Robert Boyd on How To Become an Indie Game Developer
Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 16, 2012
Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games (“Cthulhu Saves the World“) has some advice for aspiring indies…
So You Want to Be an Indie Game Developer?
There is probably nothing new here for folks who have been following this blog for a while, but it’s still good advice: Practice, Analyze, Iterate. There’s more, of course, as well as some detailed suggestions, but it really boils down to variations these three basic actions, and getting help when / where possible.
You become an indie game developer by… DUH… making indie games.
You become a GOOD indie game developer by making games a lot, soliciting feedback, and improving your craft.
You become a SUCCESSFUL indie game developer by getting good at it, and through either luck (playing the field!) or calculated effort meeting the demands of the market, and (which Boyd doesn’t really mention) discovering how to get your message out. Sometimes someone else will take that job for you, or things will just go viral and LOTS of people will do that job for you – but it still has to happen one way or another.
Like most other fields, persistence seems to be the key. As I frequently note, while almost nobody had heard of Notch before Minecraft, it was far from his first title. It wasn’t even his first successful project.
It definitely ain’t easy. But I think for me it’s so ingrained it’s just a part of me.
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eedok said,
Nobody heard of notch before minecraft? That’s pretty far from the truth as left 4k dead was pretty well known, got coverage from RPS: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/12/27/left-4k-dead/ over 4000 diggs(that’s just counting diggs without buries): http://digg.com/news/story/Left_4k_Dead_Excellent_online_game and nearly 1000 upvotes on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7l7pb/left_4k_dead_ridiculously_compact_programming/
Rampant Coyote said,
Relatively speaking. 🙂
The point is simply that he’s been at this for a while. He didn’t pick up a programming book on Friday night and start making millions by Monday. While a true “overnight success” does happen, the guys I know who are pretty successful at it took a while to get there.
Other people are writing again, you should be reading them. « Digital Ephemera said,
[…] was the advice that Rampant Coyote echoed from Robert Boyd’s post on So You Want to Be an Indie Game Developer? That’s […]
Teixeira said,
In the case of Zeboyd it was mostly luck, to be fair.
Have you look at the quality of his artworks ?
And the games are what, 3 hours long ? Even for the price it’s a joke. Do you remember the Nintendo era when a game was minimum 30 hours ?
So nobody is going to achieve what they did unless they get as lucky as them, which is basically impossible (or make far better games)
Horst said,
Very good announcement. I like your opinion about developing a indie game. Minecraft is a key in the world of good an non-graphic games