Ken, a former Meta engineering manager with 12 years in big tech (Amazon, Meta), quit his high-paying job to build Harpagia, a text-based idle RPG for mobile that now generates over $10,000/month with zero ad spend and a tiny team of one.
Founder background and the decision to quit
Ken studied CS at UCSD, spent ~12 years in big tech, most recently as an engineering manager at Meta, and hadn’t written code in over 4 years before starting.
Layoffs in 2022 shattered his sense of job security; he wanted control over his future and chose gaming because he knew the space well as a player.
He first built a small card game (“Big Too Wild”) in 6 weeks using AI tools (Cursor, ChatGPT) to relearn shipping a product end-to-end.
Applied those lessons to Harpagia, launching in early alpha while still employed; first sale ($10) came within days, $150 in month one, $1,500 cumulative by month two.
Set a personal threshold: if the game hit $10K/month organically, he would quit. A single Reddit post six months post-launch took revenue from ~$1K to ~$10K overnight; he resigned that same month.
Acknowledged the salary at Meta was far higher, but framed the move as “if not now, when?” — prioritizing autonomy and building something of his own.
Harpagia: product, metrics, and monetization
Harpagia is a free-to-play text-based idle RPG (16 skills, mining, archaeology, combat, gear/ability builds) targeting fans of incremental games like RuneScape; core loop is meaningful offline progress, return to collect, decide next steps.
Expenses: ~$500/month (assets, freelance art, subscriptions); ad spend $0.
Built with React Native frontend, Firebase backend/analytics, Cursor + ChatGPT for code/brainstorming, Unity Asset Store / GameDev Market for pre-made art, Fiverr/Upwork for screenshots/icons/video, Vercel for web, Discord Nitro for community.
Growth and marketing: Reddit as the sole channel
Zero paid marketing; Reddit was the only consistent distribution lever after year one.
Posted major updates every few months (subreddit rules often limit self-promo to once/month).
Critical/negative posts drove the most discussion and the largest user spikes — “all publicity is good publicity” in practice.
First Reddit post (rough alpha screenshots + “free-to-play” framing) brought thousands of players and harsh feedback that improved the game; revenue jumped from ~$1K to ~$10K/month almost overnight.
Subsequent Reddit posts grew revenue to a peak of ~$18K/month; each post yielded a significant new-user influx.
The opportunity in niche games
Gaming is a $100B+ industry, but the misconception is that you need millions of players; a small, engaged audience can sustain a profitable business.
Harpagia proves a few hundred daily active users can generate >$100K/year if the product resonates deeply with a specific niche.
Opportunity is not the next viral hit (Flappy Bird, Clash of Clans) but building something you genuinely care about and finding the others who care about it too.
Building with AI and a minimal tech stack
After a 4-year coding hiatus, AI tools (Cursor, ChatGPT) made solo full-stack development feasible; the stack is intentionally lightweight.
React Native + Firebase covers client, backend, auth, analytics; asset stores and freelancers handle art/assets so dev time stays on product.
Discord for community; Vercel for landing page; no complex infra needed.
Core lessons and advice
Build something you understand deeply; be your own target user.
Launch early — force a deadline (Ken used 6 months) no matter how incomplete; “if you’re not embarrassed by your V1, V2, or even V5, you’re not shipping early enough.”
Get real feedback from potential customers, not friends/family; early players shaped Harpagia far more than internal iteration would have.
Prioritize retention over monetization initially; build a game people want to keep playing, then layer on optional purchases.
Passion/interest in the niche carries you through the grind better than chasing trends or “random generators” just for money.
