Stardew Valley's Solo Success
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A story about how Eric Barone created the hit game Stardew Valley while working as an usher, living off his girlfriend's grad school stipend.
"This guy Eric Barone basically gets out of school and doesn't want to get a job. He's like, 'I'm going to teach myself how to code instead of getting a good job.' He decided to learn how to build a game to teach himself coding, rather than just coding for coding's sake.
He always liked these games back in the day like Harvest Moon, which had this cult following. So he decided to make his version of Harvest Moon. He spends 4 years in solitude just building this game by himself before releasing it.
His girlfriend had a grad degree stipend and he had a part-time job as an usher. The game Stardew Valley has now sold 20 million copies at $13 a pop, and over time has done $150 million in sales revenue. He's the only guy who built it, just by himself."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.