Will i ever become an indie developer?

I am trying to learn things from one year or so, believing that one day i will become an indie developer. When i started learning programming i came to know that i need to learn art/design plus little about sound editing as well. I don't know but i am confused i dont even know how to proceed forward. Should i stick with programming, do i need to learn Adobe Photoshop or what? What will make me an indie developer?

 

Getting to the end of a project, having it work and putting out there... (which is why I'm a "dabbler" )

The rest is more about what you are going to put out there (lack of art skills > not going to be photorealistic high poly model based etc.) or at least it's going to govern what you spend your budget buying from the asset store / freelancers / whatever.

 

@LeftyRighty is right: just do something that works and you'll officially be an idie developer! Whatever you do is not important; you must finish something that works. Once you've done this, you'll feel more confident.

 

What if i say i don't know what to do, i have few small games published on android store. Didn't get anything from them at all. I have some ideas but i don't have any skill other than programming right now. I don't have any budget or money as well. so what now?

 

In this case... get a job and forget about being an Indie. Just make games in your spare time for fun.

 

Sounds like you're already an indie developer to me.

Either develop art skills, or find someone willing to make game assets for you for a percentage of revenue. If you need money, get a job and practice making games in your spare time.

 

Can't forget...

 

yes developing an art skill is a better idea, any suggestions for that?

 

You don't need a big production budget to make a game on your own. But you do need time. And you do need to eat and pay your bills, if that's not covered then you can't jump on your solo indie game developer career just yet.

Making games is like being a writer in many ways. You don't make a job out of it overnight.

Best way is do the same thing a writer would do. Write. In terms of video games, code, start learning, make tools for the asset store. Even make some side money that way. Make small tiny games. Try to work on something related to game development, if you freelance even better, because your time is more flexible. When you're ready, maybe then worry about budget and funding, once you have a solid idea.

Your question is not decided overnight. Though it's just a label, you can be an indie developer right now, it's not a destination but a journey, start it now.

 

Practice, find tutorials to teach you, go to school to learn, find another artist willing to teach you, practice, practice.

This brings up a question. What area of game development do you like most? You don't *have* to learn every aspect of game development. I'm not an artist at all. I can throw together so-called programmer art for prototyping, but have neither the time or desire to become a good enough artist to make game ready assets. So I plan to find someone who will help me with that, and music. There are forums here where you can advertise your need and try to find someone willing to help. There are other game development sites with similar areas.

Part of doing this is learning to know your skills and find ways to work around areas where you're weaker.

 

sounds like you're asking "how can I make a living only making games", that's quite a different question.

 

When bills are coming in and you have no income to pay them due to chasing Indie dream... that may be a good motivator to forget.

Clarifying. When I say forget about it... I have the impression that you were trying to make this your job so to speak. So in that case with the situation you described it sounds like you just aren't ready to go Indie yet.

All of the wishful thinking and dreaming won't make the difference. But getting a job (or keeping the job if you already have one) and continuing to develop your skills can make a difference eventually.

So just make games in your spare time. And if you really want to give yourself the best chance of going Indie focus on marketing. Learn what it is. How it works. The various methods that can be used. And start applying the marketing to the games you build in your spare time.

The world doesn't need more games. There are plenty of people already generating a large supply of games. Marketing is how you get people to believe they not only need more games but they specifically need YOUR games.

 

Thanks for sharing some good ideas, i have tried it many times to get into freelancing world but its difficult to find work. But yeah i will seriously think about making some assets for asset store. I can do that

 

Thanks GarBenjamin, i understand what you are saying and trust me i am feeling much better by talking to you guys. What I understood is I need to make some money first either by doing a job or something else(may be free lancing), then i can think about indie development in a better way.

 

This. If you are making games and selling them, you are a game developer. If you do it for yourself, you are indie.

This is also good advice. The skills to make games can do a lot of other useful things. Things that people will pay for.

You want to do freelancing? Start capitalising your Is. Freelancing work isn't hard to find, but looking professional certianly won't hurt.

