over the past few years we've done a
series of so you want to be episodes
talking about what it takes to fill the
various roles in the game industry but
lately we've got more and more requests
for suggestions on how to get into
independent games development and since
it's something that james has worked
with a number of people on we figured
hey why not
hopefully this helps some of you take
the first steps toward getting more
fantastic games out to the world
so without further ado lesson 1 the
first thing you have to know as an indie
dev is that you are not going to be
making a game with the scope of a god of
war or call of duty
for your first project think simple
think small
whether you're self-financing for a few
million dollars or you're living off a
ramen doesn't matter
you want to keep your first project
achievable something you can get out to
market and into the hands of real people
your first time through this process
will teach you a great deal even if
you're already a wise
veteran coming out of the aaa industry
it's a totally different experience
working with a small
team and actually getting to help call
all the shots and if you're not a
veteran the amount you're gonna learn
from this is just staggering
i can guarantee you this your second
project will be so much better and goes
so much smoother than your first
and when it comes time to start your
second project think simple
think small again james has an enormous
amount of experience estimating project
timelines and to this day when he makes
these estimates he always just adds an
extra 50
to the schedule and budget because these
projects always end up with a thousand
little pieces and complexities you can't
possibly foresee before you've gotten
started
lesson two being an indie dev involves a
lot more than just building games
i have known plenty of teams that were
great at building games but whose studio
died on the vine because they didn't
know how to do marketing or pr
or how to get the project distributed
there is a lot more to succeeding in
this industry than just
build it and they will come this is
where the fantasy of being an indie
separates from the reality
you'd like to dream about working on
games all day but honestly you're going
to be wearing a lot of hats and if this
company is your baby you're probably
going to be spending almost as much time
answering emails taking meetings
worrying about taxes and money and so on
as you are actually developing your game
if you're working with more than one
person i would highly recommend getting
a lawyer from the outset
you don't have to use them much until it
comes time to deal heavily with
contracts but someone who can help you
set up your company right can save you a
lot of headaches in the long run
if you can spare the 500 to a thousand
dollars to hire a lawyer when you start
to get serious about launching a game
it'll be well worth it
once you're all set up the key as an
indie assuming you're not working with a
lot of money is how to get visibility
the best method is going to differ
wildly for different games in different
studios so here i would just recommend
really studying how other games have
done it
whether it's building into the game
things that people want to share like in
minecraft or using spaces like
congregate the way team meet did
there are a thousand different methods
to help your game stand out from the
ever growing crowd of indie titles out
there
just remember going viral is something
that you work for and you have to stay
on top of it it's not just something
that happens by itself
at least not 99.99 of the time beyond
that you'll need to figure out how
you're going to get your project
distributed
getting on steam doesn't just happen and
many of the much smaller digital
distribution services aren't going to
glean you more than a few dozen sales so
really think about and give yourself at
least six months prior to launch to work
on pursuing distribution
lesson three is budget this might seem
simple as an indie studio
you just take the minimum amount you all
need to live each month multiply that by
the number of months you expect the
project to take
and voila you got your budget wrong no
because it turns out there are licenses
you're going to have to buy
and legal fees you're going to have to
pay and then there's taxes and of course
somebody's car is going to break down at
some point
and then one of the computers is going
to burst into flame and you'll have to
replace that
plus all the work that was on the hard
drive that people forgot to back up and
all that's just the start of it
often you build your first game simply
to get people to know who you are
and to gather a small following of fans
to get people interested in you as a
company and make your work stand out
amongst all the less well-crafted indie
games out there
often even if your first game wins some
awards and get some press
it's not gonna sell phenomenally well
honestly just getting noticed is
probably a more important goal for your
first game than sales but that does mean
that you're gonna need to plan a way to
survive long enough to release your
second game so
just keep that in mind also another
important thing to know many game
distributing companies aren't going to
pay you until
30 to 90 days after they start selling
it james has seen too many indie teams
suffer because they ran out of cash
while waiting for that first decent
sized check
of course it's not the end of the world
if this happens if your game is selling
well enough people
will be willing to front you some money
but that money is going to be a lot more
expensive than you'd ever want it to be
and finally lesson four mechanics trump
content this advice is for your actual
game design as an indie you can get away
with a game that's short
your game could be a five minute web
game that touches us in some deeply
emotional way or
even a gripping eight hour adventure
what it absolutely must not be
is 25 hours of yeah it's alright
polish and scale are the weapons of the
aaa world and these can't really compete
with that so unless you already have
something spectacular or novel to offer
your focus shouldn't be about building
more of it
instead concentrate your efforts on
making that play really stand out
too often i see new indie companies
cobble together some baseline
functional mechanics and then just start
building levels and creating new content
because doing that feels like a game's
getting made
it feels like tangible progress but that
is the wrong way to go about things
if you don't make sure your mechanics
are right first you're just gonna have
to redo all that level design when you
polish those mechanics
or worse you'll be afraid to change your
mechanics for the better because of all
the level design you already did
and you'll be stuck shipping a mediocre
game and remember to test early
it may scare you it may feel like your
game isn't ready or that people won't
understand it but it's almost never too
early to test
you can always get valuable feedback
it's often our own egos and our fear of
being hurt of having this thing we love
misunderstood or rejected
that keeps us from showing it to others
in an unbiased environment an
environment where it's okay for them to
rip it to shreds right in front of us
but to succeed as an independent
developer that's just something you're
gonna have to step past
so to review lesson one plan your game
scope
well lesson two know what you're getting
yourself into
lesson three keep your budget realistic
with hopefully enough in the war chests
to make another game if the first one
doesn't sell
and lesson 4 mechanics trump content
good luck we hope to be playing your
game soon see you next week
you