The MILLIONAIRES of Solo Indie Game Development

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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
All resources I used: docs.google.com/document/d/1K...
Clips used:
Stardew Valley Trailer: • Stardew Valley - Gamep...
Eric Barone Interview: • Stardew Valley develop...
Iconoclasts Trailer: • Iconoclasts -- Reveal ...
Joakim Sandberg Interview: • Making Of ICONOCLASTS ...
Cave Story Trailer: • Cave Story Wii Teaser ...
Daisuke Amaya Interview: • [NC US] Cave Story - D...
Undertale Switch Trailer: • Undertale - Nintendo S...
Undertale Release Trailer: • UNDERTALE Release Trailer
Toby Fox Interview: • Toby Fox Camp Fangamer...
Roller Coaster Tycoon Deluxe Trailer: • Roller Coaster Tycoon ...
Roller Coaster Tycoon Noclip Documentary: • The Story of RollerCoa...
Roller Coaster Classic Trailer: • RollerCoaster Tycoon C...
Chris Sawyer Interview: • Proof that Chris Sawye...
Minecraft Trailer: • Official Minecraft Tra...
Minecraft Live Trailer: • Minecraft Live 2022: A...
Notch Forbes Interview: • Why Markus "Notch" Per...
Markus Persson Interview: • Interview with Notch
If you are interested in game development, consider checking out my devlogs: • Muster Devlogs
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 🎵
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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.

[@ByteOfMichael]

The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/marselluh11221

[@kodex7795]

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

[@helio3928]

INSPIRES? it's demotivating.

[@nemesis8508]

@@helio3928 why? Because it took him so long to make?

[@Dxpress_]

@@helio3928 What's demotivating here?

[@tbatinyboyanimation9333]

@@helio3928 Haha, average comment replier be like

[@kenny_eats_many]

@@helio3928 give us reasons random guy

[@happyduck1424]

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.

[@SCP--rj8hm]

For voice acting, solo until iirc sister location Otherwise yeah

[@trueblue97]

I do respect that, then

[@ectsy]

@@SCP--rj8hmat that point Scott had enough money to start his own AAA game company if he wanted to

[@paranoidpumpkin98]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

It’s gorgeous in all aspects for sure

[@forestventuredev8380]

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)

[@queenjamjam]

I know the feeling, but don’t give up! You can do it 😄

[@forestventuredev8380]

@@queenjamjam thanks man!

[@ByteOfMichael]

It’s definitely tiring, but worth it!

[@trueblue97]

Ya same, like I think I'm pretty good at level design, concepts, and story, but as soon as music, or especially art is involved it slows me right down! Lol, just gotta keep grinding I guess!

[@ckdunahee4478]

Yeah lol I did the voice acting, level design and scripting, but the modeling is fucking tough so I just used free assets

[@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"

[@ByteOfMichael]

Developing your own engine is crazy

[@bogonelle]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

I’m glad and good luck!

[@dieselboy.7637]

Me too 🥹

[@alexdacat]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

Right!? It’s actually crazy! I think he said about 95% is Assembly and the rest is C haha

[@fynn3016]

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.

[@ByteOfMichael]

True but it can always help with a bit of motivation!

[@trueblue97]

True, but it isnt impossible to become the next renaldo, and even if you dont, you can still do well

[@valeriegrindinger6294]

There are countless others who did great to good enough. Not as big, or as well known as some of those mentioned. Rimworld started as a single man project from Tynan, the Kickstarter alone made almost 300k. Celeste was a 2 people project for the most part. Factorio started as a one man show. Hotline Miami was started solo, later became a 2 man show. FTL was a two man team. Vampire Survivor, 20 minutes till dawn ... etc etc thats just from the top of my head. There is a shit ton of successful solo or very very small team indie games out there. Not everything needs to be an immense hit to be successful or profitable.

[@twomur_]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

I’m glad it helps!

[@frost8077]

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.

[@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.

[@ByteOfMichael]

It was an absolute banger

[@DJVibeDubstep]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

Actually crazy

[@piri6924]

this high quality content definently deserves a sub

[@ByteOfMichael]

Appreciate it and welcome!

[@reglan_dev]

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

[@oreoicecream1829]

You need to advertise your game and make sure it's fun 👍

[@reglan_dev]

@@oreoicecream1829 if advertising it would be easy... (spoiler: its not), also keeping game fun is hard too

[@user-mu5sl4vh7m]

@@reglan_dev Im rooting for you! Good luck!

