It has been nine years since Mike Rose founded the independent publisher No More Robots. In that time the studio has carved out a respectable niche, largely thanks to a back‑catalog that features the bike‑racing sensation Descenders – the very first title released under the No More Robots banner and a game that continues to generate strong sales. Now the company is preparing to launch its inaugural self‑developed title, a cruise‑ship management simulation called Cruise Control.
The road to that release has been anything but straightforward. The original seed for the project was a conversation between Rose and Dan Foster, a developer who joined No More Robots to handle console ports and brought with him a background in online multiplayer from his days at Team 17. That dialogue sparked the idea for a team‑based online shooter, a project that consumed three years of development and even attracted the attention of a "big company" – someone Rose says he knows well. Unfortunately, that prospective partner eventually pulled out, claiming the concept wasn’t a good fit.
The timing coincided with the brief, troubled launch of Concord, which was quickly withdrawn from stores and hinted at broader challenges in the online‑shooter market. "As you can imagine, a tiny studio like ours can’t simply launch a multiplayer shooter on its own," Rose explains. "I was devastated – it was one of the most unpleasant feelings I’ve ever experienced in this industry, especially because it came from a partner I deeply respect." With the shooter shelved, Rose had to decide what his five‑person development team should tackle next. The answer was Cruise Control.
He recalls the moment of inspiration: "The name Cruise Control came first, then I thought of a game we could build quickly – a genre on PC that we know sells well." Initially the concept resembled a cruise‑ship management game in the vein of Two Point Hospital or Two Point Museum, but it gradually morphed into a puzzle‑oriented experience reminiscent of Mini Motorways. Rose acknowledges that publishing a game you’ve created yourself feels fundamentally different from acting as a middleman for other developers.
The anxiety is higher, but the upside is also dramatically larger. "Because we own 100 % of Cruise Control, every sale is worth three or four times what a typical publishing cut would be," he says.
"If the game performs even half as well as our biggest hits, it would be a massive win for the studio." Should Cruise Control succeed, Rose hints that No More Robots might revive the abandoned shooter, though likely in a more modest form. "I’ve come to the conclusion that PvP shooters aren’t viable for a small team – it would be insane to try. I’m now thinking about reworking it into a PvE experience instead," he notes. Reflecting on the broader industry, Rose describes the recent years as a "massacre" for many developers.
Yet No More Robots avoided the rapid expansion many indie studios pursued during the COVID‑driven boom, a decision he admits "scared the shit out of" him. By staying lean, the company sidestepped the deep layoffs that forced other studios to downsize. Rose also shares a moment he calls an "accidental genius". At the end of 2021 he distributed all profits equally among staff, assuming the same would happen the following year.
When the anticipated windfall didn’t materialise, the company was still financially stable because it had not over‑expanded. "We break even, we pay everyone, we keep releasing games and having fun. It sounds naïve and stupid, but somehow it works," he says. The publishing model at No More Robots has remained fairly consistent.
Descenders was built on a five‑figure budget, as were most of the label’s releases, including Hypnospace Outlaw and Yes, Your Grace. A few titles received larger allocations during the pandemic, a period Rose admits he "got caught up in" and that cost the company a couple of setbacks. Today the studio is back to five‑figure budgets, with the sole exception of the upcoming multiplayer roguelike Another Door, which carries a $180,000 budget.
Rose explains his preference for modest budgets: the indie market is notoriously unpredictable, and it’s nearly impossible to forecast which games will explode. "I operate on the assumption that every game will at least do okay. If we happen to become the flavor of the month, that’s fantastic, but I’m prepared for the ordinary scenario," he says.
He cites the surprise success of Thank You for Your Application – a niche document‑checking game from a Chinese student team – as an example of how unexpected titles can become hits when the maths line up. Descenders remains the studio’s crown jewel, having generated over $35 million in revenue. Remarkably, half of those earnings came in the last year alone, with a sudden surge between April and September 2025 that Rose can’t fully explain. He attributes part of the phenomenon to the game’s accidental resemblance to a Roblox experience: "Kids can just launch Descenders, hold the trigger, and the bike goes ‘brrrr’.
They spend hours in the lobby riding ramps. We never aimed for that audience; we targeted mountain‑bike enthusiasts and adults in their thirties. Yet 99 % of Steam reviews are from kids describing the simple joy of a bike going fast." The Roblox connection went further when No More Robots entered talks with the platform about creating an official Roblox version of Descenders.
After a six‑month negotiation and a ten‑step approval process, Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki ultimately rejected the proposal, saying the game was too different from anything on the platform and would confuse users. Rose admits the company could have self‑funded the port, but the lack of experience with Roblox made it feel like a huge gamble – a gamble he now semi‑regrets given Roblox’s massive audience. In recent years the label has refocused on PC releases after a period of console‑centric titles delivered through Game Pass, a partnership Rose describes as "huge" for small‑scale games. While traditional metrics like wishlists and pre‑orders still matter, Rose emphasizes organic interest as the strongest indicator of future success.
He monitors Steam wishlist graphs, preferring a steady upward trend over flat lines punctuated by occasional influencer spikes. That organic momentum is exactly what Rose sees with Another Door.
The game is accumulating thousands of wishlists daily without any marketing push, and a modest influencer campaign multiplies that number fourfold. "I’ve never seen this level of pre‑launch enthusiasm in the history of No More Robots.
If we execute the launch correctly, this could be insane," he says. Despite the excitement, Rose admits that after nine years he feels drained and is contemplating a new challenge. He still handles many of the label’s day‑to‑day operations and, even after the success of Thank You for Your Application, endured sleepless nights and high stress.
"It wasn’t the game itself – I knew it would do well – it was the cumulative pressure of countless launches," he reflects. "I’m moving toward a point where I’m 100 % done, though I don’t know when that will be."