A German developer worked for 4 years on his first game on Steam. He documented his progress live on Twitch. A day after release, he looks at the stream to see how much he has earned and can hardly believe his luck.
What kind of developer is he? According to his own description on YouTube, cakez is a “normal guy trying to become a game developer.” He shares his progress every day in morning streams on Twitch.
On the indie platform itch.io, he has released several games under the name cakez77, but on March 9, 2026, his first title on Steam, Tangy TD, was released. As the name suggests, it is a tower defense game that launched just in time for the Tower Defense Fest on Steam.
How beneficial this has been for him, cakez found out live on Twitch.
cakez shares his success on Twitch, but others have ruined their entire company there:
Indie game sells over 3,600 copies in one day
How much has he earned? The personal Steam report that cakez sees for the first time on Twitch shows several impressive figures:
- Tangy TD sold 3,676 copies at that time – on the evening of March 10
- before deductions, cakez earned 31,942 US dollars, which is approximately 27,500 euros (as of March 11, 2026).
- however, returns and taxes will still be deducted, leaving the developer with 25,905 dollars or 22,370 euros (as of March 11, 2026).
- In Germany, the developer also has to pay taxes on his income, so a few more euros may go away.
The developer’s reaction clearly shows that he was not expecting such a sum. After he has digested the – positive – shock, he calls out the amount again in German over his shoulder. The clip shows his partner embracing him enthusiastically. You can hear, “You did it!”
You can watch the moment here:
Success moves even Reddit mods so much that they look the other way
The clip also found its way to r/LivestreamFail, probably the largest streaming community on Reddit. There it received over 31,000 upvotes and more than 1,100 comments. Aside from a few jabs at the fallen indie developer and streamer PirateSoftware, the reactions are positive.
One user writes, “Couple Goals,” while another notes, “They have already won at life.” Even the moderators cannot resist the overwhelming joy of the developer. Because although the title of the post technically violates the community rules, they decided not to remove it:
“To be honest, it is such a welcome break from negativity, and I love to see hardworking developers get the attention they deserve.” (Source: Reddit)
One or two users are so moved by the post that they want to give Tangy TD a chance. If you feel the same way, you can get the game until March 23, 2026, for 8.79 euros on Steam, after which the regular price of 9.99 euros applies.
It is quite natural for a developer to document their work on the traditionally game-centric streaming platform Twitch. However, a whole community of people has formed there who stream how they learn or work:
Streamer works quietly on her own book on Twitch and inspires 4,000 followers to productivity
