The first game from a tiny crew of Korean college kids has sold 500,000 copies on Steam in its first month, so now they're patching it like mad to keep up with hungry roguelike fans

Shape of Dreams, the debut game for South Korean developer Lizard Smoothie, was already looking like a winner after threading the needle in a competitive month to become a top 10 seller on Steam. Publisher Neowiz, best known for Lies of P, says the roguelike hit is only getting started, now hitting 500,000 copies sold on Steam within a few weeks.

Much like Risk of Rain, one of Lizard Smoothie's biggest inspirations, Shape of Dreams is an action roguelike originally hatched by two college students. Studio co-founder and CEO Eunsop Shim and fellow co-founder Kipyo Kang took a bit of a gamble during their computer science programs. The resulting game, bolstered by some artists and collaborators as well as backing from Neowiz, may have changed their whole career path.

"This remarkable achievement is another accolade in just two weeks since the game’s release on Thursday, Sept. 11," Neowiz says in a press release, clearly very pleased with its first indie game published since 2023's excellent Sanabi.

"Following its initial sales of 300,000 copies within a week, the title has continued its momentum, selling an additional 200,000 copies since then. The game has proven its global popularity, with sales consistently strong in Asian countries like Korea, China, and Japan, as well as major Western countries like the United States, Canada, Germany, and France."

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At the time of writing, Shape of Dreams has 7,293 "Very Positive" reviews on Steam. The co-op roguelike blends MOBA-style buildcrafting and isometric combat with the sprawling encounters and incremental progression of modern roguelites, embracing the screen-obliterating chaos of the likes of Risk of Rain 2 or Vampire Survivors.

You can also play it with friends, which is a rare and standout quality during this incredibly strong season for new roguelikes, which has now seen Hades 2 1.0, surprise Steam hit Megabonk, and Balatro-flavored slot machine CloverPit.

When I spoke to Shim earlier this year, he said the team hoped to combine South Korea's MOBA fondness with the compelling gameplay loop of a roguelite, aiming to "remove the PvP aspect from MOBA and remove that stress."

With this success in their sails, Lizard Smoothie is pushing update after update to address minor bugs and balance discrepancies. A new patch landed just this morning, and a larger one targeting difficulty scaling arrived yesterday, October 2. Folks who play the game by October 12 will get a free ornament.

"Lizard Smoothie plans to significantly improve the quality of life, including adding game dropout compensation and a cutscene skip feature based on active user feedback," Neowiz says.

"We are very happy that sales are continuing to be strong thanks to the enthusiastic support of global fans," Shim adds. "We plan to further enhance the game’s quality of life and optimize combat through the patch update on the 2nd, so please look forward to it."

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