My 11 yr journey as a [solo] developer (I am 26 yr old now)

I am a 26-year-old developer from Vadodara, Gujarat.

What do I develop? Websites, and apps before – now I make games and earn a good living ($5,000 – $9,000/month)

I have developed since I was 15 (out of passion and curiosity). I started making simple websites using PHP, JS, and MySQL (+HTML/CSS). I used to finish projects for 12th grade students and get some small fees in return.

In 2014, I was 16 and switched to Android Apps. I made utility apps – music players, photography, launchers etc. Made around $1000!

I joined a design university in Pune which included gaming as a course. 3 years later I went to Scotland for Masters, all the while still making apps on the side as a passion. I did not earn a lot, as I was busy upskilling and enjoying my Uni life!

Right before COVID, I returned to Pune for a job, and during COVID I ‘quiet quit’ my work and started building games on the side. The job was paying me ~$400/month [fresher].

I got fired eventually, and set up my small remote team to make games. I hired a couple of game devs and artists. I partnered up with publishers who would fund our hypercasual mobile games. I did this from 2020-2022. I earned about $60,000 in total over these 2 years.

I got a good job offer from a gaming company in Germany in 2022 – got fired again, and I came back to India. I saved about $22,000 in 10 months while I worked there.

From 2023 to now, I am again making games – mostly as a solo developer but also hiring some freelance people time to time.

I make web games for platforms like Coolmath games, Gamepix, and GameDistribution. I also take on freelance projects. They pay well, per game, for someone living in a country like India where costs are low. Over the past few months I am earning $5,000-$9,000 every month.

Each game takes around 2-3 weeks to develop, test and ship to these platforms. I will also put my games on JioGames soon.

I use tools like ChatGPT to write most of the game code for me. Check out this video where I earned $10,000 from a game I made using ChatGPT.

I upskilled in writing and I am very active on LinkedIn (~10k followers). I get my clients and partnerships from there. Writing allows to me talk about my development process in a fun way and gets more people to reach out to me.

I am more like a ‘solopreneur”https://dev.to/”indie’ game-dev who wants to leverage social media.

All of this to say, focus on upskilling and keep at it.

Developing apps/products is my passion, I have been fired from all 3 jobs I did but that does not mean there is no alternative path. I can never fit in any job structure because I work at a very flexible yet high pace.

At some point, I may switch back to apps! I miss finding problems in my daily life and creating solutions around it!

Happy to answer any questions!