From childhood dream to Steam release: "Craftlings" and the path of a solo developer

Kim Muntinga

17.4.2026

Translation: machine translated

With "Craftlings", Marian alias Ariano has not created a typical indie fairytale, but a development story with detours and doubts. In this interview, he explains how closely the creative vision, Community feedback and the pressure surrounding the Steam launch are connected in a solo project.

A look at «Craftlings» quickly leads to a simple narrative: a solo developer realises a charming idea, picks up on nostalgic role models such as «Lemmings» and «The Settlers» and lands a successful Steam release with it.

A conversation with Marian, who develops under the name Ariano, reveals a much more complicated picture. «Craftlings» is not the result of a crystal-clear master plan, but rather a long, often improvised process of technical learning, design corrections, community work and considerable personal pressure. Read my detailed review to find out how «Craftlings» plays in detail:

The fact that Marian ended up at this point has a lot to do with early influences. At the age of twelve, the now 42-year-old took one of the few computer science places at his school - six students in total - and began writing his first programmes in Basic. His first game was a football manager. Not a graphic spectacle, but a purely text-based game with a functioning algorithm that calculated realistic results from probabilities. The foundation was laid.

«I grew up in Poland, but everything I experienced as an adult - as a husband, as a father, as an entrepreneur - I learnt in Germany», he tells me. His childhood in Poland had a strong influence on him, but he still feels closely connected to both countries today.

The long road to his own company

After graduating, Marian never worked as a traditional programmer. Instead, he was drawn to the business side: data analyst, product manager. Nevertheless, games continued to accompany him, initially on the side: he played a lot himself and worked in parallel on Flash projects, smaller mobile apps and his first attempts at earning money with games.

The real step came later. With «Craftlings», Marian decided to stop just trying out ideas and to consistently bring his own game to publication. The idea was born in 2021 during his parental leave. Marian stayed at home and wanted to teach his daughter Polish. At the same time, he began working on «Craftlings», then still under the title «The Settlings».

«Lemmings» meets «Settlers»: Nostalgia of the 90s

The basic idea is as simple as it is unusual: little creatures that are supposed to walk through a world independently and build cities. You can only control them indirectly, as in the classics «Lemmings», but with the strategic building spirit of the «Settlers» series. Anyone who grew up on a PC in the early 90s will be familiar with both. And that was exactly the intention.

In practice, this means that instead of directly controlling individual characters, you build paths, buildings and infrastructure that control the behaviour of the so-called Craftlings. They automatically collect resources, process them into goods, defend themselves against enemies and work their way through the various island levels step by step. The game comprises a total of twelve levels with different biomes and more than 25 buildings, which gradually open up new possibilities within the production chains.

The result is a game that combines puzzle and building mechanics and forces the player not only to plan processes, but also to constantly optimise them.

Marian is aware that «Craftlings» draws on these role models. There are occasional voices on X that comment on this. He takes a pragmatic view: «I drew on them, but the mix is so atypical and unique that it can be recognised as a creative achievement.» Combining two games into one and creating a functioning system from them: That was the challenge.

A first playable prototype (as a demo) was created in 2022, entirely from Marian's hand: code, graphics, design. He didn't see the fact that he had no experience with pixel art as an obstacle, but rather as another learning field. «If I want to become an indie developer, it's not enough if I only know how to code and do Marketing», he explains. «I also have to do graphics.»

So he learnt.

«Gronkh», 28,000 viewers and a turning point

At the end of 2022, shortly before Marian was due to return to his old job after his parental leave, there was a problem: the job no longer existed. At the same time, something happened that he hadn't expected.

He was sitting in front of the TV with his wife in the evening when his Discord was suddenly flooded with messages.

The German Let's Play giant had played Craftlings on his stream: in front of 28,000 viewers. Marian joined in and watched as his game triggered a positive response that he could hardly have imagined.

«That was a turning point», he tells me. No job, but suddenly the feeling that he had created something that really interested people. He decided to seriously develop «Craftlings» further.

Many versions, one identity crisis, one Community

What followed was not a straight path. The game went through numerous demo versions, each one a little better than the last. Marian worked closely with a pixel artist from Croatia, who reworked and redesigned most of the graphics. Marian brought in other freelancers for sound, music and other areas.

At some point, after a conversation with the game designer of a Swiss publisher, it became clear that «Craftlings» was suffering from an identity crisis: too many hard puzzle elements on the one hand, too much freedom to build cities on the other. The game didn't know exactly what it wanted to be. Marian had to make a decision. He consistently moved the game towards a more accessible experience: less punishment, more experimentation.

