"Success beyond expectations, earning over $100,000": This weird job sim made in a year would be torture for me, but it's changed its developer's life after "bitter failure"

Another job sim has hit Steam. Cabin Crew Life Simulator was released in early access on February 19, inviting players to experience the routines, challenges, and emergencies of airline travel's unsung shepherds. As someone who's done too much flying this year already, this sounds like a nightmare I have to pay for, but it's clearly grabbed some people less weary of planes.

The game has since accrued 177 user reviews with a 77% positive score. That's modest success compared to some games – especially mega-hits like Supermarket Simulator, arguably the game best encapsulating the genre boom in this moment – but for solo developer Simon of studio SOGA, it's been a life-changing shot in the arm after two games that ended with "bitter failure."

In a March 9 Reddit post which included Steam dashboard data, Simon said Cabin Crew Life Simulator had generated $104,768 in revenue – "success beyond expectations," as he put it. The game is $13 at full price, but a chunk of sales came during a discount period, so the total sales were just over 9,500 units at the time. That revenue gets split up in a few ways, so it isn't straight cash, but it's still a great launch for a game that took "about 12 months" to make, as Simon tells 12DOVE.

I'm always fascinated by explosive, unexpected success stories in the indie gaming space, from a $6 Metroidvania that took over the charts to a roguelike city builder that consumed an Italian developer's life. But it's equally interesting to unpack the workaday games that are performing just plain well, like this crafting sim reversing fortunes after an EA-stunted launch or this turn-based RPG recovering largely through word of mouth. The indie market is kind of like the Twitch streamer market: for every success story, there are countless flops that go unseen, so getting anywhere is relatively rare. And $100,000 for a year of work seems pretty darn good to me.

I reached out to Simon to talk through his game dev journey and Cabin Crew Life Simulator's launch. He says the idea for this game came long before its year-long development process began, and in his Reddit post, he explained that after dabbling in horror with no luck, he deliberately "analyzed trending game genres and untapped themes" for his next project.

"I completely understand why some players might feel conflicted about my approach," he says of this balance of art and business. "As a solo developer, my first two games were made purely based on my own interests – but they didn’t succeed. That forced me to rethink my approach. At the core, my passion is creating games that people love, and seeing players enjoy my work brings me the most happiness, no matter the genre." Finding a way to make his passion click with players was the hard part, but he feels that "balancing creativity and business isn’t as difficult as it seems."

"This game has completely changed my life, but the journey wasn’t easy," he continues. "During development, I was financially drained and under a lot of pressure not just as a developer, but as the main provider for my family. I had invested my own savings and even borrowed money from friends and relatives to make this project happen. The risk was huge; if the game didn’t succeed, I could have lost everything."

After this launch, Simon says he can comfortably focus on game development full-time rather than side-eyeing a more stable but less fulfilling career. Cabin Crew Life Simulator is "only 50%" complete by his reckoning, so plenty of work remains. "It’s a milestone that reassures me that, despite the struggles, I made the right choice," he says.

Simon's top game dev tips, or his "lessons from failure," include starting your marketing early, using a demo for visibility, considering both publisher and solo-published options, and tapping into Steam Deck for a potential "second wave of players."

"If anything, I’d say that making games is both an art and a science," he tells me. "It’s not about sacrificing creativity but about channeling it in a way that resonates with players. That’s what makes a game truly successful."

Balatro creator says it's "useless" for him to give advice to other devs because "I only have one data point" and it was a 5 million-sale success story.