand net. He was also able to gradually improve the game’s rating, bringing it back to a “mostly positive” level by releasing patches and lowering the price.
Speaking about the price, Chuev admitted that he initially misjudged it due to ChatGPT. It recommended selling HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia for $14, but the developer set a slightly lower price at $11. Even so, gamers considered it overpriced, and Chuev ultimately had to reduce the game’s cost to $9. Later, due to the changed price, Steam recalculated the revenue for HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia, which also slightly dipped from $11.1 thousand to $9.5 thousand.
In any case, Chuev is satisfied with the experiment. He noted that the subscription costs for AI were recouped on the release day of HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia. If progress continues, the developer expects to fully cover all his labor costs in about a year. By his estimates, at the end of this period, the game’s revenue might reach $25 thousand, which is comparable to the salary for a thousand hours of work by a senior specialist.
We recommend watching the full video — it contains even more details, including the specifics of handling reviews for HEXSTORM: Tears of Arcadia and many other nuances. Also, we’d like to remind you about an interview with Chuev we released in April, where he talked in detail about creating his title.