I like in this particular article, how the interviewer delves into how it is possible to sustain interest in coding a single game for so long (and potentially for decades). Anyone who has coded games as a single dev probably knows how bogged down you get as the game becomes more complex. Generating graphics yourself is a huge time suck which they have neatly avoided. What's intriguing is that the game design appears to be flexible enough to spend time coding mineralogy and then jumping to say horticulture while still being manageable. It would be interesting to know more about the design to see why it is so extensible.