The MILLIONAIRES of Solo Indie Game Development

s o c i a l s ☕

s u p p o r t 👏

g e a r (affiliates) 🖥️

d e s c r i p t i o n 🔥
This video is sponsored by Skillshare.

Chapters :
00:00 - intro
01:00 - Indie Game 1
01:35 - Indie Game 2
02:12 - Indie Game 3
02:54 - Indie Game 4
03:36 - Indie Game 5
04:41 - Indie Game 6
05:54 - Skillshare
06:49 - conclusion

Clips used:

As an indie game developer, you often here the negative news that most indie games don't really make a sustainable amount of income. While this may not be the priority for everyone, I think its still nice to see that all of your game development work is paying off in some way.

Despite the reputation, there are some indie games and solo indie game developers and game designers that have achieved unparalleled levels of success. So I think its beneficial to hear some of those game dev stories for a bit of inspiraton!

Here are some of the most successful indie games developed by one person!
First is the indie darling Stardew Valley developed by Eric Barone (aka Concerned Ape) and released in 2016. Stardew Valley has sold over 20 million copies by 2022 which can come in at nearly $30 million.

The next hit indie game by a single person is Iconoclasts, solo developed by Joakim Sandberg and released in 2018. Iconoclasts has an estimated revenue of $1.3 million dollars with almost 85,000 units sold.

Cave Story was completely solo developed by Daisuke Amaya and released in 2004. Its difficult to determine exactly how many copies have been sold over the years, but Cave Story was eventually re-released as Cave Story+ on Steam and has sold an estimated 590,000 units on Steam alone.

Similar to Stardew Valley, another indie darling is Undertale, developed by Toby Fox with art done by Temmie Chang, and released in 2015. As of October 2020, Undertale has made an estimated $26 million on Steam PC Sales alone

Coming to one of the most impressive feats of pure engineering is the original Roller Coaster Tycoon released in 1999, by game developer Chris Sawyer. The popular toy company Hasbro became the publisher of Roller Coaster Tycoon and Sawyer made an estimated $30 million off the royalties.

Lastly, arguably the most successful indie game developed by a single person is Minecraft. Developed by Markus Persson aka Notch and released in 2011. As of 2022, Mark Persson has an estimated networth of 1.3 billion dollars according to Forbes.

Comment down below your favorite indie games!

#devlog
#gamedev
#indiegame

c r e d i t s 🎵
Animal Crossing Music rights to Nintendo

d i s c l a i m e r
I do not claim to own any or all of the pictures/footage that may be shown in this video.
All of my opinions are entirely my own and do not represent any company I work for or am affiliated with.
Any financial topics discussed are not financial advice.

Channel produced by Rainy Sunday LLC.

[kodex]

There is a difference between Solo Indie and Indie, that's why stardew valley inspires me a lot.

[happyduck]

I hate that he is never mentioned but Scott Cawthon who made Five nights at freddy's did everything solo including voice acting. Even if you don't like the game's you can't doubt it's success, especially when it was Scotts last ditch effort for success.

[paranoidpumpkin]

Stardew valley blows my mind until this day . The art, the music, every little thing about it is just so amazing . It's truly a masterpiece of it's time

[HorrorboxDev]

I have full respect and love for so many solo devs working on their projects
I've tried to do the same; it gets so taxing to do every single part alone (especially when you're not good in one of the areas needed for your games)

[bogonelleLegacy]

This kinda stuff motivates me to work on my game so much.

[tezwoacz]

By the way Stardew would take significantly less time to develop if Eric didnt make mistakes that he later admitted on, first one was developing his own engine which took massive amount of time, second was "rebooting" game multiple times for bad reasons like "I dont like hair styles, so Iam gona redraw all characters"

[PeterMilko]

Im a game dev too, good luck to all of us!

[frost]

I never played Rollercoster Tycoon but I always imagined it was made by a big team of people like other big name computer games of the time. This video gave me a new respect for Rollercoster Tycoon, very impressive.

[fynn]

realitycheck: you can count the sucess story´s with two hand´s lets be real. It´s like playing soccer in the lowest rank possible and dreaming of becoming ronaldo.

[twomur_]

videos like this really inspire me to keep working on my game!

[DJVibeDubstep]

Minecraft is actually the most sold game in the world. A simple but brilliant and fun concept with literally endless replayability.

[alexdacat]

Roller Coaster Tycoon was written in ASSEMBLY!?!?!? Wow...

[Crixino]

Rollercoaster tycoon 1 & 2 was my favorite of the series. I loved it back in elementary school. It’d be my go to at the book fairs.

[OO]

Spend years making a game, sell $1, 000, 000 worth, Steam takes $300, 000 just because they can.

[redactedinfo]

jesus temmie doesn't get enough credit for making like half the game

[reglan_dev]

all that developers really give me hope that my Indie game im working for a while now will achieve success...

[TheSensationalMr.Science]

so basically if you are doing indie Game-Dev "alone" [1-3 people] basically have a week[for simple, and game-jams] to 4-8 years[for complex [has more than code] and 3D {if you got the guts for it}] as your timeline, have it run on 4-8gb of ram and CPU integrated graphics{4gb graphics card for 3D}, and it seems 2D Metroidvania is the money-maker of the indie genre.
Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!

[saibadam]

no way he wrote in x86 i dont believe this. like how thou??? is it even possible??

[piri]

this high quality content definently deserves a sub

[TSUKI-games]

This is pretty insightful! Some parts matches my own research as well.

Side note, I was researching revenue for mobile games as well and those seems to be a lot more profitable - assuming you are trying to make some money from your games.