Game development has never once been easy, but it isn't always as karmically vicious as the story of Katanaut, a cosmic horror-flavored action game with a Roguevania pitch similar to Dead Cells. Released by solo developer Eugene of studio Voidmaw after more than three years of work, the "Metroidvania-inspired action roguelite" launched on Steam on September 10, on the heels of Metroidvania giant Hollow Knight: Silksong and ahead of the 1.0 release of roguelike hotness Hades 2. This, you may struggle to believe, was hard going.
Eugene says Katanaut averaged 11 peak players at launch despite 52,000 Steam wishlists indicating solid interest in the game. He describes the game as "a little mixture of Katana Zero and Dead Cells," so it's not hard to see the appeal. Steam user reviews have been strong, too, at 91% positive so far. But – not unusually, as wishlists typically convert at a very low ratio – far fewer than 52,000 people turned up.
In a viral Twitter post sharing the bittersweet news – game released, yay; game largely undiscovered, oh – Eugene revisits the timing of Katanaut's launch. Asked why the heck you'd release a Metroidvania-inspired roguelike between titans of both genres, he said "I had zero awareness that they were dropping" at all.
"I announced my release date at gamescom, which a lot of time and funding went into," the dev explained. "Also a massive handful of press releases and embargos were committed to as well. Silksong ended up announcing their release the next day."
"Why didn't you delay it?" asked – checks notes – Geralt of Goonia. Eugene explained that "when you commit to a launch date in Steam, you cannot change your launch date when you're within a couple weeks of your release. So if a big game decides to shadow drop within those weeks, and you're a no-name person like me, buckle up."
Silksong's abrupt release date reveal, in particular, led to many delays and occasionally rubbed some folks the wrong way, with Hell is Us creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête reckoning it was "a little callous" to all but shadow drop what's been called "the GTA 6 of indie." As the jam-packed lineup of 2025 has so thoroughly demonstrated, you're rarely more than a few days or weeks away from a massive game of some kind no matter where you launch, so it can be a hard needle to thread, though some have done it.
While competition can hurt, thousands of Steam releases get buried every year, and not just because a Silksong or a Hades 2 came out. That said, it feels like very few games fighting for attention between September's hotly anticipated Metroidvania and roguelike combo were literally Metroidvania-inspired roguelikes. You've almost got to admire the way the planets aligned after more than three years of work on Katanaut.
Another Twitter user asked Eugene if he finds it "unfair of [Team Cherry] to keep their fans in the dark, and also make it nearly impossible for smaller indie devs to schedule their launch dates so it doesn't get overshadowed."
Weighing in on Silksong specifically, Eugene says that "as a huge fan of [Team Cherry]," he would generally agree that this type of reveal can put a burden on folks. "I respect and love them for their inspiring work, but as someone trying to break into the industry, the odds are already against you (as a true indie) to begin with," he said. "Shadow drops are unbelievably painful."
Eugene seems to be taking Katanaut's launch in stride, at least happy to have released his first game and see it accrue good reviews. His Twitter post may have even given it a bit of lift post-launch, judging from its SteamDB chart, alongside a 25% discount on Steam. It honestly looks pretty good, and it sounds refreshingly short, so I've half a mind to nab it myself while it's on sale.
