#46 - Dawn Of Defense - 6side Studio - Germany

Welcome to another dev talk episode of openindie! In this session, host Sarah sits down with Leo, the Creative Director at 6side Studio, to dive into the development of their debut commercial title, Dawn of Defense.

If you've ever wondered what happens when you mash up tower defense, real-time strategy, and roguelite mechanics, this episode is exactly what you need. Leo shares the fascinating origin story of the project, from sketching out territorial grid patterns on a whiteboard to securing state funding in Cologne by weaving an Asterix and Obelix-style Roman invasion into the game's core lore.

Throughout the talk, we get a highly transparent look at the indie development pipeline. Leo discusses the studio's massive Steam demo success which pulled in an impressive 30,000 players and how analyzing player feedback ultimately led to a complete economy rework and the introduction of hero units. He also opens up about the daunting world of pitching, sharing the story of their fateful road trip to Hamburg's "Pitch Level Up" event and how putting their pitch deck in front of industry professionals changed the studio's trajectory forever.

Packed with technical insights, clever design workarounds, and solid networking advice, this is a must-listen for strategy gamers and aspiring devs alike. Dawn of Defense is aiming for a Q4 2026 release, so be sure to go check out the demo on Steam!

Episode Timestamps:

Intro: 0:00
Mixing Genre: 2:07
TD Fans: 5:15
Idea for the Game: 9:17
The Release: 12:00
Dev Progress: 14:07
Managing Complexity: 19:53
Gameplay and Art Style: 25:55
Demo: 29:14
Feature to be proud of: 34:10
From Bug to Feature: 35:33
Dev Moment: 37:42
Publisher Search: 40:35
openindie Sidenote - Episode about publishing agreements: 45:53
6side Studio - Founding Story: 47:10
Indiegame scene in Germany: 53:01
Best and Worst part in being indie: 56:36
More advice for indie devs: 1:00:54
Next up for Leo: 1:02:34
Listen to & Support Us: 1:05:52
Outro: 1:07:22

As always, have fun listening! If you like what we do, tell your friends (and enemies) about us.