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Subscribe from just £3 Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£9.99Subscribe now SDCC 2025 schedule The Fantastic Four: First Steps Switch 2 Starter Pack Recommended reading Simulation Games "My savings had run out": In a few months, a Sonic 3 animator made an N64-style game based on an iconic Animal Crossing mechanic and chucked it onto Steam because "I needed to pay rent," and it worked Hits like Schedule 1 are a dangerous bar for indies, Steam expert says: "That top potential has completely warped people's brains about what they should be making" Roguelike Games "The demonic lovechild of Balatro and Buckshot Roulette" is a roguelite horror game where you out-gamble the devil and it got over 100k Steam wishlists in a week Simulation Games Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and a strange strategy game from 2023: the now wildly successful dev behind idle farming sim hit Rusty's Retirement says he learned from the greats, and literally called his latest game "Idle Valley" internally Roguelike Games This Balatro-style roguelike is Localthunk's nightmare, because it swaps Poker for a literal slot machine to really simulate that gambling feel and its Steam Next Fest demo is dangerously addictive Simulation Games Indie dev behind quietly massive Steam trend says they only learned to code 5 years ago but have made 2 games selling 750,000 copies: "I still don't believe it myself sometimes" Steam expert points to the games you never see quietly "making hundreds of thousands of dollars for small devs" as a key sign "Steam is doing okay" Horror Games He made a viral horror game in 2 months – it sold 6 million copies, and now he can make whatever he wants for the rest of his life: "My final theory is that gambling is very fun" Austin Wood 24 July 2025 Buckshot Roulette creator Mike Klubnika has a new horror game out today When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Mike Klubnika) There's a clear before and after moment in the career of (mostly) solo game dev Mike Klubnika. He's been making short, grungy games for years, but it wasn't until the 2024 release of Buckshot Roulette, a Russian roulette-style gambling sim where you let a shotgun decide your fate in a wager with a monstrous underground casino dealer, that he saw massive commercial success. And it was massive. With a game made in two months, first launched on Itch.io and then on Steam, and later expanded with a hotly demanded multiplayer update, Klubnika sold over 6 million copies, putting him in the coveted position of essentially never again needing to worry about what he creates or how it performs. On top of that, Buckshot Roulette has put millions of eyes on his next game, Split (or s.p.l.i.t), a short psychological horror game where you navigate hacker terminals, which is out on Steam today, July 24. Klubnika tells me this success hasn't changed his life all that "dramatically" apart from the obvious thing: "I can do game development full-time and not really worry that much about the commercial side of games. I feel like I can come up with an idea for a game and I can make it in a more peaceful way, knowing that if it doesn't sell well, or if it doesn't reach enough players, then it's not as big of a deal as it could be. So in a way, it's quite freeing. But it's also not really that different to what it was before, because I was never really worried about, oh, what if I put this game out and it doesn't sell enough copies? I wasn't even selling games that much. It was like, what if it doesn't get any downloads? I'm very grateful for it." You may like "My savings had run out": In a few months, a Sonic 3 animator made an N64-style game based on an iconic Animal Crossing mechanic and chucked it onto Steam because "I needed to pay rent," and it worked Hits like Schedule 1 are a dangerous bar for indies, Steam expert says: "That top potential has completely warped people's brains about what they should be making" "The demonic lovechild of Balatro and Buckshot Roulette" is a roguelite horror game where you out-gamble the devil and it got over 100k Steam wishlists in a week 's.p.l.i.t' - Release Trailer - YouTube The Buckshot Roulette launch was "pretty crazy," he recalls. "I remember I was at a friend's place, we had a movie night, and I had just released Buckshot like a week ago. We were looking at Twitch on the big screen. We're looking at people playing the game, and there were so many people streaming, and there were so many viewers. You could also see that the chat in the streams was going crazy, because everyone was like, oh no, that one's a blank, shoot yourself instead of shooting the dealer. It was just chaos. It was very insane. I was not expecting it at all." I asked Klubnika how he might explain Buckshot Roulette's meteoric launch. "I've been thinking about it for quite a bit," he begins. "I think, generally, obviously, it's just luck. Right game, right time." It's simple to pick up and play, he reasons, and it's fun to watch over a friend's shoulder or, indeed, on Twitch. He reckons the indie horror scene, the perfect home for the "dirty, grungy, sort of hostile" games and worlds he creates, was pretty quiet at the time, leaving the door open for a hit to dominate conversations. He tips his hat to Inscryption, a superb card game roguelike and a big inspiration for Buckshot Roulette, for its style of presentation, which people have clearly latched onto. "My final theory is that gambling is very fun," he adds. I think he might be onto something. With Split, Klubnika doesn't want or need a repeat of Buckshout Roulette. The joy of making short games, he says, and working on games like these two as a solo dev – though overall, he "wouldn't necessarily call myself a solo dev" between minor collaborations or outsourcing – is acting on ideas quickly and getting them out into the wild fast. He's "thought about" making a bigger game, but something like Split is perfect right now. Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. (Image credit: Mike Klubnika) Split is a bit more video game-y than most of Klubnika's games, he says, and has more narrative to it as well. You can beat it in under two hours, he reckons. It's $2.99 on Steam, like Buckshot before it, or $2.54 with the launch discount. This is just how he likes to create – the inverse of the enormous games that dominate the industry through update after update after time-devouring update. (The reason Split took a bit longer to make is Klubnika couldn't help himself from embellishing a separate game jam project called Fused 240, co-developed with Wriks). Increasingly, short games are punching far above their weight, and Klubnika, like me, hopes that trend continues. "Especially recently, I've kind of noticed that [trend] with Balatro and Peak," he says. "It's pretty crazy. I feel like, in terms of industry, it might have more of a focus. Shorter timelines. But I'm not really sure." Separately, he adds: "When we're talking about dev timelines of four months to five months, it just keeps it fresh. I'm already really looking forward to next projects, and it's always very interesting finishing something and starting from scratch all over again. You get to just explore new ideas, rather than just making the same type of content for the same project. So I just find it very refreshing and also very, I guess, scopable as a solo dev." "My savings had run out": In a few months, a Sonic 3 animator made an N64-style game based on an iconic Animal Crossing mechanic and chucked it onto Steam because "I needed to pay rent," and it worked See more PC Gaming News Austin Wood Social Links Navigation Senior writer Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. "My savings had run out": In a few months, a Sonic 3 animator made an N64-style game based on an iconic Animal Crossing mechanic and chucked it onto Steam because "I needed to pay rent," and it worked Hits like Schedule 1 are a dangerous bar for indies, Steam expert says: "That top potential has completely warped people's brains about what they should be making" "The demonic lovechild of Balatro and Buckshot Roulette" is a roguelite horror game where you out-gamble the devil and it got over 100k Steam wishlists in a week Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and a strange strategy game from 2023: the now wildly successful dev behind idle farming sim hit Rusty's Retirement says he learned from the greats, and literally called his latest game "Idle Valley" internally This Balatro-style roguelike is Localthunk's nightmare, because it swaps Poker for a literal slot machine to really simulate that gambling feel and its Steam Next Fest demo is dangerously addictive Indie dev behind quietly massive Steam trend says they only learned to code 5 years ago but have made 2 games selling 750,000 copies: "I still don't believe it myself sometimes" Latest in Horror Games Space Marine 2 dev Saber announces single-player Hellraiser game with actor Doug Bradley returning as legendarily horny demon Pinhead for the first time in nearly 20 years: "Ripped straight from the bowels of oblivion" Clearly not too busy with the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake, Avatar game, and more, Space Marine 2 devs are teasing something new, and fans think it's a Hellraiser title Silent Hill creator is conscious of his age and wants to "pass the baton on to the next generation," but the horror icon's got at least one more game up his sleeve Devs behind 2024's breakout indie horror hit "want to establish very clearly that Wrong Organ isn't a walking sim company only," and with their next game, "step into a different side of horror, explore the gameplay stuff" The Silent Hill f writer's debut game was basically the original Doki Doki Literature Club, and it's still terrifying me 23 years later I got a nicotine rush and set zombies on fire in this PS1-style survival horror demo, and it's basically Resident Evil on a submarine Latest in News At 10 million copies sold, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has one of the highest attach rates in DLC history, rivalling CD Projekt Red's sterling run with The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 Risk of Rain 2, now under Borderlands house Gearbox, vows to take “full responsibility” for AI art it calls a “mistake” – “We are sending the designer to the Void Fields as punishment” Don't play Shadowheart in Baldur's Gate 3, says Shadowheart actor, or at least not as an Origin character: "Don't do that, because then you lose loads of my conversational dialogue" Hideo Kojima shares bizarre "I didn't f*** the fridge" song he got off a USB drive from a "multidisciplinary artist" in London, and nobody's sure whether to believe this is viral OD marketing or just Kojima being Kojima With "gracious permission from Valve," Garry's Mod update adds "most of Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 Episodic content" to remove "majority" of infamous pink and black missing textures MMO history has been made after 21 years: all the blank spaces in the Old School RuneScape map have been filled in for the first time, right as the game hits player count highs GAME REVIEWS MOVIE REVIEWS Wheel World review: "By merging Burnout Paradise and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with pedal power, Wheel World arrives somewhere unusual and worth visiting" Wuchang: Fallen Feathers review: "Flashy combos are impressive, but boss battle frustrations get in the way of me actually using them" Donkey Kong Bananza Review: "Destruction isn't just a flashy gimmick for the Minecraft generation, it's one of the best inventions Nintendo has had in years" Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 review: "A nostalgic, must-play hit for fans" College Football 26 review: “Thanks to rivalries and dynasty, this is the greatest show on turf” The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range" Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU" Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber" M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion" 28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy” Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever" Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era" Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date" Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling" Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start 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