Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
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Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
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Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#2Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#3Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
[deleted]
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#4Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Most games are generic crap. I've seen crap games make money, but I haven't seen a great game fail. People see Flappy Bird and want to imitate it because it's easy. Those who work hard don't rely on luck can still build a sustainable business. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=1BCg31KVJok
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#5Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Most games are generic crap. I've seen crap games make money, but I haven't seen a great game fail. People see Flappy Bird and want to imitate it because it's easy. Those who work hard don't rely on luck can still build a sustainable business. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=1BCg31KVJok
> but I haven't seen a great game fail.
Think for a bit about your sentence and what it implies :)
(solution: that you've seen 100% of all great games ever submitted to the app store, which seems doubtful)
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#6Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Game development seems to be one of the most competitive and least forgiving corners of the larger software development industry.
A long time ago, games are what originally motivated me to learn to program. But some point along the way, I came to believe (whether true or false) that game development was really not a very enticing career path, both in terms of compensation and technical & creative challenges open to solve.
I wonder how many others came into software along the same path.
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#7Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Game development seems to be one of the most competitive and least forgiving corners of the larger software development industry. A long time ago, games are what originally motivated me to learn to program. But some point along the way, I came to believe (whether true or false) that game development was really not a very enticing career path, both in terms of compensation and technical & creative challenges open to s…
> both in terms of compensation and technical & creative challenges open to solve
Can you name other "career paths" where are more technical & creative challenges open to solve?
I am working on an indie game project right now and worked for a big corporation in a total different sector before and I must say, that when you talk about compensation, you might be right (at least, when you are working in a company), ...
... but when thinking about technical & creative challenges, game development always wins for me hands-down in my personal experience.
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most games are generic crap. I've seen crap games make money, but I haven't seen a great game fail. People see Flappy Bird and want to imitate it because it's easy. Those who work hard don't rely on luck can still build a sustainable business. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=1BCg31KVJok
> but I haven't seen a great game fail. Think for a bit about your sentence and what it implies :) (solution: that you've seen 100% of all great games ever submitted to the app store, which seems doubtful)
Nonsense; the statement is true if he has seen exactly two games, both of which were "crap" and both of which failed.
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#9Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Most games are generic crap. I've seen crap games make money, but I haven't seen a great game fail. People see Flappy Bird and want to imitate it because it's easy. Those who work hard don't rely on luck can still build a sustainable business. See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=1BCg31KVJok
> I haven't seen a great game fail
Being "great" (whatever that means) has nothing whatsoever to do with success. There are plenty of "great" things, games included, that fail. The whole idea of "building a better mouse-trap and people will beat a path to your door" is a fantasy. And this is particularly true for any app --game or not-- in something like Apple's App Store.
You can take crap, add great marketing and turn it into solid cash-flow.
In an ecosystem like the app store any app without a solid and aggressive marketing program is almost guaranteed to fail.
Yes, "great" is better than "lame" but they don't succeed or fail on their own.
Re: Five Years of Being a Full-Time Indie Game Developer
#10Admire anyone who can go full time into the game industry, which is one of the most competitive anywhere. And to do so as an independent is a high challenge. To pull that off for five years deserves great merit. Anyone who has published games to Apple's app store knows how hard it is to see any money from it.
Game development seems to be one of the most competitive and least forgiving corners of the larger software development industry. A long time ago, games are what originally motivated me to learn to program. But some point along the way, I came to believe (whether true or false) that game development was really not a very enticing career path, both in terms of compensation and technical & creative challenges open to s…
I also started with game development for Windows phone using XNA, switched to marmalade then Unity. Stopped creating games a few months ago thinking mostly like you plus wondering how/if my games are solving real user problems or whether they are only providing distractions.
However, searching for companies looking for developers with game development background and familiarity with Unity, I found a few startups who are either using games to fund and solve real user needs or using Unity to create educational/informative visualizations for museums and businesses. This led me to change my mind and return to creating games and hopefully start working with one of these startups