Maybe the dream job isn’t really dreamy… or even a job…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 22, 2014

I always want to post some things without commentary, but I can’t help but comment.

In this case, an article by my friend Lars Doucet, developer for Defender’s Quest. And the guy who did Tourette’s Quest. Warning, this is another one of those, “back to reality” pieces.

Follow Your Dreams!… Or Maybe Don’t…

This could also be called, “Why I haven’t quit my day job.” Of course, I could only dream of selling almost 200k copies of Frayed Knights. Of course, Frayed Knights is probably closer to Doucet’s Secret of the Dragons childhood dream game than it is to Defender’s Quest. So maybe going after that dream game isn’t even the slow track to success. It’s just a way to exorcise some personal demons. At great cost.

This makes me think of some advice long-time veteran (and totally awesome guy) Jeff Tunnell offered in his article, “Five Foundational Steps to Surviving as a Game Developer.” The games industry and indie world was totally different when he wrote that. Yet, mysteriously, almost exactly the same. The technologies and trends keep changing, but the key principles stay pretty consistent.

Jeff also has a fantastic old article called “Five Realistic Steps to Creating a Game Development Company.” I’ve been stuck in step 3 for a long time now, but then, my games have been in development a long time, too. I’ve got friends in all five stages, but mainly 3 and 5.  Some have had to go back a step.

What all this boils down to – and I speak mainly from long experience, not from the lofty heights of first-person success, but merely as a guy who has been in and out of the trenches through several industry cycles… is that there are no guarantees, and no long-lasting shortcuts (by the time they are discovered, it’s too late to use them). Go with caution.

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Read the First Comment



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