Background information
Nightdive Studios is fighting to keep long-lost games out of obscurity
by Philipp Rüegg
Valve gets in touch with Valais-based game developer upon his successful demo
24.11.2025
Translation: Elicia Payne
17,000 games have been released on Steam this year alone. One that has even caught the attention of Valve is Desktop Defender. Valais-based game developer, Conrad Grindheim, explains how this came about.
A game that plays itself and still attracts thousands of players? Desktop Defender is what’s referred to as an idle game. A small, white triangle shoots at everything that approaches it. Visually it’s similar to Atari’s cult game Asteroids. For successful shots, the player’s awarded with money which is invested in upgrades. The unique thing about it is that Desktop Defender runs in a small window at the edge of the screen. Perfect for «playing» while you work.
Clearly people are loving the concept. During the Steam Next Fest in October, Desktop Defender was one of the most played titles – out of the almost 3,000 demos available. The event, which the platform hosts three times a year, offers developers the opportunity to present their games to a wide audience before the official release.
Desktop Defender was developed by Conrad Grindheim. He’s lived in Switzerland for 14 years and currently calls Lower Valais home. Before the Spanish-Norwegian dual citizen settled down, he spent several years in Spain, England and Sweden. At 25 years of age he’s already done a fair bit of travelling.
Conrad runs two studios: Radhood Games and Conradical Games. The former operates on a project basis and consists of an average of five people. The latter is his solo studio, which he developed Desktop Defender with. The entire development took just one month and yet the game’s well on its way to becoming Conrad’s most successful to date.
Source: Conrad Grindheim
Most games take years to complete and even then success is no guarantee. Desktop Defender only took you a fraction of the time and yet you’ve already received a remarkable response. How did you come up with the game?
Conrad Grindheim, Game Designer: It started as a quick experimental project. I like the new wave of idle games, but I wanted to try something new – a game that only uses the corner of the screen rather than the whole bottom. Instead of a classic farming game, I opted for a concept with optimisation and deck-building elements. I’m really happy with the result, too – both in terms of the design and the positive feedback from players.
What fascinates you about idle games?
I’ve always been a fan of roguelikes and roguelike auto-battlers. Tower defence games are also among my favourites. Games that really fascinate me are those that enable synergies between different elements – such as Slay the Spire. It’s one of my absolute favourite games and has given me so much inspiration. I wanted to transfer this design philosophy to idle games. What I particularly like about the ones that sit in a corner of the screen is that they don’t take up the entire monitor and you can do other things at the same time.
Source: Conradical Games
What do you think makes these games so popular? Banana, for example, is practically always up there in the Steam charts.
There’s a fundamental fascination with seeing numbers grow – a mechanism that also works in free mobile games with resource management. Banana also benefits from the integration of the Steam marketplace. Many people think that they can earn money quickly. I never really played it, though. For me, the appeal lies in being able to plan for the long term – without the pressure of microtransactions, which are generally absent in idle games. It gives you a feeling of freedom and independence.
Your game was part of the last Steam Next Fest. Who can take part in this event?
There are three Steam events per year, but you can only participate once during the entire lifetime of the game. That is, before it’s released. Your demo should come as close as possible to the final version in order to give players a realistic impression. I took part in the event two weeks before the launch. To begin with, the game was on barely more than 200 wish lists. Since Desktop Defender was an experimental project, I’d have been fine if I’d only managed to cover the costs or even made a small loss.
But the Steam Next Fest went way better than expected. Three players played on the first day. That didn’t come as a surprise because they were on the wish list. But then the number kept on rising: 40 players at the end of the first day, then several hundred, and finally over 2,000. For a short time, Desktop Defender was the second most-played demo – if you only consider the Next Fest titles. After the event, I posted a YouTube video that reached four million views within a short space of time.
And then you received an e-mail from Valve. The company behind Steam most developers never have direct contact with. What went through your mind?
I got the e-mail shortly after Next Fest had ended.
Valve told me that my game was one of the most played titles at the event and asked me to leave the demo online. I just thought: «What the hell?»
I knew it was going well, but not that it would go that well. It’s nice to receive an e-mail from Valve, but it’s even nicer to create a game that stands out and really resonates with players.
Why do you think the game suddenly became so popular?
The game draws you in and I reinforced this effect with posts on YouTube, Instagram and Tiktok. I started out with around 100 followers on Instagram, now I have 7,000. The videos led to an increase in player numbers and Steam began to recommend the game more and more. Then things just took off.
This year alone, over 17,000 games were published on Steam. Why does Desktop Defender stand out?
We usually develop one large game and several smaller games in parallel to try out ideas and see if they can be integrated into the larger projects. Desktop Defender was one of the smaller games that surprisingly performed better than the big ones. The advantage of working like this is that you can fully concentrate on the main project, but at the same time experiment with the smaller games and get rapid feedback. And it’s proven extremely effective so far.
Source: Conradical Games
Has it become easier or more difficult to publish games in recent years?
It’s become much easier, especially because there’s less influence from traditional gatekeepers.
Ten years ago, you had to have a publisher and they didn’t even give you money. They would only allow you to put your game on Steam. Now you can pay 100 dollars to be on Steam yourself.
You don’t necessarily need a big marketing campaign or an appearance at E3 or the Summer Game Fest. It’s enough to be active on social media and have an interesting concept that attracts attention. And it’s much easier to produce good social media videos than it is to convince the Summer Game Fest to put your indie game in the spotlight.
Is Desktop Defender your most successful game?
At the moment, The Outbound Ghost is still the most successful, but Desktop Defender is likely to overtake it soon.
You grew up in Spain, Sweden and England and now live in Valais. How do you rate the Swiss gaming scene? Switzerland has an excellent standard of education and many artistically talented people. Currently, many games from Germany and Sweden are booming. I can imagine this’ll also be the case in Switzerland in the future.
Source: Conradical Games
Speaking of booming, are there any further plans in the works for Desktop Defender?
We have a major update planned for December. What happens next depends on the response from the players. At the same time, we’ll be developing other idle games and concentrating on our big project Synth Beast: an adventure game that combines elements of The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon. I’m really looking forward to publishing it next year.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chAs a child, I wasn't allowed to have any consoles. It was only with the arrival of the family's 486 PC that the magical world of gaming opened up to me. Today, I'm overcompensating accordingly. Only a lack of time and money prevents me from trying out every game there is and decorating my shelf with rare retro consoles.
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