Comments on: The Indie Route [...] #AltDevBlogADay (Rob Braun) — The Indie Route “My friend and I recently decided to make a major, life altering decision. We decided to form our own indie studio. It is a very exciting and scary prospect for us: exciting because this is what we know we want to do and scary because we have no idea what the hell we’re doing. Since making our decision we’ve been doing a lot of research into how we (and anyone considering building an indie from nothing) should go about this venture and these are some of the things we’ve come up with.” [...] [...] #AltDevBlogADay (Rob Braun) — The Indie Route “My friend and I recently decided to make a major, life altering decision. We decided to form our own indie studio. It is a very exciting and scary prospect for us: exciting because this is what we know we want to do and scary because we have no idea what the hell we’re doing. Since making our decision we’ve been doing a lot of research into how we (and anyone considering building an indie from nothing) should go about this venture and these are some of the things we’ve come up with.” [...]

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By: Keith Judge/2011/05/07/the-indie-route/#comment-3777 Keith Judge Mon, 09 May 2011 20:26:17 +0000 I just wanted to comment on the Lawyer Up thing. We've only been at the indie thing for about a year, but here's our experience: We had some help from a lawyer to get our company formed, but that was actually through our accountant. We talked to some lawyers about helping us write contracts, but figured it would be cheaper, and better, if we just wrote them ourselves. I'm not quite sure about the whole IP thing. I don't hear a lot of news stories about many IP disputes in the video game industry. The biggest effect seems to be from people cloning your app or flash game, and then the standard action is to simply ask the marketplace or portal to remove the infringing game. So I guess I'd say we don't think a lawyer is worth the time and money in the early days. I just wanted to comment on the Lawyer Up thing. We’ve only been at the indie thing for about a year, but here’s our experience:

We had some help from a lawyer to get our company formed, but that was actually through our accountant. We talked to some lawyers about helping us write contracts, but figured it would be cheaper, and better, if we just wrote them ourselves. I’m not quite sure about the whole IP thing. I don’t hear a lot of news stories about many IP disputes in the video game industry. The biggest effect seems to be from people cloning your app or flash game, and then the standard action is to simply ask the marketplace or portal to remove the infringing game.

So I guess I’d say we don’t think a lawyer is worth the time and money in the early days.

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By: Neight Allen/2011/05/07/the-indie-route/#comment-3765 Neight Allen Mon, 09 May 2011 16:11:26 +0000 All my friends like to complain about Peoria, but there all from the Chicago burbs where as I am from cornfields in northern Indiana so by my standards it's not that bad. As much as it sucks I'm probably gonna have to go back to the cornfield for a while until we can manage a physical location but if I could I wouldn't mind staying in this part of the world. All my friends like to complain about Peoria, but there all from the Chicago burbs where as I am from cornfields in northern Indiana so by my standards it’s not that bad. As much as it sucks I’m probably gonna have to go back to the cornfield for a while until we can manage a physical location but if I could I wouldn’t mind staying in this part of the world.

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By: Slone/2011/05/07/the-indie-route/#comment-3681 Slone Sat, 07 May 2011 22:15:18 +0000 Best of luck with your start-up! I've been doing the same thing solo since October of last year, and the first few months were undoubtedly the hardest. I'd add a major point to this: Ship a game as early as possible. Note there's not necessarily an adjective in there, like 'good' or 'awesome', but proving that you have what it takes to get a product to market can attract all kinds of unexpected work and starts building a fan base right away. Don't make the mistake of pouring everything into that first project, either. Thinking that that first flagship title is going to make or break the company is something of a fallacy. Plenty of startups release tons of stinkers before hitting gold, and when they do all of those initial efforts are chalked up as learning experiences. Excelsior! - J Best of luck with your start-up! I’ve been doing the same thing solo since October of last year, and the first few months were undoubtedly the hardest.

I’d add a major point to this: Ship a game as early as possible. Note there’s not necessarily an adjective in there, like ‘good’ or ‘awesome’, but proving that you have what it takes to get a product to market can attract all kinds of unexpected work and starts building a fan base right away.

Don’t make the mistake of pouring everything into that first project, either. Thinking that that first flagship title is going to make or break the company is something of a fallacy. Plenty of startups release tons of stinkers before hitting gold, and when they do all of those initial efforts are chalked up as learning experiences.

Excelsior!
-
J

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