 

Lol

 

You want to do freelancing? Start capitalising your Is. Freelancing work isn't hard to find, but looking professional certianly won't hurt.[/QUOTE]

I tried to work on fiverr but didn't get any work.

 

Thanks, can you share some links?

 

I wouldn't reccomend working on fiver or freelancer.com or anything like that. The sites are dominated by low wage economies.

Build up your reputation in the places your employers hang out. Here (if you want Unity work), YouTube, GitHub, IDGA, ect

 

Considering the OP is from Pakistan, those sites may be viable sources after all...

 

Developing a game independently makes you an indie developer. Since you're developing a game, congrats, you're a developer!

From here, there are many options, as people in the thread have already laid out. Don't be afraid to try different things and see what works. Game dev, especially when you work on your own, is a big mix of skills and things and you'll learn to dabble in just about everything to a degree. See what you enjoy the most and what skills you want to build.

RE: Freelancing - That's an entirely different beast. Very hard to summarize any great strategies there, but a lot of it comes down to marketing and figuring out what people want and how you can provide it for them. Start with friends and family, both online and offline, and build a portfolio to showcase what you can do. Keep honing your skills and putting yourself out there.

 

A general question for the indie developers here. Is it seriously feasible to do an entire game by yourself, and expect it to be any good? How can anybody find the time and motivation to become an expert at programming as well as art? Aren't each of those an entire career? My interest in game programming is primarily engine development and rendering techniques. You can spend years just learning about a tiny subset of the rendering literature. I can't imagine also writing AI and character controllers, let alone doing art.

 

Yes, absolutely, without a doubt.

If you ask this kind of questions, this is probably not a path you should take. No offense.

Yes, those are entire careers, but for gamedev purposes instead of trying to become an expert in every area, you should instead to aim for the spot where your skills are good enough to make projects you want to build.

That's because you're trying to learn everything. Instead concentrate what you need to get done for your game. Studying rendering and game engine development is the best way to never make a single game.

 

@imran-farooq I'd ask what does it mean to you to be an independent game developer? What is your goal? To make a living off of making and selling your games? What is a living to you? How much would that be? How long do you see yourself doing this? What skills, specifically, do you already have? What skills do you think you need next?

The way you ask your question, it's like going to a palm reader to tell you whether you will become what you want to become. Life doesn't work that way. You yourself have to generate the effort, energy, desire, passion to get to where you want to go.

Break down your question(s) into more digestible parts, you may get more helpful answers. Like, are you looking for resources to learn? Connections to make? Assets to acquire?

Will you ever become an indie game developer? Well, do you want to?

 

Totally agree. This is just my point of view, I like algorithm research, such as spending years trying to find a slightly faster global illumination technique. My interest in games started with the progression from Wolfenstein 3D, to Doom, to Quake. Those were showcases for novel rendering techniques, yet somehow people forget this, and try to have fun playing them instead of marvel at the technological achievement. This attitude leads to people complaining that the new consoles only have better graphics, and the games are not fun.

My real question is: Why do people want to make a whole game all alone? Wouldn't the game be better if it had a career programmer, and a career artist? A programmer can make a game with blocks and cubes and images drawn terribly in MS paint. An artist can make wonderful art and just be an artist. I don't get the appeal of wanting to be a jack of all trades, when you could be really really good at one thing.

 

Aside from people who underestimate the difficulty...

Because it is a fun and it is a challenge?
Why not?

There's matter of diminishing returns - getting from 80% of mastery to 85% may take as much time as getting from 1 to 80%. Meaning you could get decent at many things instead of being very good at just one.

Also, there's matter of synergy and different perspectives. By getting a grasp of 2d drawing skill, of composition skill, you'll see a perspective you'll never see in your life if you work as a programmer. There's also possibility of finding similarities across completely different disciplines.

I think this is a path worth pursuing, even though it is certainly not for everyone.

Plus, some people just enjoy learning things.

 

Because it is a fun and it is a challenge?
Why not?


There's matter of diminishing returns - getting from 80% of mastery to 85% may take as much time as getting from 1 to 80%. Meaning you could get decent at many things instead of being very good at just one.

