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This years' Summer Game Fest has come to an end, and among some of the bigger reveals, like Resident Evil 9, or an absolute bait-and-switch around Hollow Knight: Silksong, was a focus on games made by smaller teams, or first-time devs showing off their debuts. and while two of those didn't really feature at the show itself, they were breakout hits that got a massive nod right at the top of the broadcast.
In a list of the most-played Steam games of the year, two particular titles stood out, if nothing else than for the fact that their art was somewhat more simple than the AAA offerings they sat alongside.
Those two games were REPO, which Geoff Keighley says has amassed 13 million players, and Schedule 1, the drug dealing simulator that has a touch of the old-school GTA and a touch of the tycoon game to its retro-ish art designs. For these two games, made with deliberately simple art by small indie teams, to be standing alongside some of the genuine heavyweights that have released this year, is genuinely very impressive.
That's something their devs have acknowledged themselves. REPO's devs say they went "from crossing [their] fingers for rent to having millions of players." Schedule 1's had a tougher time, one slightly marred by legal difficulties that its team seemed to want very little part in, but it's still been a runaway success. Granted, a name-drop from Geoff Keighley isn't a huge achievement in and of itself, but to get his attention by beating some of the world's biggest publishers and studios into the top ten most-played games of the year is very impressive.
Keep all the way up to date with our Summer Game Fest schedule.
