Duke Nukem Forever had a longer development time, but a sadder ending. Team Fortress 2 from Valve had a similar development time and has had over a hundred pat

Duke Nukem Forever had a longer development time, but a sadder ending. Team Fortress 2 from Valve had a similar development time and has had over a hundred patches since release, in addition to a fair amount of media developed outside of the game. It's true that both have had significant backing bankrolls. However, you can also look to some indie 'studios'. Cave Story was a one man project that took 5 years (of spare time) to complete, and is often lauded as an indie star. Dwarf Fortress has only ever had one programmer (who is now supported by user donations), and probably deserves noting even if it doesn't quite attain any significant degree of polish.