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Monaco made $120,000 before its release

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Andy Schatz’s cute, cooperative heist-gone-wrong sim has been out less than a week. But thanks to pre-orders that began in December, the developer has already made more than enough to pay back $100k of outside investment.

Pre-orders opened via the Humble site on December 10, and went live on Steam on April 17 – just a week before release. This morning, Monaco was briefly Steam’s top seller.

“Man our direct sales have been crazy good with all this press,” said Pocketwatch Games man Schatz on Twitter.

“After Steam/Humble fees we’ve grossed $120K since December 10. Have to pay back $100K loan from Indie Fund first.”

The Indie Fund was set up by Jon Blow and World of Goo developers 2D Boy, among others, to offer developers an alternative to traditional publisher funding. The group aims to help indies stay financially independent via a flexible loan program.

Monaco isn’t the first Indie Fund game to settles its debts at breakneck speed. Develop note that Dear Esther made back its $55,000 loan in five-and-a-half hours, while QUBE sold more than 12,000 copies after four days on Steam, deftly covering its $90,000 investment.

Monaco is on my To Play Urgently list, just below Paradox’s Leviathan and about level with Signal Ops. Have you bought it yet?