Game On: Exclusive talk with ‘Caves of Lore’ creator Michael Robins

Robins says feedback to game exceeded his expectations

For a bonus edition of "Game On" this week, The Fly spoke with Michael Robins, the sole creator of indie tactical role-playing game "Caves of Lore," which launched on Steam last month to very positive user reviews. In the exclusive interview, Robins discusses the reception to "Caves of Lore," the challenges of indie game development, and more. Robins developed and self-published "Caves of Lore" through Red Plume LLC.

‘CAVES OF LORE’: Though "Caves of Lore" has not received very many critical reviews from traditional media outlets, 98% of users on Steam who have reviewed the title gave it a positive rating. "The feedback actually has exceeded my expectations by a lot," Robins said. "There seems to have been a gap in time [for games like ‘Caves of Lore’]. You got them a lot in the 80s and 90s. There are a lot of retro games, and a lot of pixel art, but not many that capture the same feel. I get emails every day from people thanking me for making this game, which just shocks me! I hit a nostalgia that was waiting to be capitalized on, and no one had done anything in that area for a while. So in terms of responses, it’s been amazing.”

“The whole release process has been a little overwhelming for me," he added. "I went from being someone who just gets off work and puts in an hour on this hobby to launching this. I had a few playtesters, and it went from three playtesters to 1,000 playtesters in a very short time, and that revealed issues I hadn’t seen before. Things were hectic before launch; I was working to fix things, keep people happy.”

Robins noted that he’s not running a complete game studio, that "Caves of Lore" was made with "just me and my home computer," though sales seem to be doing well. “I’ve sold a couple thousand [units]. That’s really great, but it’s really inconsistent," he told The Fly. "[Indie game streamer] Splattercat picked up on it, and then my sales shot up. Since then, they’ve been drifting back down from the peak. In terms of marketing, I haven’t really done any, mostly because I don’t know what to do. My wife and I are looking more into in the coming weeks: how do we market this effectively? Where do we go?”

STEAM: Thousands of games are added to Steam each year, from companies big and small. When asked how he made a game like "Caves of Lore" stand out from the pack, Robins said he just promoted the game on other social media sites and even managed to gain traction through the wishlisting feature. “If you go to Steam and search for ‘tactical RPG,’ or ‘lore-rich’… my game is at the bottom of like 2,000 games," he said. "There is so much to filter through, and that’s one of the challenges I’m facing now. How do I let people know that I even exist? I did have some wishlists [on Steam] because I was showing off some of the pixel art on Reddit, and that got me enough early on for Steam to put me on their trending page. I’m not sure if that’s how Splattercat got a hold of it, but it got some traction early on.”

INDIE DEVELOPMENT: When asked about the particular development challenges he experienced, Robins said it’s difficult to make an RPG that doesn’t just look like a clone of many other games. "One of the challenges was: how do I make a game that just feels different? I started with things I loved when I was a kid and what I love now, and blend those things together [in a new way]," he said. "I started with my all-time favorites – ‘Ultima VI,’ ‘Buck Rogers’ – I loved that genre with the strategy and role-playing aspects, and I wanted ‘Caves of Lore’ to have what those games didn’t have, such as animations and a progressive storyline, almost like ‘Final Fantasy.’ I just took what I thought was the best of each of these.”

OTHER PLATFORMS: Though the game is only currently available on PC through Steam and has a GOG version on the way, Robins said other platforms are "absolutely" on his mind, and that he first has to figure out controller support so the game could even work on consoles such as PlayStation (SONY), Xbox (MSFT), or the Nintendo Switch (NTDOY). "I just ordered my SteamDeck, and when that comes, I’ll be implementing controller support," he said. "Players want the feeling like they’re playing on the Nintendo Switch, so controller support is the first step towards something like that. Once that’s in, I’ll absolutely be going to all the platform holders as soon as I can. In fact, controller support is one of the big barriers right now, because when it’s a touchscreen game or mouse-and-keyboard game, that’s not going to translate well to other platforms. But this controller support is pretty integral to diversifying who can access the game.”

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STREAMING: When asked if he would consider making a cloud version of "Caves of Lore" that could potentially work on a platform such as Amazon Luna (AMZN) or Xbox Cloud Gaming, Robins said that it’s something he hasn’t even considered, but he’ll potentially look into it.

"Game On" is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.

Keywords: video games, game on, nintendo switch, steam, steamdeck, xbox, playstation, streaming