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Forty million downloads, one garage

Forty million is a strange number for one developer. It is more people than the Netherlands has inhabitants, twice over. It happened without an ad budget, without a growth team, without a single paid install.

How, then?

• Free, honestly. The games cost nothing and respect the player: no ad walls, no purchases, no tracking. People recommend what respects them.
• Small and worldwide. A 7 MB game downloads on any connection on earth. Add dozens of languages and a name that means nothing anywhere, and the whole world is the market.
• Longevity. Snake '97 has been in the stores since 2011, kept alive and updated for fifteen years. Catalogues compound; abandonware does not.

The industry noticed

Along the way came the phone calls you do not expect: personal contact with Apple and Google, multiple times, at their offices. For a company of one, sitting at those tables is the quiet proof that craft travels.

See for yourself

The catalogue is live: Snake '97, Block 89 and Outburn 87 each have their own site, built by the same hands that built the apps.

dsd 164 has been shipping from Amsterdam since 2010. For ideas and collaborations: let's talk.

NEXT: The philosophy · The Appsterdam years