Of all the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 winners, Schedule 1 arguably stood out as one of the most unique – after all, it is about running your own drug empire… but, what if it wasn't?
After launching into Early Access on Steam, Schedule 1 took the web by storm and currently sits with "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews eight months on. Players praise it as a fun management game, with many spending over 100 hours in-game. At the Golden Joystick Awards, Schedule 1 further proved itself with a win and a nomination, bagging the Breakthrough Award and going up as a Best Early Access Game contender.
Tyler, the impressive solo developer (not counting his companion, who worked on the game's soundtrack), tells GamesRadar+ that Schedule 1 might've looked very different had Valve not initially accepted it on Steam, though. "Early during development, I had a plan where, if Steam wouldn't take it for whatever reason, I could just pivot it to be a farming game. Just strip all the drug stuff out, make it a farming game – but thankfully, it was all right."
He continues: "A couple of countries don't love it; that's fine. Australia was one of them for a little while. We were effectively banned in Australia, which kind of sucked, but we got it there in the end." It's certainly interesting to hear, especially seeing as Tyler himself is from Australia – but everything evidently worked out. I'm mostly intrigued to learn that the game that sees you taking on the role of a successful drug manufacturer was almost a cozy game myself, however.
Can you imagine Schedule 1 being a part of the ever-growing lineup of games like Stardew Valley, featuring a wholesome farming loop rather than… erm, its current gameplay? I'm not sure that I personally can, but I'm actually glad things worked out the way that they did. It's not like there's a plethora of Breaking Bad-esque games to choose from on Steam as it is, and something about Schedule 1 makes it scratch an itch I never knew I had.
It sounds like Tyler is thrilled with how the situation played out for Schedule 1, too, telling us he's "really, really honored" to have witnessed his game win an award.
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