10 Incredible Video Games Made By A SINGLE Person
1. Tetris - Alexey Pajitnov
Of all the titles on this list, the one with the most well-known history has to be Tetris. The game was first created in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov and is a perfect example of an early video game designed by a single programmer. Pajitnov was working for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at the time and created relatively simple games to test the capabilities of new hardware.
Because he grew up with a love of pentominoes featured in puzzle games, he used that as a basis for his version of tetrominoes. Tetris was discovered out of the Soviet Union and packaged with the release of the Game Boy in 1989, which made it an international success.
Since it was launched, Tetris has released on every conceivable piece of hardware. Odds are, if you have something that can play video games, Tetris has been ported to it.
It's difficult to determine how much money Tetris has earned in its 30+ year history, but by 2014, an estimated 170 million copies had sold. Given that number, Tetris has made over $5 billion in total sales. Unfortunately, due to the laws of the USSR, Pajitnov received no additional pay or royalties for his creation until 1996, 12 years after it was first released. In 2007, Tetris was named to the #2 slot of IGN's 100 Greatest Video Games of All Time.