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[Deckhead]

Is there a list of games made by single-person dev teams?

I want to compare myself against others in order to feel shame and inadequacy.

[NowSayPillow]

Dust : An Elysian Tail

[Sea Jay]

That... doesn't sound like a good reason to want to create such a list, honestly. Most single-person indie developers I know of have only released one commercial game entirely on their own, and many of those people spent an awful long time on them, perhaps including time spent gaining experience in the industry. Be proud of what little you've started and continue to work on things. I'm sure you'll get there if you think small and keep trying.

But off the top of my head:

• Stardew Valley by Eric 'ConcernedApe' Barone - I've been playing this a bit recently, so it's still fresh in my mind.
• Undertale by Toby Fox - A pretty obvious example. It even tells you his name when you start playing.
• Papers, Please by Lucas Pope - He's also busy working on Return of the Obra Dinn as I type this, so we might be able to add that to the list soon, too.
• Cave Story by Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya - Probably one of the oldest examples on this list.
• Spelunky Classic by Derek Yu - I couldn't stand to leave this one out. He is one of the founders of the site, after all.
• Tobias and the Dark Scepters by Adam Butcher - A little obscure for most people's tastes, but the documentary on it's development is incredible.
• Moonquest by Ben Porter - Only recently heard about this one. Nice to see it releasing in early access after such a long time.
• VVVVVV by Terry Cavanagh - Don't own my copy any more, but I had a lot of fun with it despite it's insane difficulty.

and those are just the commercial games you've heard of already. There are untold thousands of games made by one person with a price tag that nobody cares about. Even more without one. There are also games out there that the press will claim are made by one person, but actually had other people involved every step of the way, towards the end or after release. People on this very list have accepted help from other people at some point.

Undertale was a kickstarter project. Papers, Please couldn't have reached nearly as many people without a veritable army of translators working day and night to get it into non-English speaking hands. I wouldn't have even played VVVVVV if it wasn't for Simon Roth's skill with C++.

I'm sorry if this is making fun of your question. Making a game is a lot of work and when any individual steps up to the plate bleeding and sweating with a game in their hands, that's something deserving of respect. It's fun to see the limits of human expression; to stand in awe at the efforts of this one guy who made this great thing, but it's also false.

No man is an island. No game is made in a vaccuum. While the press harps on about Jane Doe and her intense struggle to bring Foogame to life, everyone else goes unnoticed. The loving grandparent that bought her first games console, the teachers that taught her how to read the code she'd go on to write and her dog who brought her comfort when no-one else would.

Of course, the above is a purely hypothetical example influenced by my strong opinion on the subject, but the point still stands.

Don't put yourself down just because of one other person's achievents.

Regardless of what I think, I hope that helps you out in some way. Did I forget Iconoclasts? I should have mentioned Iconoclasts. I also realise you could have been joking, in which case, good for you. I'm very bad at detecting that sort of thing.

[Schoq]

Some of those don't belong on the list since they had the music made by a different person

[Sea Jay]

Some of those don't belong on the list since they had the music made by a different person

Wasn't that my point? Also, out of interest, which ones do you mean? Upon looking it up, Undertale did have art commisioned for it, so does that not count?

If we're going to continue this list, how granular should we be? Does using external assets not count?

[Schoq]

vvvvvvvvvvv and spelunky are the ones I know without having to google anything. obviously nothing in history is truly just one person's accomplishment if we wanna go there, but—and maybe it's just me—I think sound design is as great a part of a game as the mechanics and visuals, so I'd only count games where those three were made by the same person.

[Sea Jay]

I think sound design is as great a part of a game as the mechanics and visuals, so I'd only count games where those three were made by the same person.

Interesting!

In that case, Tobias and the Dark Scepters is the only one I'm sure of, and even then I think certain music tracks were premade.

[Kevin G]

Stellar Tactics

[Glyph]

I think sound design is as great a part of a game as the mechanics and visuals, so I'd only count games where those three were made by the same person.

Interesting!

In that case, Tobias and the Dark Scepters is the only one I'm sure of, and even then I think certain music tracks were premade.

That game literally has a midi of the Zelda OoT item shop song in it, and the rest of the music was made by his friend.

[s0]

dwarf fortress is largely created by one person....

[Superb Joe]

Bob's Game, a game by one person.

[woodsmoke]

I think a lot of people here are solo(-ish) developers.

[pelle]

Many early video games were and it would be interesting to see them listed as well.  Like Paradroid is one of the most popular games over, and from what I understand it was all one guy (plus some help with box cover art and mayby some audio?). Chris Crawford seems to have done all his early games alone, so probably many at Atari did, and surely in smaller companies?

List would be much longer if we assume graphics and audio can be outsourced, because into the 90's it seems to have been reasonably popular to have just a single programmer on a project, and sometimes the same person was designer as well? And imagine how much more powerful tools we have now (but I grow in increasingly to skeptical about how much easier they make our jobs...).

[Bernord]

No one mentioned 'FEZ' yet. It is a really neat game, but the dev was crazy enough for some drama on the internet XD
The game is awesome though, and was sold with humble bundle many times

[NowSayPillow]

No one mentioned 'FEZ' yet. It is a really neat game, but the dev was crazy enough for some drama on the internet XD
The game is awesome though, and was sold with humble bundle many times

That's because Fez wasn't made by one dude ...

[Schoq]

yikes

[J-Snake]

Another eye opener:
If you eat your parents food, then your game is technically made by at least two people.

[Capntastic]

Another eye opener:
If you eat your parents food, then your game is technically made by at least two people.

Deep, like many semantics potholes.

[Schoq]

I already said that right itt don't steal my intellectual property please

[Superb Joe]

Another eye opener:
If you eat your parents food, then your game is technically made by at least two people.

paul eres rising from a pentagram on the floor