It has been nine years since Mike Rose founded the independent publishing house No More Robots. Over that time the studio has carved out a respectable niche, largely thanks to a back‑catalogue anchored by the wildly popular bike‑racing game Descenders.
Descenders was the inaugural title released under the No More Robots banner and continues to generate strong sales, cementing the company’s reputation as a reliable indie publisher. Now the firm is poised to launch its very first self‑developed title, a cruise‑ship management simulator called Cruise Control. The road to that launch was anything but straightforward.
The seed for Cruise Control was planted during a conversation between Rose and Dan Foster, a veteran of Team 17 who joined No More Robots to handle console ports. Foster brought with him a wealth of experience in online multiplayer, and the two initially imagined a team‑based shooter. That project consumed roughly three years of development and even attracted the attention of a “big company” that Rose describes as “someone you would know very well.” Unfortunately, the partnership fell apart when the prospective partner decided the game wasn’t the right fit.
The timing was also awkward because another multiplayer shooter, Concord, had just been released and then quickly pulled from stores, suggesting that the online‑shooter market was becoming treacherous. Rose admits that as a tiny studio they simply could not launch a multiplayer shooter on their own. “I was crushed,” he says. “It was one of the most unpleasant feelings I’ve ever had in this industry, especially coming from a partner I deeply respect.” With the shooter shelved, Rose faced the question of what his five‑person development team should tackle next.
The answer arrived in the form of Cruise Control. Rose recalls that the name came first, followed by a simple concept: “a thing we could make quickly… and it’s a genre on PC that we know does well.” The original idea resembled a cruise‑ship management game in the vein of Two Point Hospital or Two Point Museum, but as development progressed the design shifted toward a puzzle‑oriented experience inspired by titles such as Mini Motorways. Publishing a game that you have built yourself feels dramatically different from publishing someone else’s work. Rose notes that the anxiety level is higher, but the upside is also far greater.
Because No More Robots will own 100 % of Cruise Control’s revenue, each sale is worth three to four times as much as a typical publishing cut. “If we can get Cruise Control to perform as well as one of our other hits, that would be massive for us,” he explains.
Should Cruise Control succeed, Rose says the company may revive the abandoned shooter. A demo already exists, but any public version would likely be scaled back or re‑imagined as a player‑versus‑environment (PvE) experience rather than pure PvP, which Rose believes is unrealistic for a small studio.
Reflecting on the broader industry, Rose describes recent years as a “massacre” for many developers. Yet No More Robots managed to avoid the severe layoffs that plagued larger studios because it never expanded aggressively during the COVID‑19 boom.
Rose admits that the decision to stay small was partly driven by fear: “expansion scared the shit out of me,” he says, and the restraint saved the company from having to make deep cuts later on. One of the most striking moments in the company’s recent history was an “accidental genius” moment at the end of 2021.
Rose decided to split the year’s profits evenly among all staff, giving everyone a generous bonus. He entered 2022 expecting the same windfall, but sales plateaued. Because the studio had kept its headcount low, it simply broke even rather than sinking into debt. “We don’t need to make loads of money,” Rose says.
“Everyone’s getting paid, we’re putting out games, we’re having fun. I know this sounds naïve and stupid, but somehow it’s working.” The publishing model at No More Robots has remained fairly consistent. Most of its games, including the flagship Descenders, the narrative adventure Hypnospace Outlaw, and the strategy title Yes, Your Grace, were produced on five‑figure budgets.
A few projects received larger allocations during the pandemic, a period Rose concedes he got “a little caught up in what was happening,” and the company felt the sting of those higher‑cost bets. Today the budget ceiling has returned to the five‑figure range, with the notable exception of Another Door, a multiplayer roguelike slated for release with a $180,000 budget. Rose recounts a conversation with his wife when the Another Door project was green‑lit: “I was so sure about this one,” he says. “She just said go for it.” The game has already generated a flood of wishlists, and Rose is confident it could become a Descenders‑scale hit.
He points out that the organic interest is unprecedented for No More Robots; “we’re getting thousands of wishlists every day without any marketing push,” he notes. A modest influencer campaign multiplies that number fourfold, which he interprets as a strong indicator of future success.
Despite the optimism, Rose admits that after nine years he feels “drained.” The workload remains heavily shouldered by him, and even successful launches like Thank You for Your Application have cost him sleepless nights. “I don’t want to do this forever,” he confesses. “I want a new challenge soon, and I have a few ideas already.” One recurring theme in Rose’s philosophy is the unpredictability of indie success. He approaches each project with the mindset that it will at least break even, while hoping it might become the next “flavour of the month.” That attitude paid off with Descenders, which has now surpassed $35 million in revenue on a modest budget.
Intriguingly, about half of those earnings arrived in the last year alone, between April and September 2025, for reasons that remain unclear. Rose also observes that Descenders unintentionally behaves like a Roblox game: its simple controls—hold the trigger to pedal, steer left or right—make it instantly accessible to children, who spend hours in the lobby riding ramps for fun. The original target audience was hardcore mountain‑bike enthusiasts in their thirties, but the majority of Steam reviews now come from kids exclaiming “bike goes brrrr.” This unexpected demographic led to a six‑month negotiation with Roblox about porting the game to their platform. After a ten‑step approval process, Roblox’s CEO Dave Baszucki ultimately rejected the proposal, saying the title was too different from existing content and would confuse users.
Rose reflects that, while he partly regrets not taking the gamble, the lack of Roblox experience made the risk feel too great. Looking ahead, No More Robots continues to focus on PC releases after a period of console‑centric titles delivered through Game Pass deals—arrangements Rose describes as “huge” for small‑scale games.
He also emphasizes that organic interest, measured through steady growth in Steam wishlists, is the most reliable predictor of a game’s health. Spikes tied to influencer pushes are useful, but a flat wishlist line on a normal day signals a lack of genuine player enthusiasm. In summary, No More Robots’ journey from a modest indie publisher to a studio releasing its own IP has been marked by cautious budgeting, strategic pivots, and a willingness to embrace unexpected success.
With Cruise Control on the horizon and Another Door generating buzz, Mike Rose is poised to see whether his “naïve and stupid” approach can continue to yield results, even as he contemplates the next chapter of his career.