Comments on: Indies, how do you make a living? Failure is on my mind a lot as I'm planning what I'm going to produce, but I don't see it as the end of the world. If I don't sell any games and run out of money, I'll still consider it a worthwhile experience as I'm certain I'll learn a lot on the way (plus I hope it'll be a nice thing to have on my CV if I go back on the job market). The web server comment Paul Firth made is a good one. I'm on a cheap shared host, though I think I'm likely to need to move to a dedicated server before too long (or perhaps not if I generate no interest). Failure is on my mind a lot as I’m planning what I’m going to produce, but I don’t see it as the end of the world. If I don’t sell any games and run out of money, I’ll still consider it a worthwhile experience as I’m certain I’ll learn a lot on the way (plus I hope it’ll be a nice thing to have on my CV if I go back on the job market).

The web server comment Paul Firth made is a good one. I’m on a cheap shared host, though I think I’m likely to need to move to a dedicated server before too long (or perhaps not if I generate no interest).

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By: Paul Firth/2011/04/11/indies-how-do-you-make-a-living/#comment-2618 Paul Firth Tue, 12 Apr 2011 08:21:44 +0000

My advice is this: make your first product as quickly as possible (still within the bounds of quality of course), get it out there, test the market, look at the analytics, gather data, make judgements, repeat :)

Marketing is for me the hardest part, but we’re getting there slowly – become highly respected (i.e earn respect points) on sites like reddit.com, this means that any future posts you make go straight to a prominently visible page and stand a chance of getting recognition.

Make sure your web host’s servers can handle the pressure – ours shut our entire site down yesterday because we were using too much CPU time, which surely cost us money :|

Cheers, Paul.

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By: Christopher Waite/2011/04/11/indies-how-do-you-make-a-living/#comment-2616 Christopher Waite Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:46:37 +0000 Yes, that is exactly the point. Make sure you budget for the ability to fail at least a few times. Never assume you are going to unlock the secrets to success on the first try. If you have no room for error, and you are counting on a first time success to make it all work out then you are playing a very risky game. Yes, that is exactly the point. Make sure you budget for the ability to fail at least a few times. Never assume you are going to unlock the secrets to success on the first try.

If you have no room for error, and you are counting on a first time success to make it all work out then you are playing a very risky game.

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By: Cam Jackson/2011/04/11/indies-how-do-you-make-a-living/#comment-2612 Cam Jackson Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:44:46 +0000 Both Dave and Colin speaketh great advice - when I went contracting it was definitely a slow soft step into the unknown - but I sure as hell didn't know WTF I was gonna do except "go out and get some contracts cos I reckon I'm good enough!". It could have bombed - and it was a bit flaky sometimes - but you gotta make that little jump. Although I certainly make my living from my games solely now, everyday I feel like theres something failing because the future is certainly not secure by any stretch of the imagination! Both Dave and Colin speaketh great advice – when I went contracting it was definitely a slow soft step into the unknown – but I sure as hell didn’t know WTF I was gonna do except “go out and get some contracts cos I reckon I’m good enough!”. It could have bombed – and it was a bit flaky sometimes – but you gotta make that little jump. Although I certainly make my living from my games solely now, everyday I feel like theres something failing because the future is certainly not secure by any stretch of the imagination!

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By: CGSColin/2011/04/11/indies-how-do-you-make-a-living/#comment-2603 CGSColin Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:45:44 +0000 Indie Gamedevs: You’re (Probably) Doing it Wrong

That said, I’m still working on making a living from my games, but I’m getting there :)

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By: David Marsh/2011/04/11/indies-how-do-you-make-a-living/#comment-2601 David Marsh Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:23:34 +0000 For the last year I´ve seen lots of great devs go by their own. I would love to see somebody with more experience than I have write a post about it. Are AAA studios that bad atm? As a Jr. Programmer I really would love to see what you guys think about it. Anyway... what I can tell from our experience is that there are lots of ways to get financial aids to make games. In our case, we´ve shipped our first free game. It´s called Iredia (www.Iredia.es) and it´s doing beyond we expected. We didn´t get any economical revenue from it perse, but we got lots of investment from the College we´re in plus government aids. It also gave as some credit. For example, the game is going to be used as material content on 12K public schools in Madrid. Microsoft Iberica also helped us to promote it. Right now we´re working on our next game for a more mature audience, and we´ve still got a great aid, mainly thanks to our success with Iredia. We also plan to get more income including real towns and places into our game. Grats for the post btw For the last year I´ve seen lots of great devs go by their own. I would love to see somebody with more experience than I have write a post about it. Are AAA studios that bad atm? As a Jr. Programmer I really would love to see what you guys think about it.

Anyway… what I can tell from our experience is that there are lots of ways to get financial aids to make games. In our case, we´ve shipped our first free game. It´s called Iredia (www.Iredia.es) and it´s doing beyond we expected. We didn´t get any economical revenue from it perse, but we got lots of investment from the College we´re in plus government aids. It also gave as some credit. For example, the game is going to be used as material content on 12K public schools in Madrid. Microsoft Iberica also helped us to promote it.

Right now we´re working on our next game for a more mature audience, and we´ve still got a great aid, mainly thanks to our success with Iredia. We also plan to get more income including real towns and places into our game.

Grats for the post btw

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