Steal this idea: Harpagia's one Reddit post, criticism and all

Harpagia is a text-based idle RPG for iOS and Android, made by one person: Ken Law, a former engineering manager at Meta. He told Starter Story he hadn't written a line of code in over four years when he started building with AI tools, using Cursor as his editor and ChatGPT for brainstorming and icon touch-ups.^[1] For its first six months the game grew slowly. Then he wrote one post on Reddit, and he says it changed everything.^[4]

This page takes that post apart and turns it into a pattern you can copy: where he posted, what he wrote, what people said back, what he did next, and the rules you need to know before you try it.

The pattern in one sentence

Post your rough-but-playable product once, honestly, in the one community where your exact users already hang out, ask for criticism, stay in the comments, ship the top fixes within days, and come back later with an update post that shows you listened.

What it did for Harpagia

Ken's own account, written a year after he went full time: in the first six months after launch the game had around 6,000 downloads and roughly 80 daily active players. Then he made the post. "Over the following month, the game grew from around $1,000 per month in revenue to over $10,000 per month. Daily active players increased from roughly 80 to around 600". That was the point where he felt comfortable leaving his job.^[4] In his Starter Story interview he put it as $1,000 to $10,000 a month "almost overnight from that one single post", and said he left Meta that same month.^[1]

1. Nov 2024

   Harpagia goes live on the App Store.^[11]

2. Dec 2024 – May 2025

   Slow growth: about 6,000 downloads and ~80 daily players after six months.^[4]

3. 6 Jun 2025

   Ken posts "Harpagia - Text Idle RPG (iOS + Android)" to r/incremental_games.^[2]

4. 9 Jun 2025

   An update removes the banner ad and the energy system, and stops gating automation behind premium.^[2]

5. Jun – Jul 2025

   Revenue goes from ~$1K to $10K+ a month; daily players from ~80 to ~600 (founder-reported).^[4]

6. 26 Sep 2025

   A follow-up "[Update]" post thanks the subreddit and lists what changed.^[3]

7. Sep 2026

   About $13,000 a month on average, over $150,000 in the past year and 50,000+ downloads (founder-reported).^[1]

Reddit stayed his main channel afterwards. He told Starter Story that almost every time he posted he saw a big jump in new players, and that revenue grew from around $10,000 a month to a peak of roughly $18,000 "just posting on Reddit".^[1]

What the post actually said

The post is short and plain. Read it and you'll notice it does five things, in order:^[2]

• Says who's talking. "I'm Ken, the solo developer of Harpagia", someone who has played idle games for most of his life and wanted to make one.
• Says what it is, using a name the readers know. A text-based idle RPG with "some common elements with other similar games like Melvor Idle".
• Is upfront about money. Free to play, "roughly 96% of players being pure F2P", an optional one-time premium of about $10, no forced pop-up ads.
• Asks for criticism, not praise. "I'd appreciate any kind of feedback, whether you like the game or not."
• Makes it easy to try and to stay. Store links for both platforms, plus the game's Discord and subreddit.

In the Starter Story interview he described that first post the same way: some screenshots, a short explanation of the game, and a few numbers about how free-to-play it is, because players in gaming communities want to try a game before they pay for it. He admits the game was "really rough around the edges" at the time.^[1]

The comments were rough. That was the point.

Ken told Starter Story the response was "overwhelmingly critical".^[1] The thread bears that out. The most common complaints were the banner ad, the energy system that capped play, and idle skills that needed premium. One of the first comments:^[2]

What Ken did next is the part worth copying. He answered almost everyone (in the archived copy we read, 24 of the 69 comments are his), thanked people for the feedback, and explained his reasoning without arguing. Two days in he promised the next update "will be removing the ad banner, energy restrictions, as well as any requirements for premium for automation features". On 9 June, under three days after posting, he was back in the thread: "Update is out removing energy restrictions!" Then he replied to the people who had complained to tell them it was fixed. One of them wrote back: "Seeing you so active in here and actively working on your game, I'll get it again for sure."^[2]

His explanation of why it worked: the posts that start the most discussion tend to do best, "especially the ones that receive the most criticism", and the conversation itself boosted the game.^[1]A year later he drew a broader lesson: before the post he thought success would mostly come from building more features, and it made him realise "distribution matters just as much".^[4]

How to run it yourself

You don't need an audience or a budget for this. You need a product people can try and a few days of attention.

