Yes, Kenshi was made by one guy

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Kenshi, the unique open world, squad-based RPG that took the indie scene by storm, was remarkably almost entirely developed by a single person – Chris Hunt. Over the course of 12 years starting in 2006, Chris slowly brought his vision for the hardcore post-apocalyptic samurai simulator to life.

As an avid gamer and industry commentator myself, Kenshi‘s development story fascinates me. It‘s not often you hear about a highly complex, commercially successful game being crafted over a decade by mostly one man. So how did Chris pull off this incredible achievement? What drove him through the long development cycle? And what does the future hold for Kenshi‘s one-man show? Read on for my insights and analysis into Kenshi‘s one man development army.

Chris Hunt – The heart of Kenshi beats alone

While little is publicly known about the mysterious Chris Hunt, digging into interviews and old blog posts paints a picture of a passionate solo developer intent on bringing his dream game to life no matter what. Chris has been quoted as saying:

"It‘s hardly gonna be abandonware, I‘m fulfilling my dream of making my ultimate game."

Chris started conceptualizing Kenshi around 2006, although concrete work didn‘t begin until 2008. With no game development experience, Chris treated Kenshi as a hobby, funding it himself and working on it in his spare time after his regular job.

This initially slow, scattershot approach is likely why Kenshi‘s development stretched out so long. With no company breathing down his neck, Chris could work on whatever he felt like and constantly iterate and overhaul systems. And with Kenshi‘s incredibly complex world simulation, squard dynamics, and base building mechanics, I imagine Chris constantly went down rabbit holes upgrading and expanding various features.

According to Steam data, Kenshi‘s initial pre-alpha release was in May 2013, meaning the early access period alone was over 5 years! The freedom of solo development clearly has its pros and cons. While many other devs would have long abandoned such a lengthy project or been forced by publishers to tie things up earlier, Chris let Kenshi simmer until it matched his ultimate vision, which was finally fully realized with version 1.0 launching in December 2018.

The growing but tight-knit Lo-Fi Games family

While Kenshi started life as a pure solo endeavor for Chris, over the past several years he has built up a small but dedicated team under the label Lo-Fi Games. Lo-Fi Games is listed as having 10 staff members, although Chris remains the creative lead driving the studio‘s projects.

When Kenshi exploded onto the scene in 2018, selling over 2 million copies, Lo-Fi gained valuable resources to direct towards new games. Firstly, this allows them to keep supporting Kenshi with updates, mods and new features the community requests. Having a team to handle this frees Chris to dedicate time towards his next big solo development ambition – Kenshi 2.

Billed as a prequel set 1,000 years before the first game, Kenshi 2 aims to retain the series‘ signature look and feel while enhancing and upgrading certain mechanics. And while Chris now has some support, interviews suggest he remains firmly in the driver‘s seat as lead designer and programmer.

Personally I admire his commitment to his singular vision. While more cooks in the kitchen could help speed up development, too many voices could dilute Kenshi‘s unlike style. And with over a decade personal experience building the original‘s tools and engine, Chris is uniquely equipped to continue the franchise himself.

Why solo development suited Kenshi

Stepping back, the fact Kenshi‘s core systems like squad control, AI behaviors, world simulation, base building, and so on were built and refined by one person over many years could explain why it feels so cohesive. Chris‘ pure vision was never compromised or cluttered by conflicting opinions during that long incubation period.

Consider the following facets that I believe benefited immensely from solo development:

No restrictive deadlines

Being a hobby project funded out of Chris‘ own pocket afforded him the flexibility of setting his own schedule. This let Kenshi stay in oven for as long as needed until the perfect recipe was found.

Constant iteration and upgrades

With no outside team members dependent on him, Chris could rewrite and overhaul major systems without causing hold ups. This iterative approach led to more complexity.

Unique cohesive vision

With all design decisions and implementation going through Chris, Kenshi retains a consistent tone and style across characters, world, mechanics that might have become inconsistent with too many cooks.

Community-driven development

Once into early access, Chris used direct player feedback to hone Kenshi‘s balance and add requested features tailored precisely to its niche audience.

Key data on Kenshi‘s lifetime

To summarize Kenshi‘s lifetime from idea to full launch:

Looking at this timeline you can see just how long Kenshi was nurtured and iterated on, especially the 5 years getting the early access build into releasable state. This underscores why Chris‘ solo approach was vital – without total creative control to enforce his vision against interference, the game could have easily been rushed or compromised.

The future remains open world

As an avowed Kenshi lover since its early access days, I eagerly await Kenshi 2 and whatever other titles Lo-Fi has cooking behind the scenes. While Chris now has a support team to handle operations, I feel certain the core of what makes Kenshi special will remain his personal providence.

The development journey also shines light on why we don‘t see many games quite as out-there and uncompromising as Kenshi – it truly represents one man‘s ultimate hobby given form over 12 long but fruitful years. We can only hope Chris‘ steadfast adherence to his dreams continues inspiring other solo developers or small teams to stick to their visions and achieve the seemingly impossible, no matter how many years it takes. Just like Kenshi‘s squad can slowly overcome any odds within the game world itself, so too did Chris overcome all obstacles on the long road leading to Kenshi‘s hard-fought success.