I Make $10K/Month Building Games (Solo Developer)
Who are you and what business did you start?
I’m Ken, the solo developer behind Kayelle Apps, a one-person indie game studio. Right now, I’m developing Harpagia, a text-based idle RPG where players battle monsters, train skills, collect rare gear, and steadily grow their accounts over time through long-term progression and build customization.
My primary customers are players who enjoy long-term progression games like RuneScape or Melvor Idle - the type of players who enjoy "number go up" gameplay, maxing accounts, collecting rare items, optimizing builds, and steadily progressing over long periods of time.
Harpagia is a reflection of who I am as a gamer. It pulls inspiration from many of my favorite games from the past 30 years, combining different ideas and progression systems that I’ve personally always loved. Instead of trying to chase trends, I focused on creating the type of game that I would genuinely want to play myself for years.
Today, Harpagia has grown to over 40,000 downloads and generates roughly $10k per month as a solo indie project.
My image
How do you come up with the idea for kayelleapps.com?
I’ve spent most of my life playing RPGs, MMOs, and progression-heavy games like RuneScape. As I got older and had less free time, I naturally gravitated toward idle and incremental games, but I rarely found one that fully captured the long-term progression, account building, and depth I wanted. Over time, I realized the game I truly wanted to play probably didn’t exist yet, so I decided to build it myself.
Before Harpagia, I experimented with other projects like a music transcription channel and dating advice content, but eventually lost interest in both. Harpagia felt different immediately because my excitement never faded, even after years of development.
I also spent 12 years working in big tech, which gave me a strong background in software engineering and long-term system design. I didn’t validate the idea traditionally at first. I simply built the game I personally wanted to play. The validation came naturally as players started discovering and connecting with it.
How did you launch kayelleapps.com and get initial traction?
I launched Harpagia quietly around Thanksgiving 2024 with almost no marketing or public promotion. For the first six months, I didn’t run ads, build in public, or heavily push the game on social media. Instead, the game grew slowly through organic app store discovery and word-of-mouth from players who happened to find it.
At launch, I wasn’t very confident in the game yet. Even after six months of nonstop development, I still felt it was extremely incomplete. Surprisingly though, the early response from players was overwhelmingly positive. Many players saw long-term potential in the game even when I mostly focused on everything it still lacked.
Within three days of launch, and with only around 30 downloads, I made my first $10 sale. I still remember how surreal it felt that a complete stranger believed something I built was worth paying for.
One of the biggest lessons I learned was that players often evaluate live games not only based on what they currently are, but what they believe they can eventually become. I also learned that speed, iteration, and consistent updates matter far more in live games than perfection. Over time, I realized sustainability is critical as a solo founder. Long-term consistency matters far more than trying to operate at maximum intensity forever.
What was the growth strategy for kayelleapps.com and how did you scale?
Most of Harpagia’s growth has come through organic traffic and word-of-mouth rather than traditional marketing. Early on, I made a fairly conscious decision to prioritize improving the game itself instead of aggressively focusing on ads, influencers, or content creation. While I fully recognize that this probably wasn’t the most optimal strategy for maximizing growth, I wanted to focus first on building a product that players genuinely cared about.
The primary channel I’ve used has been Reddit, particularly the r/incremental_games community. Because Harpagia is such a niche game, that community immediately understood the type of long-term progression experience I was trying to build. Roughly every few months, I share major updates, new systems, or progress posts there.
One of the biggest turning points came about six months after launch when I made my first Reddit post about the game. Almost overnight, daily active users jumped from roughly 80 DAU to around 600 DAU from that single post alone, and surprisingly, much of that growth sustained itself long after the initial spike. That experience completely changed my perspective on how powerful niche communities and word-of-mouth can be when a product strongly resonates with the right audience.
I also briefly experimented with TikTok and Instagram, but quickly realized that consistently creating short-form content requires an entirely different skill set and level of ongoing commitment. At least for now, I chose to focus most of that energy on improving the game itself instead.
Ironically, one of the strongest growth drivers ended up being the community itself. Because Harpagia appeals to a very specific niche, players who strongly connect with it naturally recommend it to friends and other players. Over time, I learned that deeply resonating with a smaller audience can often be far more valuable than trying to appeal broadly to everyone.
My biggest recommendation to aspiring entrepreneurs would be to focus heavily on building something people genuinely care about before obsessing over growth tactics. Strong word-of-mouth becomes significantly easier when people are genuinely excited to share what you’re building with others.
What were the biggest lessons learned from building kayelleapps.com?
One of the biggest mistakes I made early on was making too many features freely accessible through ads because I wanted the game to feel generous and player-friendly. Ironically, revenue, retention, and even player sentiment worsened over time, which taught me how important perceived value and careful monetization design are in live games.
Another major lesson was realizing how different communicating with players is compared to communicating with coworkers in big tech. As the game grew, I learned that even casual comments could easily be misunderstood and create backlash.
One of the best decisions I made was focusing on building a game I personally wanted to play rather than aggressively chasing trends. That authenticity naturally resonated with a niche audience. A large amount of growth also came from luck and timing, particularly Reddit posts unexpectedly gaining traction.
The biggest advice I would give aspiring entrepreneurs is to ship earlier than you think you should. Many developers spend years building in isolation without real player feedback. Harpagia felt incomplete at launch, but many of the game’s best systems only became obvious after thousands of players started interacting with it. Consistency, iteration, and learning from real users ended up being far more important than perfection.
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More about kayelleapps.com:
Who is the owner of kayelleapps.com?
Ken Law is the founder of kayelleapps.com.
When did Ken Law start kayelleapps.com?
2024
How much money has Ken Law made from kayelleapps.com?
Ken Law started the business in 2024, and currently makes an average of $120K/year.
