That's quite interesting, I've played gunpoint a long time ago and enjoy a lot.
On the game page it list several people involved in the project but it's amazing most of the work was done by a single person.

Found recently that Braid was also a one man project.

Vertigo 2 by Zach Tsiakalis-Brown

https://store.steampowered.com/app/843390/Vertigo_2/

Vigilantes, can be found on Steam too.

Shame it's not on GOG thou.

Caves of Lore

Hi, I'm the solo dev for Caves of Lore. Just release today on GOG. I'm not allowed to post links yet, but it will come up on a GOG search. Also, Steam and Google Play.

Here it is

Store page - https://www.gog.com/game/caves_of_lore
Release discussion - https://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_caves_of_lore_10678

Looks like a great game. I'll add it to my wish list.

I'd throw out the mobile game Questlord. It was great when my commute had me on the bus for an hour twice a day, before working from home was the norm.

Nope.

"A game by Jonathan Blow
Graphics by David Hellman
Programming of additional visual effects by Sean T. Barrett
Animation Prototypes by Edmund McMillen
Additional Sound Effects by Harry Mack"

And all the music is licensed.

The design and most of the programming being done by one person, while impressive, doesn't make it a one-man project I'm afraid.

Stuff where only one person ever touched it is hard to find. Even Transport Tycoon wasn't solely Chris Sawyer, but working on the basis that small teams are allowed, I'd go with:

- Anything by Chris Sawyer (TT, RCT, RCT2)
- Elite (David Braben and Ian Bell)
- Geoff Crammond's F1GP

As more recent examples:
- Minecraft (I don't care that he sold it to Microsoft, essentially he got it to a releasable state pretty much on his own)
- Factorio (although it has a small studio now, development was started by Michal Kovarik before expanding, initially to a team of two). It's also an outstanding, addictive and fun game.

Demetrios and Brok The InvestiGator by Fabrice Breton (CowCat Games).
Orphan by Brandon Goins (WIndy Hill Studios).
UnEpic, Ghost 2.0, UnMetal by Francisco Téllez de Meneses

(And yes, I know that not everyone thinks Demetrios is a good game - I really liked it)

no, he did not. He only did the very first prototype, concept by himself. when it was sold as beta it was under Mojang. Notch even stepped down as the lead developer in 2011, when Jens "Jeb" Bergensten took over that role.

He handed over development after the first full release in 2011 with development passing on to Jens Bergensten only after the release.

So, I think my comment is correct; he got it out of beta and to a release stage pretty much on his own (very similar team size to Chris Sawyer's and Geoff Crammond's teams, being him, someone to do sounds, and then additional art and programming).

No, because before 2011, Notch was not working on it by himself, 2011 was only when he passed on the lead developer role. Jeb was co-developer on Minecraft since late 2009. Minecraft had its first public beta in 2009, and the first release in 2011, so Jeb was co-creator since then. In the couple of years after the first release, they got a couple of more people in MOjang to work for it as well.

Okay, we're not going to agree. That's fine.

The 2011 team was four people, the same as the team size for Transport Tycoon, and the same as F1GP with similar role distribution (i.e. Notch = Sawyer = Geoff Crammond as the main programmer, with a person on each handling the sound, a person on each handling additional art and a person on each handling additional programming).

I'd also highlight that in my original post I did say "on the basis that small teams are allowed" and "pretty much on his own".

if we are doing "small team" then a) it is not the topic of this thread and b) we suddenly will have a lot more games