37 Famous Games Made by One Person (Solo Developers)

Some of the best-selling games of the last 20 years were made by a single developer. Eric Barone made Stardew Valley alone over four years; Toby Fox wrote, composed and programmed most of Undertale; LocalThunk built Balatro in his spare time. This list covers every solo game developer in the directory, with their best-known game and any sales figure they or their publisher made public.

Who's included: The developer made the game alone or almost alone (design, code and most art or music), sometimes with a publisher, composer or porting partner. One row per developer, their best-known game.

1
Minecraftby Markus Persson · 2009
Sandbox game about mining, crafting and building in procedurally generated block worlds.
2
Stardew Valleyby Eric Barone · 2016
Open-ended farming and life simulation RPG set in a small countryside town.
3
Undertaleby Toby Fox · 2015
RPG where players can befriend or spare every monster instead of fighting, known for its humour and soundtrack.
4
Papers, Pleaseby Lucas Pope · 2013
Dystopian document thriller in which you play a border inspector in the fictional country of Arstotzka.
5
Geometry Dashby Robert Topala · 2013
Rhythm-based action platformer with a level editor and millions of player-made levels.
~$21M mobile revenue by 2018 (Sensor Tower est.)
6
VVVVVVby Terry Cavanagh · 2010
Retro platformer where you flip gravity instead of jumping.
7
One Hour One Lifeby Jason Rohrer · 2018
Multiplayer survival game where each life lasts an hour and players are born to each other.
~$700K gross in first 4 months on Steam
8F
Five Nights at Freddy'sby Scott Cawthon · 2014
Horror game series about surviving nights in a pizzeria haunted by animatronics, now a film and book franchise.
~$26M earned in first two years (court records)
9
Wordleby Josh Wardle · 2021
Daily five-letter word-guessing game with shareable emoji results; sold to The New York Times in 2022.
Sold to NYT for low seven figures (2022)
10
Cave Storyby Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya · 2004
Freeware action-adventure platformer later released commercially as Cave Story+.
11
2048by Gabriele Cirulli · 2014
Sliding-tile puzzle where players merge numbered tiles to reach 2048; free, open source and played over 100 million times.
12A
Animal Wellby Billy Basso · 2024
Atmospheric pixel-art exploration and puzzle game full of hidden layers, published by Bigmode.
13B
Baba Is Youby Arvi Teikari · 2019
Award-winning puzzle game where players push word blocks to change the rules of each level.
14
Skin Deepby Brendon Chung · 2025
Immersive-sim comedy about an insurance agent defending a starship from pirates.
15
Inscryptionby Daniel Mullins · 2021
Roguelike deck-builder and escape-room horror game that keeps changing genres.
1M+ copies sold (Jan 2022)
16
Buckshot Rouletteby Mike Klubnika · 2023
Horror game of Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun against a mysterious dealer.
4M+ copies sold (Dec 2024)
17
Baldi's Basics in Education and Learningby Micah McGonigal (mystman12) · 2018
Free horror parody of 90s educational games where a math teacher chases the player.
5M+ downloads (Dec 2019)
18
Katana Zeroby Justin Stander · 2019
Neo-noir action platformer about a time-manipulating samurai assassin.
500K copies in under a year
19
Schedule Iby Tyler (TVGS) · 2025
First-person open-world crime sim where players grow, mix and sell product and build a business empire in Hyland Point.
~8.2M copies, ~$126M gross by May 2025 (Alinea Analytics estimate)
20
Kenshiby Chris Hunt · 2013
Open-ended, squad-based RPG in a harsh post-apocalyptic world with no fixed story.
3M+ copies sold (May 2026)
21
Iconoclastsby Joakim Sandberg (konjak) · 2018
Story-driven action platformer about a rogue mechanic, made almost entirely solo.
22
Axiom Vergeby Tom Happ · 2015
Retro Metroidvania built entirely by one person, known for its glitch gun and secrets.
23
Iron Lungby David Szymanski · 2022
Short horror game about piloting a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood; adapted into a 2026 film.
24
Tunicby Andrew Shouldice · 2022
Isometric action-adventure about a fox exploring a land of secrets, guided by a collectible in-game manual.
25
Lethal Companyby Zeekerss · 2023
Co-op horror game where a crew scavenges scrap from abandoned industrial moons to meet a company quota.
~10M copies (estimate, Jan 2024)
26
Pinstripeby Thomas Brush · 2017
Hand-painted adventure about a father chasing his daughter's kidnapper through the afterlife.
$106,729 raised on Kickstarter
27S
Stephen's Sausage Rollby Stephen Lavelle · 2016
Demanding Sokoban-style puzzle game about rolling and grilling giant sausages.
28
Balatroby LocalThunk · 2024
Poker-inspired roguelike deckbuilder where players build absurd scoring combos with jokers and modified cards.
5M+ copies sold by Jan 2025
29D
Doki Doki Literature Club!by Dan Salvato · 2017
Free psychological horror visual novel disguised as a dating sim.
2M+ downloads within ~4 months
30
Snail Walkby Martin Tale · 2026
Walking fitness game where your real steps keep a giant snail from catching you.
$798 total
31
Manor Lordsby Greg Styczeń · 2024
Medieval city-builder inspired by 14th-century Franconia, combining organic town growth, economy and real-time tactical battles.
3M+ copies sold (Feb 2025)
32
Brotatoby Thomas Gervraud (Blobfish) · 2022
Arena shooter roguelite starring a potato that wields up to six weapons against alien waves.
10M+ copies sold (2025)
33
LISA: The Painfulby Austin Jorgensen · 2014
Post-apocalyptic side-scrolling RPG about sacrifice, addiction and a father's search for his daughter.
34
Megabonkby vedinad · 2025
3D roguelike survival game with auto-attacks, hordes and build-crafting.
1M+ copies in two weeks
35
Everyone Drawby Sean Gransee
Infinite real-time pixel art canvas shared by people worldwide on web, iOS and Android.
36
BuilderBlitzby Julie French · 2026
60-second arcade game where makers earn leaderboard spots for their products by score.
37
Agro Tycoonby Ushurileo
Isometric pixel art farm management sim about growing a plantation into an agribusiness.

Public sales / revenue: figures are verbatim from the makers, their publishers or press reports, with sources on each maker's profile.

Former makers who would qualify

1 maker who no longer builds their own products — most now work at a company. Kept for the record.

All former makers →

former maker

Chris Sawyer

United Kingdom

Scottish programmer who built Transport Tycoon and RollerCoaster Tycoon alone

RollerCoaster Tycoon, Transport Tycoon, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion

Frequently asked questions

What is the best-selling game made by one person?

Minecraft, created by Markus "Notch" Persson, who wrote its first versions alone in 2009 before founding Mojang. It is the best-selling video game of all time. Among games that stayed solo projects, Stardew Valley (Eric Barone, over 50 million copies) is the biggest.

Which famous indie games were made by one person?

Examples include Minecraft (Markus Persson), Stardew Valley (Eric Barone), Undertale (Toby Fox), Papers, Please (Lucas Pope), Geometry Dash (Robert Topala), VVVVVV (Terry Cavanagh), One Hour One Life (Jason Rohrer), Five Nights at Freddy's (Scott Cawthon).

Can one person make a successful game?

Yes. 18 of the 37 solo games here have a public sales or revenue figure, and several sold millions of copies. Most took the developer two to five years.