Dan Salvato vs Jonathan Blow: Products & Revenue Compared

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Dan Salvato: United States; Jonathan Blow: Boulder, United States
Started: Dan Salvato: 2017 (9 yrs indie); Jonathan Blow: 2004 (22 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): Dan Salvato: Not public; Jonathan Blow: Not public
Products listed: Dan Salvato: 5; Jonathan Blow: 5
Product status: Dan Salvato: 5 active; Jonathan Blow: 5 active
X followers: Dan Salvato: 261K; Jonathan Blow: 161K
Categories: Dan Salvato: Indie Game Makers; Jonathan Blow: Indie Game Makers
Style: Dan Salvato: solobootstrapped; Jonathan Blow: bootstrapped
Courses & resources: Dan Salvato: —; Jonathan Blow: 2

Revenue figures are self-reported by each maker and not audited; dates and scope differ. Highlighted categories are shared by both.

Top products

Dan Salvato

D

Doki Doki Literature Club!

ddlc.moe

Free psychological horror visual novel disguised as a dating sim.

2M+ downloads within ~4 mon…

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!

store.steampowered.com

Expanded paid edition with side stories, on PC, consoles and mobile.

FrankerFaceZ

frankerfacez.com

Browser extension that adds custom emotes and features to Twitch.

Magicore Anomala

dansalva.to

Modern bullet hell game for the Commodore Amiga, written in 68k assembly; release date TBA.

See all 5 products by Dan Salvato →

Jonathan Blow

B

Braid

braid-game.com

Time-manipulation puzzle platformer; an Anniversary Edition with commentary was released in 2024.

$4M+ lifetime by 2014

T

The Witness

the-witness.net

Open-world first-person puzzle game on an island of line-drawing panels.

$5M+ gross in first week

Order of the Sinking Star

orderofthesinkingstar.com

Narrative puzzle adventure with more than 1,400 interconnected block-pushing puzzles, built in Jai by Thekla; released October 8, 2026.

Jai

youtube.com

Systems programming language for game development, designed by Blow since 2014 and in closed beta.

See all 5 products by Jonathan Blow →

Tech stack

No tools in common in their publicly listed stacks. See the indie maker tech stack.

Dan Salvato

Ren'Py

Jonathan Blow

JaiC++custom engine

How they build

Dan Salvato

Subvert a genre's expectations to surprise players.
Give the game away and let word of mouth do the marketing.
Own every part of the craft: code, writing and music.

Jonathan Blow

Games can explore deep ideas, and design should respect the player's intelligence.
Self-fund your work so you keep full creative control.
Software has become needlessly complex; programmers should understand and simplify their tools.
Spend as long as it takes to make the game right rather than shipping something compromised.

Learn from Dan and Jonathan

Dan Salvato

No courses, books or communities listed.

Jonathan Blow

[youtube] Jonathan Blow on YouTube
[youtube] j_blow on Twitch

Dan Salvato vs Jonathan Blow FAQ

Who makes more money, Dan Salvato or Jonathan Blow?

Neither Dan Salvato nor Jonathan Blow has publicly reported a revenue figure that IndieMakerList tracks, so it's not public.

Who has built more products, Dan Salvato or Jonathan Blow?

Dan Salvato has 5 products listed (including Doki Doki Literature Club!, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! and FrankerFaceZ); Jonathan Blow has 5 products listed (including Braid, The Witness and Order of the Sinking Star).