Parallel to this, a Community grew up on Discord that not only played, but actively helped to shape the game. Players found bugs, suggested level ideas, pixelated graphics and gave feedback on early versions. Marian speaks of this phase with palpable warmth:

The solo developer and the limits of being alone

Marian describes the downside of indie life without sugarcoating it. Twelve-hour days, no weekends, hardly a break from September until the release on 15 January this year. Even at Christmas, he only allowed himself one and a half days off. The biggest challenge was less a technical one than a human one: loneliness.

«Staying motivated at all times when you work ten or twelve hours a day for several weeks without a change. That has an unconscious effect on you», he says. The lesson he learnt from this: breaks are not a luxury, but a prerequisite for not jeopardising a project in the long term. He sought out exchanges with other indie developers on the internet and built up a network.

As a generalist - with knowledge of programming, graphics, Marketing and business - the tasks were divided between areas in which he already had experience. On the other hand, he had to learn how to communicate a vision when working with freelancers who didn't share it. «My job was always to package the expertise of others in such a way that the overarching project benefited from it», he explains. This skill, which he brought with him from years as a product manager, proved to be an unexpected advantage.

Oktopus, «Hand of Blood» and 300,000 views

One story exemplifies Marian's approach to marketing: In 2024, the well-known German YouTuber «Hand of Blood» (aka Hänno or Maximilian Knabe) responded to one of his posts. Marian wrote back and asked what he would prefer as the first boss in the game: a pirate ship or an octopus. The answer came quickly: octopus.

Marian built the octopus. Two weeks later, he sent Hänno a message: «You wanted an octopus, now you have one - this is your child.» The result: a video with currently around 280,000 views, in which Hänno tells the whole story.

«Many people think it's enough to send an email with a key and someone will respond», says Marian. «But the marketing work starts much earlier.» He spent months building relationships with influencers. Not through spam, but through genuine interaction. He sent over 1000 individual emails for the release. He responded to all of them personally: in German, English and Polish.

The release button and a bug on the Steam Deck

The release evening was not a relaxed celebration. He was sitting in a call with a developer friend when he pressed the button and immediately checked whether the game worked. The Community had tested so intensively in advance that Craftlings launched with remarkably few bugs. Marian hesitates to call himself a solo dev: «If 20 or 30 people on Discord have invested hundreds of hours in bug testing for weeks, it would be unfair to ignore that.»

And yet: Shortly after the release, he found a critical bug on the Steam Deck that blocked the tutorial. It was after 11 pm. He got his wife involved. Not because she's a programmer, but so that she could watch his hands in case he slipped somewhere under pressure and accidentally broke something. «When the Americans wake up, want to buy the game and it doesn't work. That would be disastrous.»

The fix worked.

The influence of player feedback

«Craftlings» has an onboarding problem, which Marian addresses openly. The biggest criticism of the game is not the gameplay itself, but that it does not pick up all players equally well.

The game requires an understanding of how indirect controls work. A concept that is self-evident for «Lemmings» veterans, but not for many others. Those who don't know this language will find it difficult to get to grips with. If you don't take the time to understand the system, you'll quickly leave and refund the game. Often without any feedback.

This is one of the most important lessons for Marian. A tutorial must not only explain, but also motivate. It was precisely at this point that he lacked time, experience and, above all, the right feedback.

«This is survivorship bias in its purest form», he says. «Those who stayed told me what could be better. Those who didn't understand the game simply left.» This lack of feedback was one of the biggest blind spots in development.

Where «Craftlings» is convincing, however, is in another area: some players have invested over 100 hours. For Marian, this is harder to grasp than any sales figure.

All in all, the game has built up a small but dedicated Community.

What's coming next

When asked about the future, Marian answers thoughtfully. A second game? Possibly. But the general conditions - a complicated relationship with a previous publisher contract, an increasingly saturated Steam market, a confusing AI landscape - make planning difficult.

What he does know is that he wants to utilise the knowledge he has acquired. As a developer, as a marketing and publishing partner for other indie studios, perhaps also as a consultant. Ariano Games GmbH has been founded. The tools remain the same. Only the playing fields might change.

In the end, he ends up back at the beginning: the boy in Poland who sat in front of a 386 and wondered how games are created. «This dream has come true», says Marian. «And I'm proud of the fact that I didn't abandon the path in between.»

Kim Muntinga

Editor

Kim.Muntinga@galaxus.de

My interests are varied, I just like to enjoy life. Always on the lookout for news about darts, gaming, films and series.

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