On Steam, there are many different successful indie titles. One developer became a millionaire with his game, but despite the windfall, he still keeps his six-year-old computer that only cost him 1,000 euros back then.
Who is it about? Jordan Morris is the creator of Haiku, the Robot, a hand-drawn Metroidvania with strong Hollow Knight flair and the Stardew Valley-inspired Rusty’s Retirement. With the latter, the developer made his breakthrough and became a millionaire.
According to an interview with Gamesradar, the developer has now sold over 550,000 units. A large number for a solo developer. Although not all of the potentially almost €3.85 million stays with him due to Steam fees, taxes, and different prices in various regions, he still retains a significant sum. However, despite the large amounts of money, the developer has not changed much in his life.
Here you can see the trailer for the game:
Millionaire with an old computer
Why hasn’t the developer changed anything? Although the developer has made a lot of money with a selling price of €7 for Rusty’s Retirement and 550,000 copies sold on Steam, he has changed little in his life. Above all, his gaming PC. He is still using the same computer as before. The computer is now six years old and only cost 1,000 euros back then.
But even in his personal life, the developer has maintained the same lifestyle as before. In an interview with Gamesradar, he reveals:
We literally haven’t done anything different in the last year since Rusty came out. […] We’ve just done the same things we always do. The only thing we’ve spent money on is this apartment, and that’s only because we felt like we should start a family and need something bigger, and if we have the means, we should do that. And that’s it. But I still drive the same car.
Regarding his computer, he explains that it wasn’t cheap at 1,000 euros six years ago and that it still runs well.
What does he do with the money? Instead of spending the money on a higher standard of living, Morris would rather use it to develop more games. He pursues an interesting concept.
When he has an idea for a new game, he gives himself two weeks to develop a prototype that should show whether it is a good or bad idea.
After the two weeks are up, he publishes his prototype and collects feedback from players. If there is enough positive feedback, he continues to develop the prototype into a finished game. This is how Rusty’s Retirement was created back then. In the future, he will likely continue to stick to his successful model.
That you can achieve great success with indie games, which are much less demanding than AAA titles, is also shown by another example. Here, a developer created his game for only €3 and still became a millionaire: Developer on Steam builds a small game in 2 months, sells it for €3, and is now a millionaire
