I Played a Video Game About a Dungeon in Purgatory Filled With Nihilistic Adventurers and Then I Wrote This Article
For the last nine years or so, Damien Crawford has been making games they don’t think people would want to play.
Crawford is the sole developer and head of Cannibal Interactive. They’ve made over 20 games through the label, most of which have been released primarily on itch.io. They came to game development after several years of struggling to fit into other jobs such as fast food and mundane government work. A relationship falling through and a need to cut loose from parental support eventually pushed them to try something new.
“I thought if I failed the safe path, then what do I want to do? And so I started making games.”
Their first project, Legend of Moros, took two and a half years, and did not do well – not even $100 in release day sales. So, on another contrarian whim, Crawford spent a month making a game they thought no one would want to play; an “atrocious” (their words) RPG where 99 characters band together in a single fight, all piled in on one side against the enemy. In addition to the absurd gameplay, Mighty 99 had a “horrible memory leak issue” that made it impossible to get through three full turns.
But, to Crawford’s astonishment, something fascinating happened.
“It got feedback, most of it negative, but people were playing it. And they were detailed notes sometimes!”
Instead of no one playing a game they thought people would want to play, people were playing Mighty 99 – even if they didn’t like it. But that was enough for Crawford. They revamped Mighty 99 into a more playable version entitled “I Have Low Stats But My Class Is ‘Leader,’ So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord,” and then kept making more games like it. Games with tons of characters, unwinnable scenarios, and humorously lengthy
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