Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, a director at Rebel Wolves and a veteran of CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3, has stated that sales targets should not be the primary focus when designing video games. Speaking in a recent interview, Tomaszkiewicz explained that his team at Rebel Wolves approaches game development with an artistic mindset, where creative fulfillment takes precedence.
"We are artists, and all of us, the founders of the company, are the guys who are doing the developer job," Tomaszkiewicz said, detailing his role as game director. He emphasized that the team is not driven by the desire to hit specific sales figures, such as millions of units sold. While acknowledging the necessity of revenue for future projects, the core motivation stems from tackling creative challenges and fulfilling artistic needs.
Instead of sales, Tomaszkiewicz prefers to measure success by the reception from players and critics, as well as potential awards. He believes that a strong, well-crafted game will naturally achieve sales.
"I believe that if the game is good, there will be sales. But if you’re thinking about the sales when you create the game, and you try to design the game to achieve sales, it will fail," he stated. This philosophy underpins the development of Rebel Wolves' upcoming vampire RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker.
The game is being positioned with a clear selling point: it is a vampire RPG from developers who previously worked on The Witcher 3, and it has garnered positive early impressions. However, The Blood of Dawnwalker is an AA game, entering a market that has seen a significant shift, with many attributing the decline of mid-tier games to the dominance of low-budget indies and risk-averse AAA blockbusters. The success of Rebel Wolves could offer a counterpoint to this trend.