One year as full-time solo game dev

16. September 2025

On this exact day one year ago, my journey as a solo game developer began. Here I will share my experiences and what I learned.

My effort estimations were wrong

A year ago I thought that my game was about 60% complete, missing a few features and visual polish. Now, a full year later, my game is about 60% complete, missing a few features and visual polish.
What changed is that I saw the real work needed to really finish a bigger game. Behind the scenes, there are so many things to do that making estimates without experience is impossible.

This wasn't planned, of course. My initial estimate was that it would take me 6 months to finish the game if I worked full time on it. But now, a year later, I really don't know when it will be finished. The game is currently released as an open beta, to get feedback and some early players. Now the plan is to release it to Steams Early Access, once some users say that it is great.

A great suggestion I can give is not to talk about a release date, when you are not 110% sure about it. Estimations are always wrong and you might want to play and test the game before a full release. So once you have a complete, nice looking game with feedback, you can start to think about a date.

Time tracking to stay motivated

Simply track the time you work on something during the day. This is something that made the biggest difference for me. It gives you an overview on how long you worked on something.

So at the end of the day I can rest with peace in my mind, if I worked 8 hours. It also motivates me to work more the next day, if I missed some hours the day before.

I normally just write the project tag I'm working and a short description. First I used the Thunderbird calendar, but recently switched to a simple text file. This makes it easier to run scripts on it for statistics (something I haven't done yet), and a text file always works, no matter what.

Here an example for typical day with entries consisting of + project-tag description with start time above and end below.

# 28.08 thu
- 07:30
+ 99 team logos
- 12:00

- 13:00
+ 99 team logos
- 16:00
+ 99 new gameplay video
- 17:30

- 18:00
+ 99 new gameplay video
- 19:30

- 21:00
+ co upgrade to godot 4.4 and add keyboard support
- 23:30

As you can see I don't get too much in detail and don't write every feature. The minimum time period I track is 30 minutes.
This works well for me but might not for you. Just start tracking your time and see if it helps you or not.

Never giving up

This is really important when creating time intensive projects, like games. As exciting it might sound to work on your game all day and every day, the magic fades quite quickly. There are highs and lows and keeping working on something that seems unreachable, can be difficult.

But by never giving up I will finish this game one day and be really proud of myself. Sometimes I look on old screenshots of the game to see the progress I have made. This helps a lot, especially when doubts are haunting me.

Starting and finishing a project can also be a good showoff for future job applications. And HR departments love to see resilience and motivation. So even if my game is a financial flop, it could lead to better jobs in the future.

10k hours

There is a saying that if you spend ten thousand hours doing something, you get really good at it. This year I spent around two to three thousands of hours working on the game. So I'm still not really good at it. But If I look at my older games, or even the very first game, the improvement is huge.

So even if my games are still not really great and miss the masters touch, I'm getting closer and closer to this ten thousand hours.

Taking breaks

I had a git commit streak of 687 days with at least one commit on the game per day.
This helped me a lot to keep working on the game while having a full time job. I would add some new features or just fix a typo to keep the streak. But most important, I didn't stop working on the game.

Before this streak I would maybe work 2 months on the game, and take a 2 week break. With this approach it was really difficult to stay motivated. And even harder to remember what I was working on. So the streak helped to sit at least once a day in front of the computer, open the game and see.

But once I went all in and quit my job one year ago, it was simply too much. I got tired and had low motivation to work on it every day.

Taking my mind off the game is in my opinion a healthy thing to do, especially since I work on it for about 8 hours or more a day. Now I no longer work on weekends, except if I really want to or there is something exciting to do. My motivation is again on it's best and I have more time to enjoy other things.

Respect for my work

Since I started this journey, only a few people really respect and understand my work. Most people say I don't have a job and don't even really work. And of course because I'm just working on some games, that can't be serious.

I learned to ignore this and just keep going to follow my plan. I really like working from home and doing what I really like to do, (nearly) without any external input and using only my ideas.

