[topgrain2]

Almost every time I see a halfway polished “solo developer” game, they did not do all the work themselves. Especially, they usually hire out the music, maybe other sounds, and much of the artwork. Sometimes they also have freelancers doing marketing and such. Sometimes even some paid help writing the software.

I highlight this not to bring those developers down, but because I think it’s important people understand how these things actually come to be, so they aren’t discouraged to try themselves by thinking they ought to actually be doing 100% of the work solo. That’s pretty rare.

[stateoff]

I depends on the background. I'm 2 years into solo developing a game and all programming, artwork and animation is my own. I had to invest into quite some learning to make it possible, but I figured it's a worthwhile investment. I do work with a composer, though.

Point being, it depends on which skills you bring to the table, which ones you are willing to learn and which ones are worth collaborating on.

I still think the term Solo-developer is justified in any case. The one who soley carries the burden of bringing the game from idea to the finish line is the solo developer, IMHO.

[oalae5niMiel7qu]

If a project is far more work than one person can do (as this train simulator obviously is), the term solo developer is no more justified than it would have been if Steve Jobs claimed to have solo-developed the iPhone, even if he could have justified saying he "brought the iPhone from idea to the finish line."

[stateoff]

I don't know about this particular developer but I don't think there is anything "obviously" out of scope. I've worked in the animation industry and creating hard surface models with this quality is not really that hard for a skilled artist. As such I still stand by the opinion that it could be a solo effort depending on the developers background/skill.

[amiga386]

This is somewhat deconstructive.

So you need the solo developer not to contract out or buy in existing music, graphics, 3D assets, animations, marketing, or you won't call them a solo developer.

Right, so do you also need them to create the 3D engine or are they allowed that off the shelf? Oh, they need to make it themselves. You're strict!

Ok, so they're allowed to write for a platform? Oh, no they're not, that's relying on other people's code.

And writing in an existing language? Tsk tsk tsk. Got to invent the programming language yourself, otherwise you need to list the entire GCC/LLVM team as your collaborators on the game.

They have to create their own silicon too, it's cheating to rely other people's chips, how can you call yourself "solo"?

Are they allowed to sell it on Steam or do they need to build their own store and payment networks? Heck, should they get themselves accredited as a payment network. Oh, and as a bank.

And presumably, if the game needs to be translated to any language other than the developer's own, they have to do that translation themselves, right? Not rely on experts in that language. Can't really be a "solo" dev that way, can you?

And so on.

Building a game involves effort, and millions of decisions. Is the gameplay right? Is the story right? Are the graphics right? Design the characters, the levels, the world. Make the game run. Make the game available?

I can accept that solo developers will sometimes make the graphics/music/"assets" themselves, sometimes buy off the shelf, sometimes pay others. But unless they hire that person full time to collaborate on the game... they're still the solo developer.

They will definitely lean on existing 3D engines, libraries, plugins, font engines... and that reminds me, I've almost never seen a game developer design their own fonts. These reusable components can be used in games, and some are even intended to (e.g. engine plugins). But do they define the game experience? Generally, no. That's on the game developer.

Here is Jonathan Blow's placeholder art for Braid: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Braid-art-1.j...

Here is how good David Hellman, the artist he hired, made it: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Braid-art-2.j...

David Hellman is credited as the game's artist, but it's still effectively Jonathan Blow's game from top to bottom.

[oalae5niMiel7qu]

So if Bethesda fires all its developers and then gets its next game made by hiring those same developers as independent contractors, then Bethesda would be a solo developer?

[shit_game]

The perception of what a polymath is is changing incredibly fast, as both the floor and ceiling for being passable or outstanding in any field is rising exponentially. For the last 50-oddish years, it's been the case that being proficient with a single piece of software can make you an invaluable asset in industry; understanding the concepts behind the software and the problems it solves even moreso. Rather recently, we've reached a point where software ergonomics, freely available education and information, and even AI assistance in development or usage have lowered this floor in terms of cost, knowledge, effort, and skill. For example, it's trivially easier today to create a 3d animation than it was 5, 10, or 20 years ago, and the visual quality of it would be similarly disproportionately better.

The domains of different crafts are ever-expanding, including all of their history and all new developments, of which new developments seem to be coming at an ever-increasing pace as populations grow, internet access grows, and the free time of populations spent doing things other than merely surviving grows. There is a larger and broader base of knowledge necessary for a person to be considered competent in the current state of anything, and the number of disciplines is also increasing. Two decades ago, having a person specializing in frontend development for a specific web browser would have been unthinkable.

All of this work is built upon the backs of other people. Game engines, 3d modeling and texturing and animating, language design and implementation, audio software and sound design, graphics libraries, runtime optimizations, operating system APIs, networking improvements, distribution networks, etc. etc.. To think that any one person could possibly create everything they use to then create these final products, no matter the scale they are, is ignorant.

[embedding-shape]

> For example, it's trivially easier today to create a 3d animation than it was 5, 10, or 20 years ago, and the visual quality of it would be similarly disproportionately better.

True, but this also means that the bar has risen for animations in general, so while you might be able to create animations today as an amateur that is even better than the animations just five years ago, it still won't come close to what professionals can actually achieve today.

Your very last point speaks a lot to me though, almost every effort people are amazed by have at least two people involved, indirectly or directly, and attempting things like this on your own would be a fool's errand.

[3form]

Even the famously brought up cases of solo projects often end up hiring help once they become popular. Stardew Valley and Dwarf Fortress come to mind.

I think for the later stages it's common to contract someone for other platforms, especially mobile.

[IshKebab]

Dwarf Fortress didn't have any assets at all initially...

[chaostheory]

The Stardew Valley dev did do everything himself though

[Planktonne]

Which is impressive, but he is both an outlier and was heavily supported by his partner during development.

[RobRivera]

I would never view a truth-teller in a negative light.

[oalae5niMiel7qu]

If that's how it was developed, then it wasn't made by a solo developer. What you're describing is called a team.

[streetfighter64]

Yes, solo developer does not mean "solo developer, composer, artist, etc."

[21asdffdsa12]

Not lately, loads of sub-jobs going to LLMs..

[AmVess]

Solo developer just means they developed the game themselves, not made it all themselves. I'm not sure how you could write what you wrote without that occurring to you.

[SirHackalot]

Absolutely not obvious to me, especially since I have heard a lot of solo dev stories that insist it was purely a 1-person project. And it’s true in some cases.

[laserDinosaur]

In that case, please, define "developed the game" for us. Is doing all the programming "developing" the game? Is coming up with the game design and hiring programmers "developing" the game?

sits back with popcorn

[streetfighter64]

> Is doing all the programming "developing" the game?

Yes, if you're also doing game design.

> Is coming up with the game design and hiring programmers "developing" the game?

Yes, so is using LLMs to do the programming.

[oalae5niMiel7qu]

What if you hire voice actors for each of the characters? And level designers? And animators? At what point does it stop being a solo project? Only when outside investors get involved? Or does it only stop being "solo" if those investors demand board seats? Or can it _still_ be considered "solo" even then?

[simoncion]

Given that Death Stranding 2 only credits Kojima as the game's writer and designer, I guess -by GGP's very silly definition- it's a solo project. XD

[djaro]

I would say when you start hiring people for monthly salaries rather than for specific tasks.

[stackghost]

Designing the game and having codex shit out the code is how I roll.

[computerdork]

Hmm, it didn’t occur to me. Yeah, not sure it’s obvious to many people so was glad for the explanation

[appplication]

FWIW, that was not obvious to me either, and I appreciated the parent comment