These devs have been building the perfect platformer for 22 years, and the Steam apocalypse won't stop them now: "Video games have always been about a small team of sickos doing something"

A multiplayer skirmish in N Plus Infinity Times Two.

In the beginning, there was N. Not that the minimalist platformer was the world's first indie game or anything, but its history mirrors that of the entire scene – first a browser game in 2004, thrust into a wider spotlight thanks to burgeoning digital distribution on consoles, and now it's got a small but dedicated following on Steam, constantly working to improve their scores and work their way up the leaderboards.

That most recent version, N++, was meant to be the last. But for creators Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns – the dev duo who have been working together under the name Metanet Software for well over 20 years – the idea of becoming perfect describes more than the joy of guiding the game's little ninjas through the infinite deathtraps that the levels present.