The Game Census
The Novelist cover art

The Novelist

Orthogonal Games · 2013-12-10

Steam

AdventureCasualIndie

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: First person

Releases: Dec 10, 2013 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Feb 14, 2014 (Linux), Dec 10, 2013 (Mac)

The Novelist asks one central question: can you achieve your dreams without pushing away the people you love? The game focuses on Dan Kaplan, a novelist struggling to write the most important book of his career while trying to be the best husband and father he can be.

The Novelist is a 2013 Adventure, Casual, Indie game priced at $4.99, with an owner estimate of 100,000 .. 200,000 and a review sentiment of Mostly Positive (74% of 1038 reviews).

1
playing now
74%
positive of 1.0k reviews
Mostly Positive
steam's rating (official)
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
59/100
critic score (4 outlets, IGDB)
71/100
IGDB user rating (15 ratings)
pending
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unknown
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: 0
$4.99
steam price (US)

1 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 15:00 UTC (census sample)

The Novelist is a 2013 independent video game by Kent Hudson through his company Orthogonal Games. The game was first released on 10 December 2013 through Steam. The Novelist can be played in two formats: in stealth or storytelling mode. The game's story line is told through the viewpoint of a spectral figure that oversees the Kaplan family's daily life while on vacation.

Health check

Quiet
  • · 1 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 5 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~1/week).
  • · Review velocity down 37% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 13% of 28,833 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-31

Estimated sales: 42k–83k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,038 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $0.74 at Steam (2019-12-19) · bundled 3×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $4.99 · on sale 13 of 22 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
101020162026Week of 2016-12-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2016-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2017-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2017-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2017-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2017-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2017-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2017-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2017-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-11-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2017-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2017-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2017-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

102026-09-15 00:00 — 0 players2026-09-16 09:00 — 0 players2026-09-17 16:00 — 1 players2026-09-19 00:00 — 1 players2026-09-20 07:00 — 0 players2026-09-21 15:00 — 1 players2026-09-22 22:00 — 0 players2026-09-24 06:00 — 0 players2026-09-25 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-26 21:00 — 0 players2026-09-28 04:00 — 0 players2026-09-29 12:00 — 0 players2026-09-30 19:00 — 1 players2026-10-02 03:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 10:00 — 0 players2026-10-04 19:00 — 0 players2026-10-06 02:00 — 0 players2026-10-07 10:00 — 0 players2026-10-08 17:00 — 0 players2026-10-10 01:00 — 0 players2026-10-11 08:00 — 0 players2026-10-12 16:00 — 0 players2026-10-13 23:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 15:00 — 1 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$14.99$0.742015-01-012026-08-172015-01-01 — best price $3.742015-05-12 — best price $5.092015-09-08 — best price $2.242015-12-24 — best price $5.992016-05-07 — best price $5.992016-10-28 — best price $5.092017-01-02 — best price $14.992017-07-03 — best price $2.992017-11-01 — best price $14.992018-01-01 — best price $14.992018-04-13 — best price $9.992018-08-27 — best price $3.292018-11-27 — best price $9.992019-04-15 — best price $3.392019-07-09 — best price $9.992019-11-04 — best price $4.992020-01-23 — best price $0.992020-06-13 — best price $4.992020-11-02 — best price $4.992021-02-11 — best price $0.992021-10-28 — best price $0.992022-02-02 — best price $4.992022-09-06 — best price $4.992023-01-05 — best price $4.992023-07-13 — best price $4.992023-12-18 — best price $4.992024-07-11 — best price $4.992025-01-02 — best price $4.992025-07-10 — best price $4.992025-12-11 — best price $4.992026-03-26 — best price $4.992026-08-15 — best price $0.992026-08-17 — best price $0.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2322026-05-31 — 11 pageviews2026-06-04 — 5 pageviews2026-06-08 — 8 pageviews2026-06-12 — 12 pageviews2026-06-16 — 12 pageviews2026-06-20 — 8 pageviews2026-06-24 — 13 pageviews2026-06-28 — 8 pageviews2026-07-02 — 12 pageviews2026-07-06 — 14 pageviews2026-07-10 — 9 pageviews2026-07-14 — 4 pageviews2026-07-18 — 5 pageviews2026-07-22 — 7 pageviews2026-07-26 — 10 pageviews2026-07-30 — 3 pageviews2026-08-03 — 4 pageviews2026-08-07 — 5 pageviews2026-08-11 — 5 pageviews2026-08-15 — 4 pageviews2026-08-19 — 23 pageviews2026-08-23 — 12 pageviews2026-08-27 — 11 pageviews2026-08-31 — 7 pageviews2026-09-04 — 11 pageviews2026-09-08 — 8 pageviews2026-09-12 — 9 pageviews2026-09-16 — 9 pageviews2026-09-20 — 8 pageviews2026-09-24 — 6 pageviews2026-09-28 — 7 pageviews2026-10-02 — 5 pageviews2026-10-06 — 11 pageviews2026-10-10 — 6 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerSteam Trading CardsSteam CloudFamily Sharing1 DLC

Post-launch support: 1 DLC released, first 2017-01-10 (Steam store data)

Player tags

DramaIndieCasualStealthAdventureStory RichAtmosphericExplorationExperimentalFirst-Person

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Star Control®: OriginsUnclaimed WorldThe Beginner's GuideSurvivalistJudgment: Apocalypse Survival SimulationForce of NatureRatty CattyAncient Cities

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