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Patrol1985

The best game you've ever played made by a single person

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I'm reading "Masters of Doom" for the very first time right now and I noticed how both Carmack and Romero had created a number of games individually before they combined powers. Obviously those games were very simple by today's standards.

It made me wonder: it seems that even as simple (relatively) a game as Wolfenstein 3D would require at least a handful of people to create. Someone has to design textures, someone has to compose music etc.

Therefore I'd like to ask - what's the best and/or most complex game that you know of which was created by a SINGLE person?

I thought that maybe "Another World" (known as "Out of This World" in the U.S. I believe) was such a game, but even Eric Chahi (who designed the majority of it) needed help from a composer (Jean-François Freitas)

So what thoughts can you share?

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One Must Fall 2097 was basically one guy and a musician, I think, so that might well be the best I've played.

Minecraft was originally just Notch, right? That'll come pretty highly in most people's lists... Although not mine, as I just couldn't get until it :\

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Yep, Minecraft it is for me.

I Wanna Be The Boshy is up there as well, but technically the dev didn't make any of the art assets.

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Phobus said:

One Must Fall 2097 was basically one guy and a musician, I think, so that might well be the best I've played.


I used to spend LOTS of hours on OMF 2097. My jaw dropped when I read your post - I thought a significant amount of people worked on such a good game.

EDIT: I still find it hard to believe. I'd have to read the credits page to confirm it :D

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Phobus said:

Minecraft was originally just Notch, right?

I'm pretty sure Jeb started working on it before it went out of beta.

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Patrol1985 said:

EDIT: I still find it hard to believe. I'd have to read the credits page to confirm it :D


Good enough? Turns out it's two guys and a musician.

I think the best I've played by one person is Scorched Earth.

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Touhou 12: UFO (other Touhous too, sure, but UFO is my favorite)
Dust: An Elysian Tail (well, he didn't do the voice acting and soundtrack, but still)
Banished
Intrusion 2

There's really nothing weird about a single person making great games as long as they've got all the skills required and way too much time. Dust is a great example of this, considering the quality and amount of animations in that game.

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Virus Bloke 2: The Fall of Microsoft.

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God damn, I can't even recall any of the games I've played actually by a single person besides Minecraft, and while I enjoyed that game somewhat I wouldn't really call it the best game I've ever played.

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Minecraft isn't by a single person.

If we have to discount games like Another World because somebody else made the soundtrack, then I guess the only game by a single person I've ever played was Ken's Labyrinth.

Being the only one, I suppose it is the best, but despite this I don't think it was very good.

Or maybe Rollin. I'm not sure it was only Michael Riedel's work. If so, it gets the spot; it was more entertaining than Ken's Lab.

I suppose I could also mention the ubiquitous Tetris, but I have never played Alexey Pajitnov's original version. Likewise, I haven't played Cave Story, but Cave Story+ instead, so it doesn't count as a single-author game.

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Yeah I'm not sure I know of any games made by one person. I'd say Minecraft, but people were hired.

There was some other game on the DS that one guy made, but then he admit in an interview that he hired an entire Korean studio to make the game and he took all the credit.

What about the guy that 'Made a Game with Zombies in it?'

I have no idea :-(

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Definitely Dwarf Fortress. While some of the lore and such has been contributed, all the tangible work that went into the game has been Tarn Adams'.

Also, echoing that Minecraft, once it left free prototype, was not a one-person deal. At the very least, sound effects and music are the work of people other than Notch. Undeniably his baby, though. :P

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Just some off the top of my head, these are one person /including/ soundtrack

Lone Survivor (http://www.lonesurvivor.co.uk/)
Soul Brother (http://games.adultswim.com/soul-brother-adventure-online-game.html)
Noitu Love 2 (http://www.konjak.org/index.php?folder=4&file=10)
Legend of Princess (http://www.konjak.org/index.php?folder=4&file=11)
Cave Story (http://www.cavestory.org/)
Fjords (http://fjordsss.com/)
Coffee Mafia (by me! D:) (http://jmickle.itch.io/coffee-mafia)

probably my favourite of these is Fjords, but they are all pretty damn neat

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Oh! The Doom roguelike is pretty damn impressive, even without the additional tilesets/music and such. Dunno if that really counts, since the official version has all those other things, but you can play with just ASCII graphics.

EDIT: Just checked out Fjords, but I can't make heads or tails of the website. What is it? (And please don't say that I need to play it to find out. There's no demo to try it, as far as I could tell.)

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Membrain said:

EDIT: Just checked out Fjords, but I can't make heads or tails of the website. What is it? (And please don't say that I need to play it to find out. There's no demo to try it, as far as I could tell.)

Its a fascinating game of exploration and discovery. explaining too much would ruin it, but if you like Fez, and weird games, I recommend it 100%

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Jimmy said:

Cave Story.

By a fairly long shot. The story combined with the soundtrack and gameplay... that's a complete package, right there.

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Ragnor said:

Terraria, if that counts.

Doesn't. Even in the early betas sent to Let's Players before official release, there was artwork by Tiy in addition to Redigit's stuff. And of course, the music has always been by Resonance Array.

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Ragnor said:

Terraria, if that counts.


I know the guy that made that (from his days of making SMBX). Turns out he had a 'team' for Terraria.

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