In a recent interview with gamesindustry.bizJames Marsden, CEO of the studio behind PowerWash Simulator, told the story of the game’s creation, from its inception to its last full release. He talked about how the idea came about, how his studio FuturLab struggled to move outside of its PlayStation relationship, and how early access was a godsend for the studio. He explained precisely how they decided it choose, decide For early access after fruitless conversations with several publishers.
PowerWash Simulator first launched as a demo via Itch.io in 2020, and while it received a lot of positive attention, the developer couldn’t find anyone to fund the full game he had in mind. Marsden explained that many of the publishers FuturLab spoke to appeared to be skeptical about the game’s lack of hostility. He said they didn’t really “get” the game, because there was no way to lose; It lacked the traditional aspects most associated with video games, such as threats, challenges, and domination. Marsden, after seeing a growing trend of what he called “relaxation games,” said he wished he had known about this before so he could improve the game a bit.
However, FuturLabs was not deterred, especially due to the success of the Itch.io demo. In the end, the developer found two publishers who were interested enough to work with the studio, but were adamant about making certain changes to the game; Marsden described this period as a “frustrating period”. The publishers wanted destructible physics, more sandbox items, and cars that could make an area filthy after cleaning it up, but FuturLab stuck to its guns in wanting a more relaxing experience.
Marsden explained how they had a strong intuition for what people really wanted, and despite being exposed to skeptics across the industry, the team eventually decided to release PowerWash Simulator via Steam Early Access, allowing the community themselves to fund the game. It also eventually led FuturLab into a publishing partnership with Square Enix, helping the team release the full game on July 14, 2022 on PC and Xbox.
This development cycle has been favorable when compared to previous PlayStation exclusives for the studio. FuturLab previously had a long third-party relationship with PlayStation, most of which were making games for the PS Vita. During the interview, Marsden talked a lot about the concept of going directly to the customer, the players, rather than having a publisher as the customer. Early access helped with that. He said that the team preferred a lot about getting direct and immediate feedback and that by the time PowerWash Simulator launched, they weren’t anxiously biting their nails, but excited to have something they knew players wanted out of.
The idea of branching out from the PlayStation is related to the start of the game. FuturLab wanted to be less dependent on just one entity and instead started thinking about what it could offer players directly. The idea of first-person shooting interested the team, however, as they knew they needed to make it small to fit the studio budget. The original idea was to have a much more working title, but Kirsty Rigden, Marsden’s wife, and business partner, was ingesting actual energy washing videos on Reddit to unwind, and one day, talking about what the game could be, the light bulb went off in her head. The rest is history.
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