David Szymanski vs Jonathan Blow: Products & Revenue Compared

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: David Szymanski: United States; Jonathan Blow: Boulder, United States
Started: David Szymanski: 2014 (12 yrs indie); Jonathan Blow: 2004 (22 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): David Szymanski: Not public; Jonathan Blow: Not public
Products listed: David Szymanski: 6; Jonathan Blow: 5
Product status: David Szymanski: 6 active; Jonathan Blow: 5 active
X followers: David Szymanski: 194K; Jonathan Blow: 161K
Categories: David Szymanski: Indie Game Makers; Jonathan Blow: Indie Game Makers
Style: David Szymanski: solobootstrappedserial maker; Jonathan Blow: bootstrapped
Courses & resources: David Szymanski: —; 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

David Szymanski

Iron Lung

store.steampowered.com

Short horror game about piloting a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood; adapted into a 2026 film.

Dusk

store.steampowered.com

Retro-style first-person shooter inspired by Quake and Doom.

Gloomwood

store.steampowered.com

Stealth survival horror game co-developed with Dillon Rogers.

Butcher's Creek

store.steampowered.com

First-person horror game about fighting cultists with improvised melee weapons.

See all 6 products by David Szymanski →

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.

David Szymanski

Unity

Jonathan Blow

JaiC++custom engine

How they build

David Szymanski

Small, focused horror can be more effective than big budgets.
Revive the feel of classic shooters without nostalgia-only design.
Release many small projects quickly.

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 David and Jonathan

David Szymanski

No courses, books or communities listed.

Jonathan Blow

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

David Szymanski vs Jonathan Blow FAQ

Who makes more money, David Szymanski or Jonathan Blow?

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

Who has built more products, David Szymanski or Jonathan Blow?

David Szymanski has 6 products listed (including Iron Lung, Dusk and Gloomwood); Jonathan Blow has 5 products listed (including Braid, The Witness and Order of the Sinking Star).