Also, there's matter of synergy and different perspectives. By getting a grasp of 2d drawing skill, of composition skill, you'll see a perspective you'll never see in your life if you work as a programmer. There's also possibility of finding similarities across completely different disciplines.

I think this is a path worth pursuing, even though it is certainly not for everyone.

Plus, some people just enjoy learning things.

Besides, let's say you have predisposition to several things. Why not try to get good at them all anyway?

 

Being a solo indie developer is I think the hardest thing to do... you're all alone with your own thoughts and ideas and nobody to bounce stuff off. You have to be able to program (in some way, or at least understand logic), you have to be able to come up with graphics which means either programmatically or art resources (maybe you can buy some or hire someone or otherwise, you gotta learn to do it yourself), you need to know about some forms of animation, sound, music (at least to choose some), game design (a whole area in itself) - to create gameplay and usability and fun and all that etc... its a lot of jobs and 'hats' for one person.

 

I'm going to assume that you want to be an indie developer, in the sense that you wish to be successful financially and critically (your games get good reviews). I haven't done it yet* myself, but I have a plan to do this. I have also observed other people who have been successful at becoming indie developers, and many, many more people who have failed at some point along the way. So while I can't tell you the story of "how I did it" I can offer you some information.

Most indie developers fail to gain any traction in the marketplace very early on, or if they get a hit, they never quite figure out how to duplicate that success. Other indie developers seemingly never miss. There's more to this than pure randomness. I'm not trying to tell you "don't worry, you can do it!" but rather... this is what you need to do to succeed, and keep in mind that this is easier said than done.

You need to be able to make fun games. This doesn't mean you make one good-looking game, or spend lots of cash on one well-marketed game. This means exactly what it says, you need to know how to make games that are genuinely enjoyable to play. In all the years I have been playing people's WIP's, I can honestly tell you that among independent developers, that maybe every 1 in 20 games are actually playable for more than 60 seconds. And of that sliver, maybe a third have any element of fun to them at all. The worst part is that you can't rely on feedback, because most people are too polite or just have too little interest to bother spending time playing games and writing out detailed feedback. You have to know yourself what is fun and isn't fun, which can only be learned by making game after game over many years. You can play a game and know why you like it, but not be able to duplicate the fun yourself. And this is something that is rarely talked about but it's the reality for most games that most people will ever start to develop, that they just won't result in something fun.

Most people aren't going to come out and tell you this... because the indie world is very competitive, and people need to keep positive, professional relationships with other developers and the community at large. If you want real feedback, you'll need to find a friend or someone who you can trust to offer it. You simply can't rely on anonymous help on a big website that anybody in the world can access.

Also, game development is hard. Like, really hard and it takes a long time. Small things in games can take days. A simple health bar can take over an hour to get right. Right now I am making a FPS and I just made a playable version of the enemy, and after 3 days of feeling it out, I realized that I hate it and I want to do another design. I didn't realize I hated it until I saw it in motion. This new design necessitates a new model to be created. Animations will need to be tweaked. That's just one enemy design.

What people often don't consider that what an experienced, professional team can do it 6 weeks could take you not double that time, not triple... it could take you 2-3 years because you don't have the same background. You haven't made the same mistakes. Until you can have the collective 'lessons learned' experience that all those people have, you can't hope to even come close to that 6 week mark.

I'll give you one example. A developer released a hit game for Xbox live arcade. But before that, they released another title for Xbox. And before that, they made tons of games for the better part of a decade that they gave away for free on Newgrounds. You might see their game now (Castle Crashers) and think that you can easily duplicate what they have done, since it's just 2D. Except that the dedicated artist (who has been drawing Flash art his entire career) took 3 years to draw all of the graphics.

Game development is a lot more like Doom: Nightmare Mode than it is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. But most of the time, you don't really see that. All you see is the facade. People break under the pressure when they take it as seriously as you're supposed to. Some people do exactly the same things they did before, but they can never make another success.

