Twenty Years of Seeds: How Solo Dev noa Made Elin a Quiet Phenomenon
There’s something deeply compelling about the number twenty.
Twenty years is enough time to watch entire gaming trends rise and fall. To see consoles launch, dominate, and become vintage collectibles. To watch indie games go from bedroom curiosities to cultural juggernauts and back to bedroom curiosities again.
For Japanese solo developer noa, twenty years represents something simpler: the time it took for seeds to finally sprout.
The Long Road from Elona
Back in 2007, noa released Elona, a free-to-play sandbox RPG that developed a cult following among players who appreciated its depth and weirdness. It was a game that didn’t care about mainstream appeal—it cared about giving players systems to break, worlds to explore, and enough mechanical complexity to drown in.
For nearly two decades, noa kept working. Not pivoting to mobile. Not chasing trends. Just continuing to build in a genre space that most developers had abandoned.
Then, in November 2024, Elin hit Steam Early Access.
The Quiet Explosion
Elin isn’t a game that announces itself. There’s no marketing blitz, no influencer campaign, no viral moments engineered for maximum engagement. It’s a sandbox roguelike RPG that trusts players to find their own reasons to care.
And they have. Overwhelmingly.
As of January 2026, Elin has sold over 350,000 copies—with “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam. What makes this remarkable isn’t just the number, but who’s playing: 33% of copies went to US players, with China at 16% and Japan at 15%.
A solo Japanese dev’s passion project found more traction overseas than at home. The internet, doing what it does best.
What Makes Elin Work
If you’re expecting me to explain Elin in a neat elevator pitch, I’m going to disappoint you. That’s kind of the point.
Elin combines sandbox exploration with roguelike systems wrapped in an open-world RPG structure. You farm. You fight. You die. You lose progress. You start again with slightly more knowledge about how the systems interact.
It’s the kind of game where the Steam discussions are full of players discovering mechanics 50 hours in that they didn’t know existed. Where “builds” aren’t just character specs but entire approaches to how you engage with the world.
In other words: it respects your time by not respecting your time. If you want instant gratification, look elsewhere. If you want a game that rewards patience and experimentation, Elin is waiting.
The Developer’s Reflection
In an interview with AUTOMATON, noa reflected on the journey: “After nearly 20 years of game development, the seeds I planted have finally sprouted.”
There’s no bitterness in that statement. No complaints about the industry, algorithms, or how hard it is to get noticed. Just… patience. The kind of patience that most of us—myself included—find almost impossible to imagine sustaining.
Elin is still in Early Access, with one to two years of active development planned. Noa has been releasing roughly one major update per month since launch, building on systems that already feel deep enough to get lost in.
What This Means
I don’t want to turn this into a “follow your dreams” fable. Twenty years is a long time. Most projects started with that kind of timeline don’t end with 350,000 sales and glowing reviews. They end with burnout, abandoned repos, and “maybe someday” folders gathering digital dust.
But what noa’s story does show is that there’s still room for games that don’t fit the mold. For solo developers who’d rather build something specific and weird than chase whatever’s trending. For players who are hungry for depth over dopamine hits.
Steam Next Fest kicks off February 23rd with hundreds of demos from upcoming indie games. Maybe one of them is someone else’s twenty-year seed.
Maybe yours?
Have you played Elin or its predecessor Elona? What’s the deepest rabbit hole an indie game has pulled you into?
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