The Recipe for Success: PlateUp's Solo Developer Shares His Story

A week before the launch of his debut game, Alastair Janse van Rensburg took a family holiday, anxious about the game's release and still making last-minute adjustments. A year prior, he had left a £30,000 per annum job as a cybersecurity researcher in Oxford to focus on game development, and his family had assured him that if the game made £30,000 in a reasonable time, the risk would be worth it. However, just over a month later, van Rensburg received his first royalty payment, which exceeded £1 million. Since its release in August 2022, PlateUp has sold over 1.5 million copies, surpassing van Rensburg's expectations. The game's success was so unexpected that it broke the payment system of its publisher, Yogscast Games, due to the large amount of royalties owed to van Rensburg. The game's popularity can be attributed to its unique blend of roguelike elements and cooking gameplay, which has attracted a large following on Steam and has been streamed by popular streamers, including Imane 'Pokimane' Anys. Van Rensburg designed the game to be a co-op experience that anyone can join at any time, with short sessions and no linear storyline or predefined levels. This design choice has made the game accessible to streamers, who can play the game with their viewers without worrying about complex storylines or character progression. The game's roguelike structure allows players to start from scratch each time they play, designing their own restaurant and kitchen layout, choosing their specialty dish, and managing their resources to reach the goal of surviving for 15 in-game days. Van Rensburg's approach to game development is centered around the concept of 'jank it or lose it,' which involves prioritizing the core gameplay mechanic over polished visuals or textures. This approach allowed him to quickly develop and release the game, and then update it regularly with new content and features. The game's community has been active in finding ways to optimize their gameplay, and van Rensburg has been praised for his regular updates and engagement with the community. As a solo developer, van Rensburg has had to manage the risk of burnout, but he has been able to maintain a regular cadence of updates, thanks to his straightforward development pipeline and the game's simple art style. Van Rensburg's advice to aspiring developers is to focus on the core gameplay mechanic and get it into the hands of players as quickly as possible, rather than spending too much time on polishing the game's visuals or adding unnecessary features.