Rewrite this title for a blog post. Remove any site names from it The title is: After 10 years of work, this developer releases her video game and sees her dream collapse because of the choices of Electronic Arts

Game news After 10 years of work, this developer releases her video game and sees her dream collapse because of the choices of Electronic Arts

The little seed that rises

It's a story that unfortunately ends badly, which was unearthed by Gamepro. This story is made up of two main protagonists: on the one hand, Renee Gittins, an independent video game developer who has just published Potions: A Curious Tale on Steam, and on the other, Electronic Arts, the video game juggernaut that we know for FIFA/EA Sports FC 24 or Battlefield. Except that in our story, and despite appearances, there is neither good nor bad, just a twist of fate. Which is a shame for a software where you control a witch.

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On March 7, 2024, Renee Gittins released her game on Steam after 10 years of development. Potions: A Curious Tale, an adventure game where the player plays a witch, then enjoyed its small success and even found itself at the top of the trends on the Valve platform. The developer couldn't dream of better, seeing her work finally recognized by everyone: being at the top of a list on Steam, regardless of the category, offers extremely important visibility, especially when you have just released a small indie game which therefore did not experience a marketing campaign worth several hundred thousand euros. Unfortunately for her and the Stumbling Cat team, the dream was short-lived.

The steamroller

On March 7, and therefore the day of the release of Potions: A Curious Tale, the video game giant Electronic Arts has chosen to suddenly release 11 games on Steam. Among them, old war treasures from the American brand, such as Sim City, Command and Conquer and Dungeon Keeper. The consequences quickly arrived: Renee Gittins' little game, which was at the top of the trending list, fell a dozen places.

The developer then calls social networks to witness, publishing messages on X/Twitter or even TikTok. “Do you know why it's a big bullshit to be a developer?” she says, “it's because you work for ten years on a project, you choose a great release day (…) and then EA releases 11 games right after you and knocks you out of the trends despite positive reviews”. She obviously does not accuse Electronic Arts of having wished the death of its game, but rather regrets the trend system set up by Steam, which classifies new releases with a certain degree of popularity according to the release day. Shadowdrops can therefore harm freelancers, and she learned this the hard way.