10 Incredible Video Games Made By A SINGLE Person
5. Stardew Valley - Eric Barone
Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone was the sole designer and developer of Stardew Valley over the course of four years. During the development process, Barone maintained contact with players and playtesters to refine and redesign portions of the programming to ensure his final release would be the best product possible.
Stardew Valley was inspired by the Harvest Moon series, making tweaks to various aspects Barone felt needed improvement. He undertook the development of the game as a passion project, but also so he could improve his programming skills.
Prior to the game's release, he was approached by the independent game developer, Chucklefish to publish Stardew Valley under their name. Their assistance helped open the door for extensive development and refinement of the code. In the end, Stardew Valley was released in early 2016 for Windows but has since ported to everything from the Nintendo Switch to the Xbox One and iOS.
Stardew Valley is one of those games that's just pleasant to play. There is little stress involved, but the players find themselves engrossed in the gameplay such that it's easy to forget to eat and sleep while playing. By the end of 2017, Stardew Valley had sold more than 3.5 million copies.