Were chating to some indie devs to get insight into what the world is like for a range of small studios in 2014. First up, Blaine Bowen from PostMod Softworks, developers of the awesome Old City: Leviathan, out via Steam on 1 December, 2014. See trailer also. *** Q: Whats the best thing about being an indie developer? A: Having creative freedom. You arent tied to any sort of overhead and you can make what you want when you want and how you want. It gives you an advantage over larger studios, because the success of what you make isnt necessarily based on the successes of the past. Another fantastic advantage tied to this that may seem like a disadvantage is that youre small. The problem with existing as a studio with hundreds of people working on a single project is that you end up with bloating. The larger your team gets, the harder it is to be both efficient and original. Theres a reason that a lot of AAA titles tend to look the same or feel the same. Its because, when you have so many people, you have to make things that are standardized. You simply cant spare the time to make sure every artist and programmer is on the same page with the intricacies of an original design. Q: Whats the most challenging thing about being an indie developer? A: Having creative freedom. While its great to branch out and try interesting things that may not have been touched on before, it also puts you in a position of extreme risk. Risk, in general, is I think what defines the independent development process. Youre trusting in your own interests to the point where youre willing to explore new things with no real data to tell you that its marketable. It can become very difficult to maintain a healthy work-ethic when you have no guarantee of profit and no boss telling you whats what. The other problem related to this is that, especially in the cases of “one-man-shows,” youre tempted to give into the personality cult mentality. This is a huge problem, because it sets up a poor expectation on the part of aspiring indie developers. Your goal shouldnt be to make a name for yourself, rather it should be to make a game for yourself. The difference is that the game comes first, and thats important. I would have said the problem is funding, but thats slowly becoming easier to manage as more tools are available. Its still a massive financial risk and potentially a huge time-sink, but it wont work at all if you dont have both good ideas and good expectations. Q: What one piece of advice would you give to people wanting to get into indie dev? A: If youre starting a project, the most important thing youll need is help. I know that doesnt really sound like the “indie way,” but its true. You need similar people who share your passion that can help you and keep you on track. More importantly, they can tell you when youre making something stupid. Thats been hugely important for us. Also, if youre starting the project yourself, you need to be the person who is going to stick with it no matter what, and you need to make sure your team is aware of it. There always needs to be at least one person who has simply made the decision to stick with the project. What this will do is force you to be consistent and it will add some stability to the team. Its basic leadership, really, but that can be lost when you dont have a corporate overhead. On that note, youll be tempted to try and take things as lightly as possible. Resist that urge! Youll never get anywhere if you dont hunker down and take things seriously. Get ready to do mundane things other than game development, because youre not just developing a game. If youre going to make anything work, youll need to set up a business. An independent business, yes, but a business nonetheless. Youll need to assess risks (of which there will be many), set up finances, create longterm plans, and be ready for any curveballs that come your way. Q: Whats the future of indie games? A: I think independent studios are going to grow to be about the size of older studios. What I mean by this is that youre going to see AAA studios and independent studios sort of conflate in size. Where AAA studios are so large that theyre bloated and stagnant, independent studios are still a bit too small to make the next Ocarina of Time. However, given a little more cooperation between developers, less personality cult mentality, and a willingness to take risks, I think independent studios will grow to around 20 or 30 people, which is optimal for creating original and high quality experiences that will fascinate and entertain people for years to come. The recent explosion of independent development is really a natural byproduct of this philosophy of bloated teams, as if you can throw hundreds of people at a creative project and produce something, you know, creative. But, everything is self-correcting. There are problems with both AAA and indie development, though, and as the self-correction continues, youll see less and less of those problems. Problems of the future will be things like over-saturation and visibility on platforms. However, Im optimistic. Theres a lot of cool stuff out there, and itll only get better as we learn to work together in manageable independent teams.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 12:45:38 +0000