I'll tell you my secret plan. Excessive preparation. Immaculate design. Beautiful everything. Perfect execution. If I can't achieve all of those points, releasing a game has no point. Because it won't make it anywhere. So you will see some people pumping out a dozen games that generate nothing in the way of a response. You will see others "go big or go home" and produce an enormous disappointment that makes them want to quit game development. You will see others (Such as Phil Fish) who actually DO make it (mind it was his 3rd game...!) but then can't handle the public relations aspect of it and go down in flames. So it's tricky. It's not easy.

I would advise you to slow down for a moment, perhaps even stop. Still your mind and really look out ahead of you at all of the chaos that surrounds independent game development. It's not as simple as some other things, like making music... open FL Studio and practice. Or being an artist... again, open Photoshop and practice. In all of those endeavors, success chances seem slim but in reality, success as an indie game developer is just as slim as all of those things, combined and exponentially more so.

I realize that young people have passion and drive. And no, I'm not going to tell you "you already are an indie game developer!" because that's just sunshine, rainbows and unicorns and you don't need that. You can't take on a Demogorgon armed with positive reinforcement and good vibes. You also can't take it on by building up your resolve and getting super-motivated, because that just leads you to rush in guns blazing like Leeroy Jenkins.

What you need to do to actually do what most can't, is exactly that. Do what most people don't do. Avoid lengthy internet discussions, manage your time wisely, focus on honing your skills in all areas you desire to excel in (artwork, music, audio, programming, design, testing) and be your own biggest critic. But also, try to find someone else who you can trust, either to work with or to bounce ideas off of, to provide feedback and there for you. A lone-wolf mentality seems cool, but that's just bullshit in real life. I'm not saying you need to be hyper-social and have 'tonnes of friends!' but rather you should have some allies. Basically, achieve a balanced lifestyle in which you can operate and gradually move forward and get better and avoid all the noise and anything that might disrupt that balance.

What I like to do is practice things in cycles, 3D modeling for a while, music for a little bit, programming, design, brainstorming and sketching...

The last important thing is KEEP PLAYING GAMES. It probably seems counterproductive, especially if you want to be this huge success. But, it is from games which we draw all inspiration. They are effectively our lifeblood as game developers, and if you decide to quit playing games, your blood will stop flowing and you will no longer know if what you're making is good, anymore. Watch let's plays on YouTube (Totalbiscuit, Markiplier) and watch the way people play, listen to their off the cuff self-dialogue as they progress and get a feel for what the average gamer plays like. The more you know the players, the better your chances are going to be of making something they like.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I am going to go play Starcraft II.

Actually, one more note... be careful who you talk to online and what you say. Also, consider the sources with a lot of online advice you get. You can check to see what games people have made, they usually put them in their signatures. Although, I will also say, you shouldn't probably share your personal projects on this particular website because let's just say that I heard it through the grapevine that people are most likely to 1-star games if they come from a link on the Unity community. Most people don't realize that big sites track URL's and stuff like that... most people don't understand web technology very well in the first place... I'm probably blowing the lid on *ehem* some people around here's behavior by even bringing this up, but I once shared my game link on a different site and I got another 100 plays and my score went up by one point on Kongregate. Kind of makes me sad because I got tons of positive comments such as "beautiful game!" and "I was really surprised by the last boss!" and "very fun!". SMH. What can I say, people behave very badly when they think they can't be caught.

Wow... that was long. This is a response to OP but also should be good information for anyone new to the indie dev world. Keep your head down and watch your words and work your butt off.

 

You can, and people certainly do. But you don't have too. Many indie teams consist of several people to take care of all the aspects of development.

 

Sure why not. Successful thats a differnet question

 

"Believe you shall receive and it shall be opened unto you."

 

Its frustratingly fun.
As an artist Im always looking to tell a story with my creations. Game development is an art and people want to tell stories - interactive stories/experiences.
Game development is the creation of the vehicle to provide those experiences.
IMO being a professional/specialist in one discipline does not exclude a person from learning enough in other areas - to become a game developer. It just means that person will be learning and performing additional duties beyond there speciality.

 

You can get started and publish a small mobile game in some weeks and call yourself indie developper, this is not what matters i think.
Ask yourself, what you really like to do the most programming or making art ? you seem to be interested because of money and job, i hope you got passion for game development at least.