4 ms·

I've been a full-time 'indie' computer game developer for about five years now and in the gamedev space 'indie' hasn't really meant any one thing for most of th

I've been a full-time 'indie' computer game developer for about five years now and in the gamedev space 'indie' hasn't really meant any one thing for most of the last decade. I'm a solo guy who does art & animation, programming, writing, marketing, and so on (I have an accountant and I contracts a friend who helps with the music), working on original IP, with no outside inventment, self-publishing - which is about as 'indie' as it gets, I suppose. However, 'indie' is often applied to teams of 20+ people, sometimes either with outside investment, or who work with publishing companies. Lots of publishers are 'indie publishers' too, operations are built to work with smaller teams and budgets. And I'm totally fine with all of that! Proclaiming that "I'm indier than thou" might get you some (utterly meaningless) clout with... well, I don't know who. The main thing is I find encouraging is there's a number of proven ways to run a sustainable software business. And that's nice to know, because if at some point I need to or want to change how I'm doing things, it isn't a one-size-fits-all scenario.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Trasmatta 6y ago
How is your game coming along? I've always wanted to make a game (like probably 50% of developers). It's just so much work I can never manage to commit to it long enough to make something.
- DizzyDoo 6y ago
  It's coming along fine, thanks for asking! (For reference, it's here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zookeeper/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zooke...) I've been working on this one for multiple years now, commitment and the art of Finishing Things is perhaps more important than any individual skill-set like programming. Obviously individual skill-sets are important, but you could be the greatest at everything and it's not worth very much if you're _also_ very good at giving up.. In my experience, the first 10% of working on a game is great fun because you're trying different things out, experimenting! And then you have to finish the thing - and getting a decent product to market is a hard slog whether it is a video game or not. Simple advice to anyone interested in making games - make something small and simple in a single weekend, a snake clone or something, and then go from there.
  - chrisweekly 6y ago
    Not OP, but thanks! Willing to share any dets of your setup / stack?
    - DizzyDoo 6y ago
      Sure! The 'minimum requirements' on the Steam store page is basically my Windows computer, and the Macbook I have ;) For previous games I used to support Ubuntu Linux too, but the cost of supporting such a limited player base didn't work out for me, sorry Linux people, maybe again one day! I use Unity (currently 2019.3, probably moving to 2020 soon, for the new v2 of the Hybrid Renderer package) and C#. Photoshop for painting with an Wacom Intuos 5 tablet (Adobe Script for slicing and exporting), Spine for animating (highly recommended! Check out esotericsoftware.com), Modo for all my 3D needs. Git for version control, Gitlab for hosting, and lots of Python and Django for the web service parts of my current game, as well as my website. Lots of Google Sheets for marketing and accounting. And, of course, paper and pens to doodle and make notes and keep track of where everything is at and what I'm working on next.
      - AlchemistCamp 6y ago
        Are you on YouTube or Twitch? This sounds a lot like what I dreamed of when first really learning to program through making (very simple) flash games.
        DizzyDoo 6y ago
        Haha, Flash Games were where I got my start doing games commercially, back in 2009! You could license them to different arcade websites and publishers, it was pretty good money for a student. And yes, I'm on YouTube over here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVCz-_8VfkVwgB1WzCcuq4w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVCz-_8VfkVwgB1WzCcuq4w
      - chrisweekly 6y ago
        Awesome, thank you!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Trasmatta 6y ago

How is your game coming along? I've always wanted to make a game (like probably 50% of developers). It's just so much work I can never manage to commit to it long enough to make something.

DizzyDoo 6y ago
It's coming along fine, thanks for asking! (For reference, it's here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zookeeper/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zooke...) I've been working on this one for multiple years now, commitment and the art of Finishing Things is perhaps more important than any individual skill-set like programming. Obviously individual skill-sets are important, but you could be the greatest at everything and it's not worth very much if you're _also_ very good at giving up.. In my experience, the first 10% of working on a game is great fun because you're trying different things out, experimenting! And then you have to finish the thing - and getting a decent product to market is a hard slog whether it is a video game or not. Simple advice to anyone interested in making games - make something small and simple in a single weekend, a snake clone or something, and then go from there.
- chrisweekly 6y ago
  Not OP, but thanks! Willing to share any dets of your setup / stack?
  - DizzyDoo 6y ago
    Sure! The 'minimum requirements' on the Steam store page is basically my Windows computer, and the Macbook I have ;) For previous games I used to support Ubuntu Linux too, but the cost of supporting such a limited player base didn't work out for me, sorry Linux people, maybe again one day! I use Unity (currently 2019.3, probably moving to 2020 soon, for the new v2 of the Hybrid Renderer package) and C#. Photoshop for painting with an Wacom Intuos 5 tablet (Adobe Script for slicing and exporting), Spine for animating (highly recommended! Check out esotericsoftware.com), Modo for all my 3D needs. Git for version control, Gitlab for hosting, and lots of Python and Django for the web service parts of my current game, as well as my website. Lots of Google Sheets for marketing and accounting. And, of course, paper and pens to doodle and make notes and keep track of where everything is at and what I'm working on next.
    - AlchemistCamp 6y ago
      Are you on YouTube or Twitch? This sounds a lot like what I dreamed of when first really learning to program through making (very simple) flash games.
      - DizzyDoo 6y ago
        Haha, Flash Games were where I got my start doing games commercially, back in 2009! You could license them to different arcade websites and publishers, it was pretty good money for a student. And yes, I'm on YouTube over here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVCz-_8VfkVwgB1WzCcuq4w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVCz-_8VfkVwgB1WzCcuq4w
    - chrisweekly 6y ago
      Awesome, thank you!