There is no Sunday I think "Oh no, tomorrow I have to work again". Actually the exact opposite is the case, that most of the times I'm exited to get back to work. The same happens if I'm on vacations.

So my final advice here is follow your dreams, if you are in a privileged position to do so. If you really like something and it can possibly generate some income, go for it. And listen to friends and family, but keep your ideas and stick with your plan, no matter what.

I don't like playing my games (yet?)

One curious thing I have experienced so far is that I don't really play my games. I would have never said that this would happen, before starting developing games. So it amazes me even more, when I see people playing for hours my game and completing everything.

The game I'm currently working on was actually the first game I thought this would be cool to play. But I still didn't play it more than the time needed to test it.

I personally think there could be three reasons for this

  1. When you create a game and know how it works, it looses the "magic touch" of the unexpected. I know nearly everything about the game, except the bugs and so I don't need really to learn and improve.
  2. It's really difficult to enjoy my games, because I see all the things that can be improved or fixed.
  3. I still haven't made a really good game.

Only time will tell if I will enjoy playing my games one day.

Ignore the noise

As many aspiring solo developers, I checked out social media like Reddit for advice and experience of fellow developers. This can be a great resource for learning how to create a successful game.

But it can also be really demotivating to see other games getting thousands of whishlists on Steam, while my game got around 400 as of today. If I wouldn't have seen this on Reddit, I would be the happiest person on earth, knowing that FOUR HUNDRED people saw my game and thought "this looks nice, I might play it when it's released".

So I learned to ignore the noise and focus on my game. I still check social media and other platforms to read about game development. But I try to look at it from a different angle, by thinking about how my game could reach this numbers.

Marketing, or not to marketing

I watched videos, read articles and whatever I accidentally found. And most of the times the first question is: what is your budget? My current budget is zero.

So I created accounts on the socials I use, Mastodon, Bluesky and Matrix. And some I thought might be attracting players such as Discord, Reddit and YouTube. Currently Discord is the one that worked the best for me, with 32 players in my server. Not huge numbers, I know, but for me it's a great starting point to learn and improve.

My absolute favorite marketing method is this blog post. I really like it to write and express my thoughts and ideas. I don't have tracking, so my only statistics are server access logs and the Google Search console. I currently get around 20 clicks per day, according to Google and that's great! Maybe one day like to create videos I will create YouTube videos, but for now writing works just fine. Finding something you like to do and using it to get visibility is the best marketing in my opinion.

I also printed some stickers, I normally distribute after talks or at events. Note to this: high quality stickers can cost quite a lot, like +100€ for a few stickers. A cheap alternative can be to buy adhesive A4 paper and use a common printer. I got 10 adhesive pages for 5€ and created about 50 stickers with one page.

I think it also highly depends on the type of a game, if intensive marketing is needed. If there are many competitors, marketing might be the only way to attract users. In my case there is currently only one other Futsal Manager available on Steam. Picking a niche market can reduce the need for marketing a lot, at least that's my theory.

Done is better than perfect

This is one of the most important advice I can give. It might also be one of the most difficult to learn and I'm still failing at it badly sometimes.

It happened so many times that I got stuck somewhere, because I was seeking perfection. That let me into an endless loop of refactoring and re-implementing functionality, like the match engine. Slowly I learned to see that something is good enough, for now. Then I would start working on something else and forget about it. Coming back to it after some days or even weeks clears my mind and lets me see the problem from a different angle.

Now I work in this loop, where I get something done (good enough) and iterate over it again after some time passed. This prevents the frustrating situation of feeling stuck in the never perfect state.

Notes and plans

I tried a lot of things like Kanbans with todo, doing, done lanes or creating issues on Codeberg. I also had multiple note books and files with all ideas, bugs and features scattered around.

For now I ended up with a single todo.md file accessible from phone and computer. The I have one notebook for offline notes, handy for when I have ideas while playing other games. And some paper lying around my desk for fire and forget notes.

