A fan game based on Nintendo's flagship Pokémon is drawing attention at home and abroad. Another Red, a Pokémon fan game made by a solo developer in Korea, recreates the latest generation Pokémon and the official move system, earning praise for a level of polish comparable to a new release. It is cited as a recent example of the growing solo developer game boom.
According to the game industry on the 4th, Another Red, made by Korean solo developer YOUNG, has been spreading by word of mouth since its release on July 11 this year and had recorded 214,035 cumulative downloads as of the 2nd.
The Pokémon game series has been a flagship franchise developed and published by Nintendo. In particular, Pokémon Red, released in the 1990s, was a hit across generations. This fan game evokes that nostalgia while including Pokémon from the latest generation, earning it the label of an unofficial new title. Although it was made with RPG Maker, a creation tool anyone can use rather than a professional game engine, reactions say its level of completion rivals the Nintendo series.
The game runs on PC and mobile (using Android and the JoiPlay app), and it is fully localized into Korean, making it highly accessible. Difficulty is offered in five levels to accommodate beginners through hardcore users, and convenience features include improved learning tools and vision machine, battle speed, and move effect displays. After the ending, an open-world exploration mode opens for a second playthrough, and above all, distribution for free helped its rapid spread among users.
These features became known through internet communities and broadcasts. Installation guide posts on major communities received hundreds of thousands of views, and YouTube videos were played tens of thousands of times. Popular streamers covered it in succession as broadcast content, bringing real-time viewership into the thousands. Reviews such as "quality on par with Nintendo's originals" and "an addictive game" have followed.
There have been past examples where fan-made games received reactions comparable to the originals. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim became, through extensive mod creation, virtually a second game, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao series also saw fan-made variants judged by some to surpass the originals.
In particular, affordable or free-to-access creation tools such as Unity, Unreal Engine and RPG Maker have spread, and distribution channels like Steam and mobile app markets have opened, making it easier for individuals to create and release games than in the past.
In the global market recently, solo-developed games have successively hit. Balatro, a poker roguelike released in 2024, was made by solo developer LocalThunk and sold more than 1 million copies within a month of release, becoming a candidate for game of the year (GOTY). Blue Prince, a puzzle adventure developed by an individual over eight years, scored a 92 on Metacritic.
Newcomer developer Nubby's Number Factory surpassed 10,000 Steam reviews despite a $5 price, and A Game About Digging a Hole, made by a German developer over a two-week winter holiday, sold 250,000 copies within a week of release. In recent years, solo-developed games have repeatedly achieved global hits, proving that ideas and personality alone can compete with major titles.
Related figures also prove this. The indie game market, where many solo developers are active, is growing rapidly. According to VG Insights, about 18,000 new titles were registered on the PC game platform Steam last year, more than 10,000 up from 2019, with 99% of them counted as indie games. According to Convoy Ventures analysis, indie game revenue share surged from 31% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, narrowing the gap with AAA (blockbuster) games. The global indie game market is also expected to nearly double from about $4.8 billion (6.6907 trillion won) this year to $9.5 billion (13.2439 trillion won) by 2030.
Solo developers in Korea are also producing notable results. Chrono Ark, a roguelike deck-building RPG, started as an individual project and steadily grew, Ratopia, a side-scrolling city-building game, drew overseas attention as a work from a solo developer company, and Telebbit, a 2D hardcore action game, was a solo developer's challenge that was recognized for its high difficulty and polish.
A game industry official said, "Solo developers often lose nimble creativity when they join large organizations," and noted, "It is most desirable for them to remain independent developers so their capabilities can be fully realized, and for some to move on to start businesses and succeed."