# Tainted Grail: Conquest

> ResidualPlay case file: an overlooked Steam game still earning residual revenue. Estimates carry a ±30-50% error range per title.

- Steam appid: 1199030
- Developer: Questline
- Publisher: Awaken Realms
- Released: 2021 · Genre: Action · List price: $19.99
- Deal grade: A (A = dormant with >=$5k/mo opportunity, D = low signal)
- Est. net residual revenue: $4.1k to $6.2k per month (mid $5.2k)
- Opportunity score: $7.0k/month at x1.35 dormancy multiplier
- Est. lifetime owners: 242.1k · Est. lifetime net revenue: $1.2M
- Review sentiment: 90% positive across 8340 reviews (7566 from Steam purchases)
- Review velocity: 41.3 reviews/month (6-month average)

## Why it's flagged

- Developer silent for 15 months
- Studio active elsewhere (2 titles tracked), so this one may welcome a partner
- Last build shipped 11 months ago
- Last discounted 1 months ago, 10 sales in the last 12 months
- Proven demand elasticity: x1.8 review velocity during past deep sales

## Where a gross dollar goes (monthly, at current velocity)

| Stage | USD/month |
|---|---|
| Gross storefront sales | $9.3k |
| After VAT / sales tax (-13% blended) | $8.1k |
| After refunds (-9.5% median) | $7.4k |
| Net to developer (after Steam 30%) | $5.2k |

## Monthly review counts, oldest to newest (24 months)

37, 27, 25, 37, 30, 71, 27, 20, 21, 87, 126, 67, 36, 50, 42, 36, 46, 53, 28, 46, 47, 35, 38, 54

## Estimated acquisition range

$123.6k to $247.2k (2-4x the trailing net annuity of $61.8k/year). Same error range applies.

## Analyst notes (AI-assisted)

Tainted Grail: Conquest is a deck-building roguelike action game set in a dark Arthurian fantasy world, blending Slay the Spire mechanics with survival elements and character-driven storytelling.

At $5.2k/mo residual revenue on $1.2M lifetime net with 90% positive sentiment, Conquest is a quiet performer in the indie deck-builder space. The game has solid mechanical depth, excellent voice acting, and nine distinct character builds, but community feedback reveals friction points: combat pacing feels grindy, early-run difficulty spikes frustrate new players, and polish gaps persist despite shipping in 2021. This is a realistic acquisition or publishing partnership opportunity for a label seeking catalog stabilization or a developer wanting to revive a completed title with modest post-launch investment (balance passes, bug polish, seasonal content).

- Most realistic play: publishing
- Licensed IP: the game is built on third-party intellectual property
- Risk (licensed_ip): Title is set in the Tainted Grail franchise (tabletop/narrative IP owned by Awaken Realms); any acquisition or revival would require rights clarity from the publisher, not the developer Questline alone.
- Risk (market): Deck-builder category is crowded; Slay the Spire comparisons dominate player discourse, limiting differentiation.
- Risk (tech): Reviews cite persistent bugs (health reward not registering, frame drops) in a 3-year-old title; technical debt remediation is a prerequisite for revival campaigns.
- Risk (other): Combat balance skews toward melee; summoner builds underperform, and difficulty curve punishes new players harshly in early acts, limiting conversion from trial to full playthroughs.

What players are asking for:
- Smoother, faster-paced combat flow to reduce grind feel
- Balanced summoner class tuning relative to melee
- Early-run difficulty normalization to improve retention past act two
- Bug fixes (reward triggers, frame stability) for older hardware

Suggested first moves:
1. Audit balance data (win rates by class, act, difficulty mode) and prioritize summoner build overhaul plus early-run enemy stat and card draw tuning to reduce perceived unfairness.
2. Inventory and triage all open bug reports; prioritize health-reward, frame-rate, and audio-sync fixes, then ship a stability patch to lower the barrier to 20+ hour playthroughs.
3. Evaluate seasonal content or cosmetic monetization to boost residual engagement without gameplay paywalls; current $19.99 price and 80% max discount suggest room for bundle or battle-pass models.

Generated 2026-08-20 from public signals and player reviews. Directional, not diligence.

## Methodology

Units are estimated from Steam-purchase reviews times a release-cohort multiplier (Boxleiter method, 20-75x by year). Revenue uses an effective price (lifetime discounts and regional pricing) and nets out VAT (~13%), refunds (~9.5%) and Steam's 30% cut: roughly 55% of gross reaches the developer.

Source: https://residualplay.com/game/1199030
Citation: please cite ResidualPlay (https://residualplay.com) when using these estimates.