1. 1

   Ship something people can actually use

   Ken calls forcing himself to launch after about six months of development, while the game was still incomplete and unpolished, one of his best decisions.^[4] Many communities insist on it anyway: r/incremental_games requires posts about your own game to link to something playable (a demo, playtest or full release).^[8]
2. 2

   Pick the one community where your exact users live

   Not the biggest subreddit you can find, the one that matches. Harpagia is a niche, text-based idle RPG, and r/incremental_games is where idle-game players gather. Ken later learned the cost of the wrong audience the hard way (see below).^[6]
3. 3

   Read the rules before you write a word

   Each community sets its own limits. Since the moderators' June 2026 rules update, r/incremental_games lets you post about your own content once every 30 days, and posts by developers must include a section titled "AI Disclosure" saying what generative AI was used for and how much.^[8] Between posts, the moderators point developers to the weekly Feedback Friday thread.^[7] If you're unsure, the moderators invite you to message them.^[8][9]
4. 4

   Write it like Ken did

   Who you are, what it is in one line, a comparison your readers already know, how it makes money, the links, and a real request for criticism. Keep it short and honest.^[2]
5. 5

   Stay in the thread for days, not minutes

   Answer questions, thank people, explain trade-offs, and don't fight. Ken's replies run from the first evening to days later.^[2]
6. 6

   Ship the top complaints fast, then say so

   Pick the two or three things nearly everyone mentions and fix them while the thread is still alive. Then reply to the people who raised them. That's how critics turn into players.^[2]
7. 7

   Come back with an update post

   Months later Ken posted again, opening with "I know the game didn't provide the best first impression back then" and listing what he'd changed based on people's suggestions.^[3] Because many subreddits limit developers to about one promo post a month, he generally only shared major updates once every few months.^[1]
8. 8

   Have analytics running before you post

   Ken's advice to other developers is to set up a backend with analytics (daily users, revenue per user, retention, crash reports) from launch. When his daily users jumped from roughly 80-100 to 800-1,000 he had to scramble to add logging, and missed useful data.^[5]

Gotchas before you post

• Don't carpet-bomb. Reddit's spam policy lists "Mass-posting repetitive content for the purpose of exposure or financial gain" among things that may violate it. If most of what you post links to your own business, Reddit asks you to be thoughtful about how often you post.^[9]
• Post as yourself. Reddit's rules ask you to participate authentically in communities where you have a personal interest, and not to mislead people about who you are.^[10] Ken opened by saying he was the developer.^[2]
• Expect to be told no. Some of the feedback will be harsh, and not all of it will be right for you. Ken's later advice: be polite but firm, and disengage from the people who drain your energy.^[5]
• Disclose your AI use where asked. If you built with AI tools, some communities now require you to say so in the post.^[8] His June 2026 r/IndieGaming post includes one.^[4]
• Cheap reach isn't the same thing. In mid-2026 Ken tried Google App Campaigns for 30 days: $2,804 for 6,136 installs (about $0.46 each). Paid players brought in $0.29 each against $1.24 for organic players, and his 30-day Play Store rating fell from 4.10 to 3.19. His conclusion: "finding the wrong audience is much worse than finding no audience at all." He's clear he's not saying Google Ads don't work, and says he doesn't yet know whether the answer is better creatives, different targeting, or accepting that paid acquisition may not be viable for a niche game at his current scale.^[6]

What to take from this

1. 01

   Go where your users already are

   One niche subreddit beat a paid campaign for him.^[4][6]
2. 02

   Launch before you feel ready

   Real players changed his priorities.^[4]
3. 03

   Ask for criticism

   Critical threads drove the most discussion.^[1]
4. 04

   Fix fast, in public

   Under three days from post to update.^[2]
5. 05

   Return with proof you listened

   The [Update] post listed the biggest changes.^[3]
6. 06

   Follow each community's rules

   In r/incremental_games: once per 30 days, a playable link, an AI disclosure.^[8]