7 years and 35,000 wishlists later, one of Steam's most popular city-builder demos failed miserably enough at Early Access for its creator to question everything: "None of this means we were owed anything"

A screenshot from the game Generation Exile shows a woman smiling in a character creator

(Image credit: Sonderlust Studios)

To deliver the platitude "this is a tough time in game development" is to attempt to patch a sinking boat with chewing gum – it's not nearly enough to convey the seriousness of reckless studio closures, layoffs, and widespread cancellations. Then, there are more mundane tortures, too, like getting anyone to care if your game exists in the first place.

This is the kind of tough time in game development Sonderlust studio founder Nels Anderson is currently getting to know, as the developer explains in a series of posts on Bluesky and Reddit. Even after years of what seemed to be hype, his sustainable city-builder Generation Exile failed. Badly.

"To be clear, this was not on purpose and it's not a good thing!" he says. "But the options now are either goofery or my psyche splinters into a thousands pieces and I expire, so…"

A screenshot shows Generation Exile gameplay — (Image credit: Sonderlust Studios)

A few things went wrong with Generation Exile, which is out now in Early Access. Actually, Early Access might be one of the problems – Anderson says in his post-mortem on Reddit that players might now have "huge skepticism around Early Access, in a way there didn’t used to be."

"Obviously if you're an intensely known quantity (Larian + BG3, Hades II, etc.) or you're making something that's quite recognisable as 'it's {popular thing} but slightly different,' then sure, you'll be fine," says Anderson. "But if that's not where you're starting from, woof."

Though, he admits on Bluesky that Generation Exile – a vibrant turn-based builder set during the edge of societal collapse – might have suffered from poor packaging, particularly, in the form of a confusing game trailer. He promises to make a new one.

"None of this means we were owed anything," Anderson tells Reddit about Generation Exile's once seemingly positive trajectory. "But at least hypothetically, these are the indicators that one is supposed to be monitoring to see if your game is tracking towards something that will connect with folks."

"I genuinely don't think this is a 'well everyone thinks their own baby is cute' situation," he bargains. "I think we can say that at the very least GenExile isn't significantly below average in terms of quality, presentation and depth compared to other Early Access titles we've played, both recently and further in the past."

I don't know, I don't think "quality" is the problem. Truthfully, I've been having the same reaction to all bad video game news recently. It's not as in-depth as Anderson gets, but it feels true to categorize our place in history this way: unlucky.

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