This app replaced my 9-5 ($155K/year)

Six months after launch, with no audience or budget, made a first Reddit post about the game: a few screenshots, a short explanation of what the idle RPG is, and a few metrics about how free-to-play it is (gamers want to try before paying). The game was still rough; the post drew mostly critical comments, and the discussion itself pushed it in front of thousands of players.

Reddit became the main (only) marketing channel after year one. Many subreddits cap developer self-promotion at once a month, so he only posted major updates, once every few months. Posts that sparked the most discussion, especially the most criticism, performed best. Results varied post to post.

Through repeated monetization experiments on in-app purchases (range ~$2-$10), found players generally pay $4.99-$9.99 without friction; items above $9.99 were harder to convert.

Harpagia is free on iOS and Android. Revenue comes from optional in-app purchases (~$2-$10) that unlock premium features or speed up progression in an idle RPG where players make progress while away and return to collect rewards.

Forced himself to launch after 6 months of building even though his vision was much bigger and the game was an early alpha. A small group of players found it and gave feedback that shaped later versions. Advice: get feedback from potential customers, not friends and family; if you're not embarrassed by V1 (or V5) you shipped too late.

Before the main game, built a simple card game (Big 2 Wild, a game he played with friends in high school) in about 6 weeks with AI assistants, deliberately small in scope, to learn AI-assisted development, end-to-end building, app store approvals and launching.

In the early stage, didn't worry much about monetization; prioritized retention and building a game people wanted to keep playing.