Fallen Aces: How a Comic-Book FPS From the '90s Sells on Steam

Back in 2023, 80.lv shared about nine minutes of gameplay from Fallen Aces, a first-person brawler that "feels like a game from the 90s." The clip shows the hero, Mike, waking up hungover, eating a sandwich, answering the phone, and then punching his way through a building of goons. No cinematic trailer, no logo reveal. Just a strange, specific day in the life of a comic-book tough guy.

Three years later, Fallen Aces is one of the better examples of a small team selling a game on style. Here's what the game is, how its Steam page is built, and what we measured when we ran it through StoreCheck.

What Fallen Aces is

Fallen Aces is a crime-noir first-person action game with an immersive-sim heart. Its store page sums it up in one line: a crime noir FPS "that plays right out of the '90s and looks like it's right outta the comics."

• Developers: Trey Powell and Jason Bond. Publisher: New Blood Interactive (DUSK, ULTRAKILL, Amid Evil).
• Look: hand-drawn 2.5D sprites in 3D levels, plus fully voiced cutscenes drawn as comic panels.
• Play: mostly fists, kicks and anything you can pick up. Levels are non-linear, and you can sneak through or go in loud.
• Story: the A.C.E.S., guardians of Switchblade City, are being taken down one by one, and Mike has to find out why. It's planned as a saga in three episodes.
• Status: in Early Access on Steam since June 14, 2024, at $14.99.

The road to Episode 2

The game was first shown in September 2020 and entered Early Access with Episode 1, "Heart of Glass," in June 2024. Episode 2, "Shadow of Death," was meant to land in 2025. At the end of that year the developers said it would slip, and showed what it would include: a first-person car chase with a tommy gun in each hand and the steering wheel worked with a foot, and a companion named Delia.

Episode 2 then arrived around July 26, 2026 with no advance date, alongside a 25% discount. The full release plans a third episode, a level editor and Steam Workshop support.

Why it sells: style you can read in one frame

1. The art style is the pitch

Most indie FPS games look like other indie FPS games. Fallen Aces doesn't. A single screenshot tells you the era (a '90s sprite shooter), the tone (pulp noir) and the twist (it's drawn like a comic). That's why a raw nine-minute gameplay clip worked for 80.lv: you don't need a narrator to explain it.

2. Personality in the first minute

The hungover-sandwich-phone-call opening says more about the game than a montage of fights could. It shows the systems (you can pick things up, eat, interact) and the humor in one sequence. If your game has a moment like that, make it the first thing people see.

3. Episodic Early Access with a reason to buy now

The store page says plainly that the price will go up with each new episode. Early buyers get a lower price and every future episode; the developers get a reason for people to buy now instead of wishlisting and waiting for the full release. The price has already risen from about $10 to $14.99.

4. Tags that say exactly what it is

Its tags include Immersive Sim, Noir, Comic Book, Stealth, 2.5D and Hand-drawn. That's a precise picture, and it puts the game next to the right neighbors on Steam: MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, ULTRAKILL and PAPERHEAD all show up as similar games.

5. A publisher with the right audience

New Blood's fans already buy retro-styled shooters. Matching your game to a publisher (or creators) whose audience already wants your genre matters as much as the game itself.

What StoreCheck measured

We checked the Fallen Aces store page on November 10, 2026. It scores 73/100, Strong.

• Screenshots: 94. 48 screenshots, with clear comic-style art in the first two.
• Long description: 90. Four GIFs or clips break up the text.
• Demo & social proof: 85. 6,669 reviews, 80% positive in recent reviews, and 30K+ followers.
• Tags: 84. All 20 tag slots used.
• Trailers: 75. Two trailers; the games Steam shows next to it average four.
• Short description: 65. 277 of 300 characters, but it opens with "The A.C.E.S." instead of saying what kind of game it is.
• Capsule: 55. At wishlist size (231 × 87) the capsule averages 15/255 brightness, with 84% of pixels near-black. Noir is the point, but at small size the art disappears.
• Links & community: 55. Discord and X are linked.
• Localization: 25. The page is in English only. Similar games support around 11 languages.

Lessons for your own Steam page

Show your style in the very first screenshot. If your game has a look nobody else has, that's your hook. Put the most readable, most typical frame first.

Open the short description with the genre. "A crime-noir FPS that plays like the '90s and looks like a comic" is a clearer first line than a character name. Players skim; tell them what it is before the story.

Dark is fine; unreadable isn't. A noir game can keep its mood, but the title and one bright shape need to survive at 120 × 45 in search results. Check your capsule at every size Steam shows it.

Translate the store page early. Even if the game is English-only, translating the store text into Simplified Chinese, German, French, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese opens up storefronts where you'd otherwise be invisible.

Give buyers a reason to buy now. Rising episode prices, a launch discount or a demo that ends on a cliffhanger all turn wishlists into sales.

Post gameplay, not just trailers. A long, raw clip with personality can do more for a stylish game than a polished 60-second trailer, especially with press and creators.