I simply write ideas, bugs and missing features down until they are resolved. I also don't plan much in the future and decide in the moment what to do. This works pretty well for me and I really like this spontaneous approach.

Naming things is difficult

I spend a LOT of time finding a fitting name for my game and game studio. Immediately the famous naming joke came to my mind.

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.

-- Phil Karlton

I collected long lists with potential names. Short, long, without any meaning, I really had a lot of names. This distilled down to a few names, after hours of seeking the perfect name.

In the end I took 99Managers for the game following these main ideas

Finding names can be really hard, at least for me. I could waste days finding new names, while searching if the domain is available. But I really need to keep in mind that the thing that really matters is making a fun game. A good name might be easier to remember or attract some users, but finally the game is what matters.

Getting a trademark

So after I decided on the name, I registered a word trademark for 99MANAGERS in the category of video games in the European Union. This was quite expensive, because the registration fee alone is 850€. The idea is to use this name also as umbrella name for other editions, as mentioned before. So for example if one day I create 99Managers Volleyball Edition, the name 99Managers would still be protected in the European Union.

The main reason for this is that the game is Open Source, so I wanted to protect at least the name. Everybody can still create and distribute their own version of the game, but the name has to be changed.

Another reason is that again, I spent too much time on Reddit, reading about trademarks. But in the end some advice I read there might be true: it's good to have it, before you need it.

Finances

I'm currently living on my savings and I hope to finish the game soon, to see if I can generate some income.

Many ask how I'm able to stay without a job for such a long period. Normally I would say that I don't spend much, eat a lot at home and don't own a car. I also buy a lot of used things and recently started selling stuff I no longer need.

Self funding is what currently works for me and it makes me completely independent and free. There are also other ways to finance a game, like getting investors, working with publishers or crowdfunding. For now I have chosen the self-finance way, but maybe someday this will change. Crowdfunding sounds interesting to me, because I could stay independent. I also often see "Co-financed by culture fund of PUT_COUNTRY_HERE" in some games I played. A lot of countries support cultural works, like video games, with financial support This might be another way to get funding, while staying independent.

Focus on the game

With all the stuff to do as a solo game developer, I sometimes forget to focus on the game. The game is what really matters. It is the base for real success. You can have the best marketing, but without a fun game, that doesn't really matter.

I don't have the numbers on how much of my time I spend on the game and how much on the rest. But I would guess it is about 80/20. That works for me and I recently shifted again more focus on the game.

Now overall, I care less about naming things, social media presence and related things. Because I know and also see it in real life, that successful games, are great games. Period. Nothing else really matters.

Plan A, B, C, Y and Z

My plan A is finishing the game and making a living as a independent FOSS game developer. If this plan fails (the chances of failure are about 99%), I still have some backup plans. Most of my backup plans should allow me to keep working partially on my games.

I have a plan B, that is taking freelance work for a few hours a week to keep living costs covered. And a plan C, that is taking a part time job, if plan B fails.

The following plans are named with the last letters in the alphabet, because they are my last resort. Hopefully if plan B and C fail, time comes up with a plan D, E and F.
But anyways, my plan Y is getting a full time job as a game developer. That could even be a good plan, to see how real professionals work. Finally plan Z, that is my final plan I really hope not having to execute, is going back to a full time job as a normal software developer.

I guess that I will switch to Plan B soon, to don't consume my whole savings and create different sources of income. Even if my game would sell well, it doesn't mean that it will still sell in a month or in a year. The same counts for future games, that could be hits or complete failures. Having alternatives is always recommended and can also create other opportunities.

That's all folks

I guess with this I just wrote my longest "only text, no code" blog post so far, but this memorable event was worth it. Thank you for reading and see you in a year again, for another one!

Every feedback is welcome

Feel free to write me an email at info@simondalvai.org and comment on Mastodon.

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