Recently, Auto Chess, which is based on DOTA2, has gone viral all over the world. It quickly became the first sensational game of 2019. In only ten days Auto Chess has attracted 100,000 players. As of now there are already 6.8 million subscribers on Steam, with peaks of over 400,000 players online. More than 3.09 million players have given positive reviews, which exceeds DOTA2 over the same period.

Auto Chess divides the eight participants into eight different chessboards. Each turn, the players need to grab chess pieces from the pool, pick up and match different pieces, and formulate different strategies and tactics. They can compete with either monsters or other live players.

Auto Chess is developed by Drodo Studio from China, which is named after a courier’s jewelry from DOTA2. As a team with only five people, the members often have to fill multiple roles. For example, “Highlord Knight”Ajia not only is responsible for game design, but undertakes the development and server-side development work; “Pandaren Hunter”Sheep is responsible for customer service, gameplay design and game editor related content; “Anzu Druid bear tank”Mouse is good at everything from art design to UI interaction to business cooperation to product promotion. They came together because of their common hobbies and started doing what they loved.

Drodo Studio listens to player feedback on social media to improve the game as well as to optimize the experience. There was once a player who made a birthday wish that the new hero Mars would join the hero pool. In a later update, Drodo made a high-profile announcement that this hero would be added.

As an independent game studio, Drodo Studio develops with the players and always makes the players its priority. The reason of its success is worth learning for the rest of the gaming industry.