Hotline Miami dev not in it for the money

Jonatan Söderström, the man behind indie success Hotline Miami, has said that he didn’t decide to enter game development to pad his wallet.

“I’m not making games to make money,” he said.

“I do want to make money, but it’s not my major intention with my creativity. I just like expressing myself, making cool stuff, and like, if you don’t want to pay for the game but want to play it anyway, I’m not going to stop people from doing that.”

Hotline Miami was a Dennaton Games project, a tiny studio consisting of Söderström and Dennis Wedin. It has a received a lot of critical acclaim since its release, including a perfect score fro Eurogamer and Game of The Show at Rezzed Expo.

“I want to make enough money to make bigger games, and that’ probably not something I’m able to do if I have to get a job, and of course I want to be able to pay rent and buy food from what I do,” continued Söderström. “So, we’re looking to make another game as soon as possible, and hopefully it will turn out as good as Hotline Miami.”

Söderström put his money where his mouth is earlier this week when he offered to help Pirate Bay users who were getting buggy versions of his games – versions they had illegally downloaded.

“I prefer if they play a version of the game that isn’t bugged out, so they get a good impression of it,” he said.

“I don’t want people to pirate the game or anything like that, but I know it’s an issue and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m not sure I want to do anything about it, but I just want want people to enjoy the game.”