Have you ever noticed the unassuming shooter Karlson on the list of the most wanted Steam games? There”s a curious story behind it.
Have you been on Steam in the last two years to check out the most wanted upcoming PC games? If so, you”ve most likely scrolled over a game called Karlson, raised an eyebrow questioningly … and forgotten about it again.
Normally, there are hardly any big surprises on the list: Starfield, Hogwarts Legacy, Stalker 2 and other big fish that many fans are waiting for. But in between there has also been a first-person shooter with rudimentary graphics for a long time, which at first glance looks more like the first steps of a game enthusiast in Unity. And in a way it even is! Yes, that”s right.
But let”s start from the beginning. What exactly is Karlson and how has the shooter managed to stay so persistently on Steam wishlists around the world?
What kind of game is Karlson?
Karlson offers a mix of first-person shooter gameplay, parkour interludes and slow-motion action. Oh yes, and milk. Because that”s what Karlson is all about. To get his beloved milk as quickly as possible with the eponymous milkman. Yes, that doesn”t sound like Kojima-level storytelling at first. It”s best if you take a look for yourselves:
Among other things, Karlson is stopped by evil robots and missiles. He, in turn, can defend himself with firearms, knives and skilful parkour moves such as wallrunning. Karlson is inspired by the fast action gameplay of classic first-person shooters. In addition to the single-player modes, there will also be multiplayer and a map editor.
So that”s the most important key data about Karlson. That doesn”t sound bad at first, but it”s not exactly groundbreaking either. So how could this little game become such a big deal?
What”s behind this shooter and why are so many fans following it?
The most exciting thing is who exactly is developing Karlson. Behind it is the YouTuber Dani – whom you may never have heard of if you are not one of his 3.5 million subscribers.
He has been setting himself game design challenges on YouTube for years, such as “Develop a game in a single day.” Karlson was also originally created as such a challenge two years ago – as an attempt to also develop a 3D game for once. The video that started it all has since been viewed more than 8 million times:
After the announcement, the hype for the game took on a life of its own, with Dani posting video updates for it at irregular intervals on his channel. The resounding wish-list success of Karlson and its still distant release became a meme.
In the meantime, Dani has more than proven that he can develop 3D games. In the meantime, he has brought out the Squid Game parody Crab Game on Steam, which celebrated more than 40,000 concurrent players at its release. He also penned the survival game Muck, which has already amassed around 130,000 Steam reviews with an overall rating of “very positive”.
Karlson, meanwhile, never seems to appear … does it?
What will become of Karlson?
In April 2022 Dani gave another update on Karlson on his second channel. There he told that he was still working on Karlson and that it “is his absolute dream game”, but that he was finding it increasingly difficult to find inspiration yet:
“Expectations are extremely high. There are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people waiting. The pressure is insane. People ask me about Karlson no matter where I am or what I”m doing […]
Even Steam, Intel, Nvidia, Epic Games, all the big companies are emailing me asking where Karlson is “
In the meantime he even tells me that he gets death threats via email if there is no news about Karlson for a longer period of time. All the pressure is taking the fun out of his work at the moment, he says in his video. “What if Karlson comes out and it”s just crap? What happens then?”
Still, Dani is sure he will finish Karlson sooner or later. And until then, it will probably continue to linger stubbornly on Steam wishlists worldwide.
