It has been nine years since Mike Rose founded the indie publishing house No More Robots. In that time the company has carved out a respectable niche, largely thanks to a back‑catalog that includes the wildly popular bike‑racing title Descenders – the first game released under the No More Robots banner and still a strong seller today. Now the studio is gearing up to launch its very first self‑developed game, a cruise‑ship management simulator called Cruise Control. The road to that launch was anything but straight.
The seed of 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 stint at Team 17. Their discussion initially sparked the idea of a team‑based online shooter. After three years of work the prototype attracted interest from a “big company” – a partner Rose says he knows very well. Unfortunately, that partner eventually pulled out, claiming the project wasn’t a good fit.
The timing coincided with the brief, controversial release of the game Concord, which was quickly withdrawn from stores, hinting at broader turbulence in the online‑shooter market. “Given our size, we simply couldn’t launch an online multiplayer shooter on our own,” Rose admits. “I was devastated – it was one of the most unpleasant feelings I’ve experienced in this industry, especially because it came from a partner I deeply respect.” With the shooter on ice, Rose and his five‑person team had to decide what to tackle next. The answer was Cruise Control.
Rose recalls that the name came first, followed by a concept he believed could be produced quickly and would sit comfortably in a PC genre that historically performs well. The initial vision was a cruise‑ship management game reminiscent of Two Point Hospital or Two Point Museum, but as development progressed it morphed into a more puzzle‑oriented experience inspired by titles like Mini Motorways. Releasing a game that the studio itself has built feels fundamentally different from publishing someone else’s work.
While the anxiety levels are higher, Rose believes the upside is proportionally larger. “Every sale of Cruise Control is worth three or four times as much to us because we own 100 % of the revenue,” he explains.
“If it performs as well as one of our previous hits, that would be massive.” Should Cruise Control succeed, Rose hints that No More Robots might revisit the abandoned shooter. A demo already exists, but any public version would likely be scaled back or re‑imagined as a PvE experience rather than a pure PvP title.
“Entering the PvP shooter space as a small studio would be insane,” he says. “We’re thinking of repurposing it into something more manageable.” Reflecting on the broader industry, Rose describes recent years as a “massacre” for many developers. Yet No More Robots avoided the massive layoffs that plagued larger studios because it never expanded aggressively during the COVID‑driven video‑game boom – a decision Rose admits scared him but ultimately saved the company.
He calls the resulting stability “accidental genius.” At the end of 2021 Rose split all profits among staff, giving everyone a generous bonus and entering 2022 expecting the same outcome. When the wind didn’t blow as hard, the company simply broke even. “We don’t need to make huge profits,” he says.
“Everyone is paid, we keep releasing games, and we’re having fun. I know it sounds naïve and stupid, but somehow it works.” The publishing model at No More Robots has stayed relatively consistent. Descenders was produced 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 budgets during the pandemic, a period Rose admits he got “caught up” in, and the company felt the sting of a couple of mis‑steps. Today the firm is back to five‑figure budgets, with the sole exception of Another Door, an upcoming multiplayer roguelike funded at $180,000. Rose recalls telling his wife he was convinced about Another Door; she simply said, “Go for it.” The game has already generated buzz, but Rose stresses that they still have a launch to execute.
He prefers modest budgets because the indie market is notoriously unpredictable – you never know which title will explode. “I assume every game will do okay,” he says. “If we happen to be the flavor of the month, that’s fantastic, but we have to build a business that survives both modest and spectacular launches.” Descenders remains the label’s crown jewel, having surpassed $35 million in revenue. Remarkably, about half of those sales occurred in the last year, with a sudden surge between April and September 2025 that Rose can’t fully explain.
He attributes part of the game’s longevity to its unintentionally “Roblox‑like” appeal: simple controls, endless riding, and a lobby that kids can inhabit for hours. Although the developers originally targeted hardcore mountain‑bike enthusiasts in their thirties, the majority of Steam reviews now come from younger players shouting “bike goes brrrr.” The Roblox angle even led to formal talks about porting Descenders to that platform. After a six‑month, ten‑step approval process, Roblox CEO Dave Baszucki ultimately rejected the proposal, arguing the game was too different from anything on Roblox and might confuse users. Rose admits he could have funded the port himself but deemed it too risky, given the studio’s lack of experience with Roblox.
“I semi‑regret not doing it because Roblox is huge,” he concedes. Since then No More Robots has refocused on PC releases, moving away from console‑centric titles that were largely delivered via Game Pass – a channel Rose describes as “huge” for the scale of games the label publishes. While wishlists and pre‑orders have traditionally served as barometers of future success, Rose now looks for organic, steady growth in Steam wishlist graphs rather than sharp spikes tied to marketing pushes. “When a game is gaining wishlists on its own, that’s the best sign,” he says.
Another Door exemplifies that ideal. The game is organically accumulating thousands of wishlists each day, and a modest influencer push multiplies that number fourfold. Rose believes this could translate into a Descenders‑level hit, something he has never experienced before in the company’s history. Despite the excitement, Rose admits that after nine years he feels “drained” and is eager for a new challenge.
He still handles many of the label’s operations personally, and even successful launches like Thank You for Your Application have cost him sleepless nights. “I’ve done so many launches now,” he reflects.
“I’m moving toward being 100 % done, but I don’t know when that will be.”