I sat motionless for a while, just staring at the numbers. Notifications climbed by the second. Streams buzzed across the system like wildfire. Players were screaming, laughing, dying, reviving, theorizing. And they were doing it in my game.
But despite all the noise, there was one thing still missing.
Me.
No one knew who I was.
I hadn't spoken a word. No interviews. No dev posts. No hotfix logs. Just a pixelated carrot and a one-line bio. But now—after seeing 57 million people get pulled into the world I'd built—I realized something.
It was time to show up.
I opened a new tab and began typing.
New Account – X (Twitter):@VeggieKenReal4123Display Name: VeggieKenBio:Solo developer of Lethal Company. Yes, I'm real. Updates soon. Stream tonight.Profile Pic: The same 8-bit carrot with sunglasses.
The username looked weird, but it felt real enough. I wanted to keep the mystery alive—but I owed the players a voice. Some reassurance. Something human.
I hovered over the "Post" button for a second. Then, with one deep breath, I sent the first tweet.
@VeggieKenReal4123"Hi. I'm the solo dev behind Lethal Company.I'll be streaming tonight on Twitch under the name 'VeggieKen'.I'll be talking about upcoming updates and answering questions.Thank you for making this game what it is.You're all insane. I love it." 🥕🧠
Within seconds, likes exploded.
Retweets. Quotes. Thousands of them. Replies flooded in. Screenshots of the tweet were shared across every server, every Discord group, every gaming subreddit. People were losing their minds.
"HE'S REAL??""VEGGIEKEN EXISTS""FOLLOWED INSTANTLY.""No way this dude made all that alone.""Stream?? LET'S GOOOOO."
Even other devs chimed in.
"If this guy's telling the truth, he's one of the best solo devs of the millennium.""This is what games are missing. Soul.""Can't wait to hear what's next."
I opened my Twitch account: Twitch.tv/VeggieKen. It had zero followers. A blank banner. No description. Nothing.
I changed the title of the page:"Official Developer Stream | Q&A + Update Roadmap Tonight 9PM"
Then I enabled follower alerts. Opened the chat overlay. Took a sip of water. And sat back in my chair.
In less than a minute… the follower count jumped past 5,000.
People were already typing "IS THIS REALLY HIM??" and "NO SHOT IT'S THE ACTUAL DEV."
I made sure everything was working—mic, chat overlay, a list of patch notes—and then just waited.
But then something unexpected happened.
About an hour before I was even live, I got an email from someone at Twitch.
Subject: "You're trending, big time."
"Hey VeggieKen, we've been tracking stream data across the platform the past few days. Lethal Company is blowing up. Highest viewer retention in the horror category.We'd like to feature your dev stream on the front page tonight.Let us know if that's cool. Welcome to the spotlight :)"
I sat back, stunned.
Front. Page.
I replied with a simple "Yes, thank you" and stared at the screen for a while. My little project, the game I built mostly in isolation and tested in silence, was now causing ripple effects across the entire industry.
At 9PM sharp, my stream went live.
And as promised, it was there—featured on Twitch's homepage. Tens of thousands were pouring in before I even said a word. All waiting to hear from the mystery dev who had somehow created the most immersive, terrifying, and talked-about horror game of the millennium.
By the time the stream actually went live, there were over 41,000 viewers waiting. As soon as I hit "Start Streaming," the chat erupted.
[Twitch Chat]"YO IT'S HIM!""VeggieKen LET'S GOOOOO""I NEED UPDATES BRO.""This guy's just a voice... prove you're the dev!""Anyone can say they're the dev, c'mon..."
I smiled, leaning toward the mic. "Wow. You guys are... loud," I chuckled. "Okay, okay. I see the doubts."
I scrolled through the chat and pointed it out aloud. "Alright. Some of you still think I'm faking it. That I'm just some rando who hopped on the hype train."
I paused, then said calmly, "If you want proof... give me one minute. I'll make an announcement inside the game. You'll see it. Every single one of you playing right now."
The chat slowed down for a second.
"Wait what.""He's bluffing.""No way he can do that.""Hold up."
And somewhere across the world, Zane, Brogan, Luna, and Vexxie were all watching. Zane's eyes widened. "No way. No way."
They all booted up Lethal Company, their stream still running, their viewers just as eager.
The lobby loaded.
So did everyone else's.
Then—just like I promised—a red-tinted global system message scrolled across every player's screen:
"Hello, World. It's me, VeggieKen.Have I proved myself now?"
For a second, there was silence. Then came the waves.
[Twitch Chat]"HOLY—HE DID IT.""HE ACTUALLY JUST ANNOUNCED IN-GAME.""VEGGIEKEN IS REAL CONFIRMED.""I GOT THE MESSAGE IN MY LOBBY TOO WTF.""GOAT. LEGEND. GODDEV."
Zane laughed out loud on his stream. "Okay, I'm done. He's real. He's 100% real."
Even Luna sat back in awe. "That's terrifyingly cool."
Back in my stream chat, messages scrolled too fast to read. Hearts. Carrot emojis. People spamming "DEV SUPREME" and "KING OF INDIE HORROR."
I took a breath and finally smiled fully.
"Thanks for believing," I said. "Let's talk about what's next."