Hi everyone,
I’m Ali, founder of Never Sleep Games and the solo developer behind The Bee Hive, which has just launched worldwide on Nintendo Switch. It took nine years. Designed, coded, animated, optimized, certified and shipped entirely by one person. Here is my selfie.
This isn’t a marketing AMA. It’s about the real, behind-the-scenes experience of building and finishing a commercial Switch title solo over nearly a decade.
During development I changed jobs, moved house, burned out more than once, lost people close to me, struggled with addiction and among other things, became a dad. The project somehow survived all of it.
I’m happy to talk about how a tiny prototype evolved into a full release, how I handled scope creep (and where I didn’t), building tools and systems alone, optimizing for Switch hardware, navigating Nintendo’s approval pipeline, the reality of launch and sales, burnout cycles, motivation over nine years, and what I’d do differently if I started again tomorrow.
If you want to ask about the broader game industry, indie sustainability, risk, mistakes, trade-offs, or the emotional side of doing this alone I’m here for that too.
I’m an open book. Nothing is off limits.
The floor, or in this case, the hive, is yours.
Love, Ali
The Bee Hive, only on Nintendo Switch, eShop links below:
Posted by SignificantRiver3662
8 Comments
Congratulations on the release!
Currently learning piece by piece as a solo dev. What did you find most surprising about working on the dev process alone? Did you expect periods of burnout or were you blindsided when the feeling would set in?
Very cool! Planning a physical release?
Also if you could make a game with any existing IP what would you choose?
Congrats on your release! I found a video of the game on Youtube – you might think about doing a trailer for the Switch eshop page as well. You mentioned addiction issues, if you don’t mind – how did you tackle those?
How do you find the strength to keep developing throughout your tumultuous personal life and was there a point where you was close to giving up?
Congratulations on the launch ! It’s always a miracle when a game come to life, so you should be proud of yourself. You mentioned how hard your journey was, I hope everything is better now.
Why did you decided to launch the game on Switch ? I did a quick research, and it seems you didn’t released it on PC, which is the main system for indie game development I believe. I would love to know about how a game developer is choosing the platforms he will release the game on. Thank you !
Nine years solo is an incredible commitment and shipping on a platform as demanding as the Switch makes it even more impressive. The optimization challenges alone for a solo dev must have been really intense. What was the single biggest technical hurdle you faced during the Switch certification process?
Any plans on a Switch 2 Edition?