Missing tutorials and Zimmerit-rough in places, flawed-but-fun Tank Squad feels like it should have launched as an Early Access title. The following Q&A explains why it didn’t, and reveals just how much DeGenerals had to sacrifice in order to keep their ambitious AFV sim alive.
THC: I understand your original intention was to release Tank Squad as an Early Access game. Why didn’t that happen?
Robert: Let me answer in a few steps as this is important to explain.
The launch was set for May 8th in connection with our WW2 Game Sale. This sale had been in negotiations with Steam and other WW2 game developers and publishers. The deal was that if we enhanced the number of games included we would receive additional visibility, and we managed to do this. There was nothing more we could do as devs to maximize our ability to gather as many potential players to buy our game – the only thing we had to do was to deliver the game.
The sale negotiations began in December 2024. In January 2025 our publisher (now ex-publisher) PlayWay came to us and said he would like to close the Tank Squad project. From his perspective the game required too much work to finish and had already cost too much to develop – money that could’ve been either paid to him or spent on Tank Mechanic Sim. We negotiated that we would definitely release the game in May and, after the premiere, decide what to do next. The only condition was that we wouldn’t release as Early Access. For our publisher, releasing a game in Early Access is a promise of supporting the game – something that’s not desirable if sales are below a certain threshold (When this happens the project and studio are quickly closed. See the Builders of Egypt situation as an example).
In late April 2025 the publisher came to us again to renegotiate and propose a split – which we agreed upon. The deal was that we keep Tank Squad but PlayWay takes Tank Mechanic Sim. The issue was that the publisher wanted the money that Tank Mechanic Simulator sales were bringing right away – even the ones that were sold in March that were bound to come in April.
This meant that it was now or never for the premiere. We could not postpone as the sale and curated visibility were set in stone. At the same time we still were fighting with Steam’s build review system that had found issues with our censored version for German users (every issue was fixed by us in five minutes, but waiting for Steam to respond took five working days).
The split with the publisher, the paperwork it required, and development for the project release kept me busy enough to just forget about the Early Access topic. The split was finished around May 1st. At the time we were still fighting with Steam to be able to release the game on May 8th. Another rejection came on May 5th which destroyed our morale totally. Again it was an issue that we could fix quickly, but would lead to further delays and, potentially, us missing our vital visibility boost.
Miraculously, things did eventually get sorted. Very late in the day I realised I could alter the premiere to EA, but as this meant another round of time-consuming Steam evaluation, sadly, it wasn’t a practical option.
So to sum up – this is an EA premiere without the EA mark. The state of the game required the EA mark – but, for the aforementioned reasons, it doesn’t have it, and that is our fault. The reviews went as low as 19% and we are patching the hell out of the game – but some reviews regarding optimization issues or lack of tutorial could not be addressed in a patch or two.
We’re working on tutorials currently, but optimization will have to wait until July, mainly because it means breaking the game apart to replace certain systems – work that will take at least month.
THC: Do you feel you were treated unfairly by PlayWay?
Robert: Not really, he’s caring for his own business and isn’t a charity that just allows us to endlessly develop a game. He invested in order to receive money back at some point – and it seems he lost patience. If the split hadn’t happened we would probably already have started closing the studio and abandoning the project within few weeks just to do what the publisher wants us to do. After reading Mark Aurelius’ Meditations I’m really not angry or disappointed. The behaviour of our ex-publisher is something expected of him – it’s done and we’ve got our hands full.
THC: Several reviewers – myself included – have described Tank Squad as a game with immense potential. Is DeGenerals in a position to realise that potential?
Robert: I don’t know at this point. The visibility that we organised for the launch was bigger than anything we ever done and we see it in statistics – but sales are just not here. We sold up to today (25.05.2025) around 8k copies with over 1k refunds – which gives us money to work on the game for few more months without any changes.
