I thought: 'This guy has 50 million subscribers, I'm going to be a multi-millionaire,'" says Mullins. ![]() "At that point my expectations were ballooned even more than what the reality ended up being. The video went live on launch day and currently has over six million views. In true PewDiePie fashion, the video sported the appropriately enticing headline: 'WARNING: THIS PONY GAME WILL RUIN YOUR CHILDHOOD! (Pony Island)'. that's a cool thing to have."Īlthough skeptical about the legitimacy of the PewDiePie request, Mullins was able to confirm his identity and jumped at the opportunity to have his game showed off to millions of people. "This was before Steam Direct, when it was harder to get through Greenlight, so just getting on Steam would have been somewhat of an accomplishment. "Obviously when I started it I had very little expectations and my aspirations were it would be cool if I could get it on Steam," says Mullins. Mullins had been granting access to smaller, indie-focused YouTubers and so this presented a substantial gearshift. The real flashpoint came when Mullins was contacted by YouTube megastar PewDiePie, asking if he could upload a Let's Play of the game. "Even at that point, before it came out, I had a pretty strong feeling that this was going to make me self-sufficient financially, so it didn't take long after it released to be in that situation." ![]() "I got more and more serious as I got toward the release, and when I was getting really close and sending it to YouTubers, it became apparent that people were really excited about this and it was going to be a hit," says Mullins. I thought: 'This guy has 50 million subscribers, I'm going to be a multi-millionaire'" "My expectations were ballooned even more than what the reality ended up being. It would be his first commercial game and, as the release date drew closer, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Pony Island was going to be a success, selling more than enough copies for him to leave his job and become a full-time indie. Still fresh out of university, Mullins entered the industry formally as a programmer following the Kickstarter, and began working on Pony Island in his spare time. I was still trying to get as much funding as I could so it looked good. "If you don't get that big chunk near the beginning, then the writing is on the wall, but you can't quite give up on it because it's live and you have to give it everything you've got. ![]() "Running a Kickstarter that isn't going well is brutal usually you know early on whether or not it's going to succeed because you're supposed to get at third or more of the backing immediately when you launch the thing, then you get a big chunk near the end," Mullins tells. Mullins' first attempt at breaking out as a solo indie developer came in 2014 with the failed Kickstarter entitled Catch Monsters, which raised around two-thirds of its $6000 CAD goal. The brainchild of then 23-year-old Daniel Mullins, Pony Island became a career-defining success that paved the way to his ambition of being a self-sufficient indie developer.īy Mullins' own admission, his earliest aspiration for the game was to simply have something released on Steam, but Pony Island surpassed all expectations. Described by Rock Paper Shotgun as the "smartest game of 2016", Pony Island was an unqualified indie smash hit.
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