[@oreoicecream1829]

@@reglan_dev just need to play tons of mobile game until you're frustrated It makes you realize certain point that makes a game fun 👍

[@oreoicecream1829]

By Playing awful games 👍

[@AIAdev]

Awesome vid, very well done

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thanks man!

[@PeterMilko]

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

[@ckdunahee4478]

Which engine do you use? I was in unity but am now using unreal

[@ByteOfMichael]

Cheers!

[@daveh5139]

Nice video man, you put out a good product.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thank you!

[@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.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thanks! And ya mobile games do make more money generally but time spent between apps is very competitive

[@saibadam]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

It’s absolutely insane to think about

[@saibadam]

@@ByteOfMichael its not just insane it sounds impossible. Like i cant even began to comprehend how he did that.

[@LCTesla]

Remember there was also Transport Tycoon before Rollercoaster Tycoon. I think it was built on the same core code. It already did a lot of what RCT did 5 years earlier.

[@Exerosp]

Here's a quick swedish lesson. Persson is pronounced kinda liked Pershing, at least that Sh sound on the Sson for Persson.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Haha I appreciate it!

[@legoman332]

I need to start working on a game

[@micmacha]

Just remember, most novels aren't huge financial successes either; but if George R. R. Martin or James S. A. Corey played by that rule we'd be down by a few treasured series.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Exactly! Definitely don't rely on success, but one can always hope haha

[@skejeton]

4:31 x86 assembly code wouldn't look like that because it wouldn't use hardcoded numbers and would have comments as well as indentations and macros

[@dsgamedev9434]

Scott Cawthon's FNAF: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@dsgamedev9434]

Unless that was a solo dev game then disregard this comment lol

[@UltimoGames]

I kind of hope that Interstate Drifter takes off someday.. But I am also a bit scared of success..

[@ByteOfMichael]

Good luck dude!

[@matthewventures]

This was a great list, but it was very focused on recent games. Which is fair but there were a few notable exceptions the most obvious of which would be Tetris, a little game you have likely heard of.

[@DMitsukirules]

I mean, it wasn't successful for the developer...

[@trueblue97]

@@DMitsukirules Now I need to find the Tetris Story documentary, you guys got me curious!

[@valeriegrindinger6294]

@@trueblue97 I can recommend the one that's called 'From Russia with Love'

[@trueblue97]

@@valeriegrindinger6294 Ok cool, I might have to check it out! Thanks!:)

[@notagain3732]

Subscribed in 0.839 sec here as this is the content i have been wishing for since last year

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thanks and welcome!

[@blobbything2986]

Thomas Happ and Ska Studios deserve shoutouts too!

[@iminumst7827]

I'm for sure gonna be like those people.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Cheers!

[@rewindapp]

Truly inspiring

[@ByteOfMichael]

I agree!

[@bazdonaxdumaul1493]

One thing i noticed, all games have some type of pixel art.

[@ByteOfMichael]

All the nostalgia

[@arnoldthegreat4138]

eric barone and the creator of flappy bird push me to become a game developer.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Eric Barone definitely, the flappy bird guy I heard struggled a lot with the popularity though

[@weirggwp]

Stardew valley is one of my favorite game it chill or maybe not if you want speed runnnn

[@eunit08]

Good info

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thanks!

[@gordonzar992]

toby had help from other programmers too, all you have to check are the credits

[@Pumpkin7269]

Was surprised thad FNAF wasn't on the list

[@1O1O11]

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

[@ByteOfMichael]

Hey that's still 700k haha

[@ethandomaki5496]

Other Massive Indie Games: Deep Rock Galactic, Slay The Spire, Terraria

[@JongHyunSM]

That's interesting! I want to be one of them

[@ByteOfMichael]

Hahah same!

[@holdthetruthhostage]

It's Possible to succeed just tactics

[@glitchydust4015]

stardew valley, 30 millions, minus 30% of taxes, then maybe 100k of marketing campaign and more about 15 to 20 millions dollars * Still huge!

