10 Incredible Video Games Made By A SINGLE Person

Games made by just one person are rare, but the successful ones are even rarer.

By Jonathan H. Kantor /

Every year, hundreds of fantastic video games are released by big companies consisting of teams of hundreds of people, with some titles costing millions of dollars to develop.

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Triple-A titles often involve as much - or more - development than big-budget Hollywood films, which should tell you that these things aren't cranked out overnight by a couple of guys in their parents' garage.

That's true for the biggest titles, but there are plenty games being released that had the handiwork of a lone developer. Whether these were coders who had passion projects all to themselves or simply worked in their spare time, some developers worked without any help save the occasional music or voice-acting needed to finish a project.

In rare cases, those games went on to achieve critical and financial success with an even rarer few going on to make their lone developers rich and famous. Here are ten of the most incredible games developed by one of these intrepid few.

10. Magicite - Sean Young

2D platform/RPG Magicite was released back in 2014 after designer Sean Young launched a Kickstarter Campaign. The game was developed by Young while still attending school at the University of Central Florida and was his first "complex" title he made to launch his studio, SmashGames.

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Outside of a class to learn the basics of C++, Young dove into online tutorials and became a self-taught developer who put out his first mobile game in his Freshman year of college. He continued to challenge himself by learning everything he could about Unity, as he began to make his own library of games.

Magicite was released on the PC, MAC, and Linux in 2014, but receives updates from Young when he finds the time. He continues to work on new games that follow his unique style and skill with his most recent, Littlewood, receiving full funding via Kickstarter in under two hours.

The story for Magicite is relatively simple; a luscious mix of side-scroller platforming and roguelike progression. It's become a notable favourite for streamers, but the reality of its production has incredibly humble beginnings.

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