Developer Kenny Sun and Devolver Digital's Nigel Lowrie discuss why Ball x Pit has been so successful in an increasingly crowded indie marketplace
Kenny Sun is a machine when it comes to making video games.
When GamesIndustry.biz broaches the fact that his recently released title – the Arkanoid-style roguelite Ball x Pit – has sold over one million copies in its first month, the indie developer shrugs it off and simply says he's busy working on other stuff. "I'm not really thinking about it."
This kind of laconic reaction isn't uncommon for Sun, says Nigel Lowrie, co-founder and marketing lead of the game's publisher, Devolver Digital. "We keep putting good news to Kenny about sales milestones, critical reception and awesome videos being made by influencers and the community… Kenny's just like: 'Cool,' and then he's right back to working."
"There's a lot of cool stuff happening. We joke internally that we can't get Kenny too excited because he's just working on more stuff, and that's how it's been throughout development." It was recently announced that three updates are coming for Ball x Pit next year. "We're always shocked that there's more," says Lowrie. "He's a machine. It's pretty amazing."
Work on Ball x Pit started four years ago, when Sun was working as a programmer at Terrible Toybox on the Devolver-published Return to Monkey Island. Initially, it was a weekend project.
"I started on this prototype that was based on this mobile [game] that I found called PunBall, which is a similar structure where you have a bunch of balls you shoot into a crowd of blocks," Sun explains. "I liked it. I liked it a lot, but there are some elements I didn't love. There were a lot of free-to-play elements. I just wanted to make a version of my own that didn't have that stuff. Then it evolved from there into something totally different."
He eventually pitched Ball x Pit out to a few publishers; it was the third time that he'd approached Devolver with a game, following Circa Infinity and Mr Sun's Hatbox; those projects were ultimately released by Sun himself and Raw Fury, respectively. But Devolver finally bit on Ball x Pit.
"We've always known that Kenny was talented – Circa Infinity and Mr Sun's Hat Box were very cool games," Lowrie explains. "But we have to be able to look at a developer and tell them that we think we can help make this bigger. Otherwise, what's the point of working with us? Just do it yourself. From the beginning, we knew this was special, but it was once we got the demo out there during Steam Next Fest, there was validation there for sure, because it went really well."
Despite this, Devolver was measured with its expectations for the title. Lowrie says that the company is "optimistically conservative" when it comes to its internal forecasts for game sales. For Ball x Pit, the label expected that it would sell around 300,000 copies over its first year. But the game actually hit this sales milestone within the first five days, and the number of copies sold has more than tripled since.
"We knew it was going to be good, but we never shoot for the stars," Lowrie says. "Even at launch, we had 250,000 wishlists, which is good, but it's not indicative of a game that would sell a million copies in six weeks. Ultimately, what happened is that everyone – influencers, press, platform partners – saw how well it was received, and it built upon itself." It's another example of how wishlists aren't necessarily the best indicator of success, although happily in this case, the success proved to be far greater than the wishlists indicated.
The game's structure isn't necessarily that original. "We've seen the core game loop before in a lot of releases," says Lowrie. "You have your combat action scenario, which feeds into the base building progression, and it goes back and forth." But he thinks that part of the reason why Ball x Pit took off is that it's mindful of the player's time. "You're always getting something. It's not asking you to do anything you don't want to do because, at its base level, it's very fun to play both sides of the game loop, and it's always giving you something to take back to the other side.
"This is also not too dissimilar to Cult of the Lamb [...] and Vampire Survivors, where it finds that tuning, where it's always giving you something to try out that's interesting and engaging. It's not wasting your time, you're not grinding just to grind." He cites the plethora of unlockable characters, buildings, and ball combinations as compelling rewards that are handed out at a regular cadence. "There are a lot of games that have this kind of loop that aren't as respectful of the player's time."
Earlier this year, Devolver told shareholders that it had been reducing its investment in individual third-party indie games. In 2022, the average backing for a third-party title was $2.99 million; in 2025, the publisher forecasts it will be $1.73 million, then drop to $1.04 million in 2026. Devolver is far from the only publisher to shift over to taking smaller bets: for example, 11-Bit Studios recently told GamesIndustry.biz that it has started looking for "smaller titles that are more agile" and "cheaper in production".
As Lowrie sees it, this is Devolver returning to its roots, and the success of Ball x Pit certainly seems to back up the strategy.
"We've had the most success and we've done our best work with smaller-scoped titles," he explains. "There's less investment on the line, so you can do things that are a little more outside the box. There's less risk, both for us and for the developer. What we are best at sometimes is finding really small, creative, unique, risk-taking titles that maybe don't fit in the most traditional box and bringing them to the spotlight.
"Our goal is to continue to find smaller games. The investment is certainly relevant, but smaller games tend to have more creative visions, they're more flexible in their design and willing to try things that work and dismiss things that aren't working in the game. I think that's been really helpful. Ball x Pit is a testament to that."
Yet Sun remains pretty relaxed about his game selling over one million copies, a figure that many indies would struggle to get anywhere near. Many would be over the moon if they sold a fraction of that. So we have to ask: if it's not about success, what does Sun like about making games?
"At this point, I've been doing it for so long that I don't know if I could do anything else," he admits. "But I think a lot of the joy comes from having an idea and then making it become a thing."
"When everything comes together, it's a really amazing feeling."