[@admazzola3569]

i can guarantee that notch did not code up minecraft in a weekend lol

[@mysticaxolotl8215]

Geometry Dash: **Standing in the rain**

[@mysticaxolotl8215]

Also: Notch 😡

[@weirdibibfishiplop3644]

ah yes, minecraft is "arguably" the most successful indie game developed by a single person

[@skejeton]

the #1 selling game worldwide

[@dele1763]

Probably the most successful game of all time

[@dieselboy.7637]

It is the biggest and most successful game of all time and history of humanity.

[@RealFableFox]

You forgot Flappy Bird and Tetris among others.

[@ByteOfMichael]

I've heard those games may have ended poorly for those devs :/

[@CyberKinetiks]

Ummm, not sure about the whole revenue part, but..... Tetris?

[@noysam3570]

But where's that character in the thumbnail from?

[@ByteOfMichael]

That's a free sprite I used in the beginning of the development of my game!

[@noysam3570]

@@ByteOfMichael and where is it from? Thanks in advance

[@noysam3570]

I was thinking of the person to the right, but not the one from undertale

[@aquiledelrosa]

u missed the story of FNAF, that became a huge franchise. But yeah for the next video.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Ya I wasn’t too familiar but got a couple suggestions about fnaf!

[@Rivershield]

It seems I have to make soyboy block game if I want to be successful as a solo indie

[@ByteOfMichael]

lmao

[@blacklight8932]

Its always the pixel art games

[@ByteOfMichael]

Always so charming

[@TasdiqueChowdhury]

Shoutout to Kenshi...!!

[@microdavid7098]

nice vid

[@ByteOfMichael]

Appreciate it!

[@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!

[@berkokgt]

actually growtopia is kind of an indie game too, its made by 2 guys; Hamumu and Seth

[@HowToKillAliens]

kenshi

[@tronus_games]

One thing in common in all of these games: - Low graphic requirements

[@evo683]

style is substance! games are art!

[@ByteOfMichael]

A lot of these games have a certain charm to them for sure

[@trueblue97]

Well, Stardew Valley may be the exception to the rule. Art in that is so amazing, it makes me want to give up on pixel art almost lol

[@tronus_games]

@@evo683 Yeah of course, i meant that any pc can run these kind of games :)

[@tronus_games]

@@trueblue97 Maybe i was misunderstood, because that was not a critique. It's just a objective way to say that games with lower specs required can run on lots of devices. So, maybe, if they get popular mostly everyone could play with em ^^

[@ThouguohT]

Kenshi

[@trueblue97]

So, does the graph in the beginning mean that I'm guaranteed to make 1K off my first indie game??? :O

[@TheFernandinho]

its not "solo" but Terraria up until a much later point only had 2 developers and managed to sold millions of copies

[@ByteOfMichael]

Terraria in so many ways I think is one of the best games ever made

[@tinyvilhelm8733]

Yea great vid and all! 🤩 But you should for sure be sent to jail for the way you pronounce "Persson"...😵

[@ByteOfMichael]

Hahah I know I’m sorry!!

[@p3rf3ctionz]

oh you think they make all these games just for money?

[@ByteOfMichael]

No the money was more of a byproduct of their passion I think

[@evo683]

@@ByteOfMichael it's interesting to think about. similar to success stories in other fields, i think a lot of people follow the money when trying to replicate their success. It's understandable, but your odds are better pursuing something more stable if this isn't something you already enjoy and are passionate about I think :) That being said, BE CREATIVE AND AWESOME! But try not to be guided by the money and glory tooooo much is my take.

[@gezzgeez9712]

you forgot robtop

[@placek7125]

where is fnaf?

[@RemusCroft]

No Lucas Pope, Zeng XIancheng, Derek Yu, Johanthan Blow.

[@nohumanisagod]

Terraria?

[@soirema]

Man... FNAF???

[@ByteOfMichael]

I cover FNAF in the newest millionaire indie devs video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHuvlnttf8eYq9E

[@soirema]

@@ByteOfMichael awesome, thanks!!

[@isylvia]

fnaf?

[@nostalgicnow6001]

wow minecraft creator made 1.3 billion dollars thats insane

[@reglan_dev]

he made 2.2 miliard, not 1.3

[@itslitgamestv6827]

I hope I get on this list one day 🥲

[@ByteOfMichael]

Good luck and cheers!

[@sealiusmaximus2330]

Robtop games is probably another of the game devs who've made the most money.

[@ByteOfMichael]

Thanks for the tip!