Rematch has proved to be a runaway success for developer Sloclap, far surpassing even the impressive result of its previous game, Sifu. With those two hits under its belt, Sloclap has been able to grow substantially – but its director doesn't want to get any bigger.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Rematch director Pierre Tarno says that Sifu's success "allowed us to consolidate as a studio." Sloclap's expansion – from around 70 employees to 130 – was funded almost directly by Sifu, which recently passed the sales milestone of four million copies sold. Rematch has surpassed that figure already, but Tarno says there's no chance Sloclap goes through a similar expansion this time.
"We will probably keep growing a little," he says, but it won't be anything like as "drastic a change as what happened between Sifu and Rematch."
"We don't feel the need to grow further," he explains. "We don't want to make projects that require teams of 250 devs to function. We want to still be able to take creative risks. And that means limiting the scope of your projects. That's what the big studios do, right?"
"The projects could cost $50-100 million, and then it's more difficult to take risks." With tens of millions on the line and dev times stretching beyond five years for many of the world's biggest studios, a creative risk that doesn't pay off can be potentially devastating. By contrast, a project like Rematch – arguably a creative risk in and of itself – "allows us to keep proceeding with the plan, consolidate, and make sure that we're able to continue making great games."
It's that, Tarno suggests, that's the biggest challenge. "In our industry, in this environment, staying alive is already an objective and an achievement." Sloclap, he says, is simply "very happy to be able to keep operating. If you can both keep operating and make games that you're passionate about, that's as much as we can hope for."