Our plan now is to patch what we can, release tutorials, improve the game using feedback, and release a mini Soviet campaign during Steam Summer Sale (month from now). If during this time we manage to reach Mostly Positive reviews then maybe the Summer Sale might give us another injection of funds that we can invest in bigger milestones.
THC: Have you considered trying to fund future TS development through something like Patreon?
Robert: Yes, if the Summer Sale doesn’t bring bigger sales we must think about such measures. What is interesting in the sale and marketing stats is that we’ve had much bigger audience than Tank Mechanic Simulator had during its premiere, but this hasn’t translated into sales. For example 50% of buyers are from 3 countries:
USA 25%
Germany 22%
UK 3%
After that it’s like France, Poland etc with 1-2%. Our biggest TMS markets – China and Russia – haven’t even generated the amount of sales Poland has. So our thoughts are, the money is there for the taking, we just need to support the game, extend it and organize more in order to bring these people in.
Because of the high proportion of sales in USA and Germany, we’re seriously considering contracting artists to model some US and UK 1944 tank crewmen for us, so we can set about creating Normandy campaigns, such as the Mortain counterattack or Operation Epsom. We will see about that.
THC: Missions and maps with a more realistic feel, and greater control over squad formations and behaviour, are two things high on my personal TS wishlist. Assuming they’re also on yours, when might we see such improvements?
Robert: Small improvements – like formations, aggressiveness changing, searching for cover, clear area/buildings/trenches commands – probably next month. Some special mode, let’s call it tactical for now, that allows players to give waypointed commands via an RTS/RTT-style overhead cam must probably wait for later as players also want improvements elsewhere and we need to take that into account. We also want to playtest with different map styles and new game modes, more opened ones that allow more manoeuvre and a less scripted approach.
THC: If you had to give one piece of advice to a small game studio currently seeking investors for a large project, what would that piece of advice be?
Robert: I think Kickstarter is still the best way to find funding. We were able to produce Tank Squad only because we were supporting and living off Tank Mechanic Sim at the same time. I don’t think we’re a good example of how to handle publishers or investors, what I see instead is that players are very supportive if you’re open and speak truths, even harsh ones.
THC: Name a game, either released or in development, that you feel deserves more attention?
Robert: Easy Red 2 from our friend Marco Amadei. Right now he’s fighting Steam after releasing his newest DLC Shanghai-Nanking. His dedication and long support warrant a warm recommendation 🙂
THC: Thank you for your time.
A very interesting interview. Reading this, I hope that DeGenerals will manage to finish the game they dreamt of, and players will be satisfied with it. Good luck to the team, and thanks for the interview !
Thanks for the interview, I wish them luck but I’ll never buy it because WW2 Eastern Front and even Western Front tank games have been overdone-to-death and many of us are tired battling with Russia. Now, if they had only been wise enough to have had the foresight to set the game in a gritty atmospheric desert warfare North Africa setting from the beginning, perhaps following the exploits of Rommel, Monty and Patton, well you get the idea. I can understand why they didn’t do it as they either didn’t think of it or they planned to re-use the same European theatre assets in a second game to save money on dev costs but sadly, that strategy falls flat if the first Tank Squad game don’t sell, oh well.
The primary markets for WW2 tank games are Eastern Europe (inc. Russia) and the US. They’re selling in the US and looking to introduce the Soviet campaign which will draw in Russian and other East European sales. Terrible as they are those Russian tanks are popular.
North Africa can struggle a little on attractive terrain but the primary challenge with that setting is that two major markets are extremely parochial.
That’s also why Nordic WW2, the Balkans and the exceedingly heavy fighting as British forces approached Nijmegan and crossed into Germany are all under represented in high budget games. They need the US sales to cover the costs.
The interesting exception is the air war in WW2, where settings in the Pacific war combine US naval and aerial combat and the European air war is allowed to focus on the more beautiful and very capable British aircraft along with German and Russian forces. Even Americans want a Spitfire.