Life on the Water: How a Game Designer Turned Her Passion into a Success Story

Lente Cuenen's life is as unique as it is inspiring. She lives on a 50-foot blue-and-white boat named Zusje V, which she bought with a loan from her mother. Her home is snug, with a bed, a couch, a small TV, a toilet cubicle, a kitchen, and a workstation. The workstation is cluttered with curios, including a lime green Nintendo DS Lite with its wire-guts spilling out, a 12-volt battery, and a stack of video game cases. Cuenen is a 25-year-old game designer who grew up on an old barge on the waterways and lakes east of Amsterdam. She loves her boat and considers it her whole life. She made a game about a boat while living on a boat, which is quite interesting. Creating a successful independent video game can be challenging, especially with the sheer number of games released on online marketplaces like Steam. Last year, almost 19, 000 games were released on Steam, and small developers with no marketing budget can easily get lost in the crowd. However, Cuenen managed to attract attention to her game, Spilled! , by sharing her personal story online. The game has sold nearly 100, 000 copies on Steam since March, and even after the platform's 30 percent cut, she has made well beyond $425, 000. Despite her success, she values freedom more than money. Cuenen's home is filled with secondhand goods, reflecting her eco-conscious lifestyle. She is passionate about sustainability and donates 10 cents from every copy of Spilled! to a conservation fund for cetaceans. She also tries to avoid buying new stuff and uses hand-me-downs whenever possible. Her love for boats comes from her father, who was crazy about them. In 1995, her parents purchased the Twee Gezusters (Two Sisters), a barge built in 1920, which served as the family home for nearly two decades. Cuenen's high school years were marred with depression, but with the support of her parents, she dragged herself out of the slump and completed her diploma. Cuenen's idea for Spilled! germinated in college, where she had been messing around with a game in which the player controlled a boat. She incorporated a collection mechanic, where players collect oil instead of coins or rings. The game's primary gameplay loop is to clean up rivers and streams by hoovering up oil spills before upgrading your boat to take on even bigger spills. Interest in Spilled! grew after Cuenen started posting about her seafaring life on Twitter in 2022. A 26-year-old computer scientist from Germany offered to help overhaul the game's graphics, which gave the game a more refined look. Cuenen's success enabled her to pay back the $10, 000 loan from her mother in May, and she now owns the boat.