Back in September 2018, Radical Fish Games released a pixel art action RPG called CrossCode. The game sold 825,000 copies and reached over 2 million players thanks to Game Pass. This was great exposure for the German studio, which began developing a new title in 2021.
The game is called Alabaster Dawn, another 2.5D action RPG that tells the story of Junon, a chosen one whose goal is to save a world that has fallen under the shadow of Nyx. In an article published by Bloomberg, the studio’s co-founder, Felix Klein, discussed the design of the project.
Following the success of CrossCode, the developers obtained funding from the German government for 50% of the total budget. This amounts to $1.5 million, which may seem quite significant for an independent game. Unfortunately, this budget was officially exhausted this year. Klein explains that having money causes a race for perfection and ultimately leads to a game that is almost too ambitious.
“It’s not that we slacked off. But I think we were too comfortable and, as a result, we tried too hard to create something perfect.”
It’s always the same argument: creating better tools saves time because resources can be created more quickly. But since we have tools that make it easier to create more sophisticated maps, we create more complex maps without saving any time. The game looks much better, but it takes as much time, if not more, than before.
For example, several weapons have been added to Alabaster Dawn, making the gameplay deeper, but also more complex to program. The studio even goes so far as to say that “nothing is more stressful than seeing your money run out.”
So, after the demo was very well received last September, Radical Fish Games decided to opt for an early access release in early 2026, which will help fund the rest of the development and guide the objectives of Alabaster Dawn based on player feedback.
For those who would like to get an idea of what this game is like, the demo is still available via Steam.
