In the video game world, a game has to be able to capture its player-base and offer them hours of enjoyment in order to be successful. Many people, not necessarily gamers, have heard of such behemoth titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield, as they are the cash-cows of the gaming industry. These games offer the typical excitement associated with video-games, and it isn’t unusual to see other companies try to recreate these tried and true methods. Warfare, racing, and sports are usually the most popular kinds of gaming genres, so it takes a special kind of creativity to try and become known in the gaming world. Eric Barone had that creativity.

Eric is a video-game developer that was making his very first attempt at making his own video-game. He created a game known as Stardew Valley; a simplistic farming/role-playing game that has the player leaving the complexities of corporate life to pursue the simplicity of farming. This formula is nothing new, as there’s been a few other games that explored this genre with some success. Mr. Barone’s Stardew Valley was met with incredible success, selling 550,000 copies of his game in about two weeks, earning him $8,250,000. With this single game, Eric Barone changed his life completely. He could have followed what was popular, but he instead decided to go with what he himself wanted to make, and because of that, he created a creative little masterpiece that no one saw coming. As of April of 2016, Stardew Valley has sold more than 1,000,000 copies, and doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon.