As The Incident At Galley House hits Steam, Robin Ward explains how he’s accidentally made a business out of adapting itch.io hits into polished releases
This week, indie studio Evil Trout Inc is releasing its second game, The Incident At Galley House. It’s a remake of Type Help, a detective game that first made waves as a free release on Itch.io. Evil Trout has a track record of taking successful Itch.io games and transforming them into premium Steam-ready versions. The studio's founder, Robin Ward, shares that the process involves adapting games created by other developers into polished releases.
Evil Trout's first success, The Roottrees Are Dead, paved the way for The Incident At Galley House. The unexpected triumph of Roottrees covered the development costs for the new game, which boasts a larger budget of around $250,000. Despite the apparent safety of following a proven model, Ward emphasizes that his success with these adaptations was never part of a preconceived plan.
Ward's journey into game development took an unexpected turn after leaving his tech startup to pursue his dream. A chance encounter with a game on Itch.io led to the creation of Roottrees, which exceeded all expectations. This success story has now become a formula for Evil Trout, demonstrating the studio's knack for identifying and refining indie game gems.
