Building a best-selling game with a tiny team – with Jonas Tyroller

Supported by Our Partners • Formation — Level up your career and compensation with Formation. • WorkOS — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS • Vanta — Automate compliance and simplify security with Vanta. — In today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I’m joined by Jonas Tyroller, one of the developers behind Thronefall , a minimalist indie strategy game that blends tower defense and kingdom-building, now available on Steam. Jonas takes us through the journey of creating Thronefall from start to finish, offering insights into the world of indie game development. We explore: • Why indie developers often skip traditional testing and how they find bugs • The developer workflow using Unity, C# and Blender • The two types of prototypes game developers build • Why Jonas spent months building game prototypes in 1-2 days • How Jonas uses ChatGPT to build games • Jonas’s tips on making games that sell • And more! — Timestamps (00:00) Intro (02:07) Building in Unity (04:05) What the shader tool is used for (08:44) How a Unity build is structured (11:01) How game developers write and debug code (16:21) Jonas’s Unity workflow (18:13) Importing assets from Blender (21:06) The size of Thronefall and how it can be so small (24:04) Jonas’s thoughts on code review (26:42) Why practices like code review and source control might not be relevant for all contexts (30:40) How Jonas and Paul ensure the game is fun (32:25) How Jonas and Paul used beta testing feedback to improve their game (35:14) The mini-games in Thronefall and why they are so difficult (38:14) The struggle to find the right level of difficulty for the game (41:43) Porting to Nintendo Switch (45:11) The prototypes Jonas and Paul made to get to Thronefall (46:59) The challenge of finding something you want to build that will sell (47:20) Jonas’s ideation process and how they figure out what to build (49:35) How Thronefall evolved from a mini-game prototype (51:50) How long you spend on prototyping (52:30) A lesson in failing fast (53:50) The gameplay prototype vs. the art prototype (55:53) How Jonas and Paul distribute work (57:35) Next steps after having the play prototype and art prototype (59:36) How a launch on Steam works (1:01:18) Why pathfinding was the most challenging part of building Thronefall (1:08:40) Gen AI tools for building indie games (1:09:50) How Jonas uses ChatGPT for editing code and as a translator (1:13:25) The pros and cons of being an indie developer (1:15:32) Jonas’s advice for software engineers looking to get into indie game development (1:19:32) What to look for in a game design school (1:22:46) How luck figures into success and Jonas’s tips for building a game that sells (1:26:32) Rapid fire round — The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode: • Game development basics https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/game-development-basics • Building a simple game using Unity https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-a-simple-game — See the transcript and other references from the episode at ⁠⁠ https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast⁠⁠ — Production and marketing by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://penname.co/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@pragmaticengineer.com. Get full access to The Pragmatic Engineer at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/subscribe