Martin Pernica: his own game sold worse than client projects

The Prague studio Flying Rat spent years earning money developing other people's games — it took part in creating the VR hit Beat Saber, worked on Darkest Dungeon and the Czech projects Silica and The Last Oricru. But having finally decided to release its own game, Pit Panic, the studio ran into the harsh reality of an oversaturated market: sales came in below expectations, and co-founder Martin Pernica doesn't hide his disappointment.

Flying Rat was founded by developers with experience at well-known Czech studios — Bohemia Interactive (makers of the Arma series), 2K Czech (Mafia) and Grip Studios. From the start, the company's business model was built on so-called co-development — the studio doesn't build games from scratch, but is hired by other companies to solve specific development problems. “We help other studios with the problems holding them back. We don't want to just send a couple of people to work through a task list. We work best when we take on part of a project, understand it, and see it through to the end. That's also the economic foundation of the studio,” Pernica explains.

But from the very beginning, the company's plans also included creating its own game. That project became Pit Panic, an action platformer in the spirit of Indiana Jones, in which the hero flees an ancient temple. Before launch, the studio even recorded an unexpected spike of interest in the game from Japan. After release, though, optimism turned to disappointment.

“Interest in the game hasn't noticeably picked up. It's growing slowly — more slowly than we expected. And sales are below expectations too. There's no point hiding that,” Pernica admits. According to him, the main difficulty wasn't making a good game, but getting it in front of an audience at all in an extremely oversaturated market. The players who do make it to Pit Panic and find its rhythm respond very positively — and that gives the team, which worked on the project for several years, the strength to keep going.

Despite modest sales, Flying Rat doesn't see the situation as cause for panic. “Of course we want the game to work out economically, but for us success isn't just a line in a spreadsheet. The fact that a small team brought its own game to market, got real feedback from players and went through the whole process — that's already an important result,” Pernica says. Development of Pit Panic continues: the team plans to add content and promote the game to new audiences.

The studio's main business still rests on co-development — working on other people's projects, some of which remain hidden under non-disclosure agreements. Flying Rat now employs around thirty people. “We're growing slowly, and quite cautiously after the experience of recent years. Market fluctuations forced us to make changes that affected specific people. That teaches you fast that growth isn't an end in itself,” Pernica concludes.