--- title: This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS! | daily.dev description: Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has sustained a 25+ year indie game development career by focusing on a single genre (old-school CRPGs) and reusing core... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS! | daily.dev og:description: Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has sustained a 25+ year indie game development career by focusing on a single genre (old-school CRPGs) and reusing core... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/EdhZmY9N7.png og:image:alt: This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS! og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS! **[Code Monkey](https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity)** · 1 min read · 3 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has sustained a 25+ year indie game development career by focusing on a single genre (old-school CRPGs) and reusing core mechanics, assets, and systems across dozens of games. This strategy builds a loyal audience that carries over to each new release, reducing the risk of starting from zero. The post recommends his GDC talk 'Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way' for anyone interested in long-term sustainable indie development, noting that roughly 95% of games fail to recoup their costs. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How has Jeff Vogel's Spiderweb Software stayed profitable making indie games for over two decades? Spiderweb Software has sustained a living for over 25 years by making dozens of old-school CRPGs within the same narrow genre, reusing sprites, text, and mechanics across titles. This efficiency lets Jeff Vogel build a loyal audience over time, so each new game launches with an existing fan base rather than starting from zero, unlike the roughly 95% of games that never recoup costs. _Indie developers weighing long-term sustainability over one-off hits can explore strategy breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Authenticity Over Convention: Lessons from 16 Years of Solo Game Development](https://daily.dev/posts/authenticity-over-convention-lessons-from-16-years-of-solo-game-development-4qxiavukb) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [15 Years of Indie Dev In 4 Bits of Advice](https://daily.dev/posts/15-years-of-indie-dev-in-4-bits-of-advice-io7fn5jjf) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Workflows & Challenges of Developing Games as a Two-Person Team](https://daily.dev/posts/workflows-challenges-of-developing-games-as-a-two-person-team-cjhurekao) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#game-design](https://daily.dev/tags/game-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS!","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7"},"datePublished":"2026-07-17T14:07:19.818Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:40:04.285Z","description":"Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has sustained a 25+ year indie game development career by focusing on a single genre (old-school CRPGs) and reusing core...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eUL1yF5aF54/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eUL1yF5aF54/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Code Monkey","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Code Monkey","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--mgoqDIgw--/f_auto/v1727446687/logos/codemonkeyunity","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-development,game-design","timeRequired":"PT1M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS!","description":"Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software has sustained a 25+ year indie game development career by focusing on a single genre (old-school CRPGs) and reusing core...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eUL1yF5aF54/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-17T14:07:19.818Z","duration":"PT1M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/EdhZmY9N7","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/eUL1yF5aF54"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Code Monkey","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"This Indie Dev Making a Living for 20 YEARS!"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-indie-dev-making-a-living-for-20-years--edhzmy9n7#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How has Jeff Vogel's Spiderweb Software stayed profitable making indie games for over two decades?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Spiderweb Software has sustained a living for over 25 years by making dozens of old-school CRPGs within the same narrow genre, reusing sprites, text, and mechanics across titles. 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