Hey there!
I'm Taaro, an Indie Solo GameDev.
I developed some indie games and I've been working as a videogame programmer for more than 3 years, when I quit to dedicate myself entirely to my games on January 1st, 2023.
I want to write this blog as a way to document my journey. To document my mistakes, my learnings and my experiences as a Solo Dev. Hopefully, someone who wants to follow the same path finds in this blog inspiration, a solution or maybe just share the feeling of being in the same situation.
The first thing I want to talk about in this post is how start your game. While it seems like a question with an obvious answer, I had a hard time starting it and a lot of insecurities, fears and doubts come with it.
How start your game
First of all, I want to share with you my experience with the specific game I am making. 10 years ago I decided that I wanted to study videogames to be able to make a specific game: Farewell. I was all this time studying, learning and making other games in order to have more experience. Two years ago I decided to finally start writing the story of Farewell, but when I saw myself a year later I felt that I had no progress. Lots of documents, lots of texts but no tangible progress.
At the time, I was working as a programmer, and I told my boss about the frustrations and he gave me a very simple but effective advice: start doing it. Keep this things in mind..
Start with ANYTHING
It doesn't matter that it's not the most important thing or a feature that will finally be in your game. In my case, I started testing the turn-based combat of my game but really simple: 3 characters against 3 enemies with downloaded assets. In a couple of days I could validate what I wanted and what I didn't want with my game.
The important thing here is that I was already adding value to the project and putting aside doubts to finally start it, building up gradually.
Validate as soon as possible
"Don't make things perfect" was the hardest thing to follow. Why wouldn't I want to deliver the best possible combat, asset or dialogue? Because what matters is to know if the bases are on the right track, If the minimum I can do fulfills its purpose.
What's the point of spending 3 weeks on a combat system where the code is flawless if when I try it out the mechanic it's boring? You waste a lot of time trying to make something as good as possible when it may not be worth that much.
If you want to dig deeper into this, there is a talk by Tom Francis, creator of Gunpoint, that specifically discusses the effectiveness of developing features. Lessons Learned Making Gunpoint Quickly Without Going Mad.
Another thing to add is this. In my experience, it is much better to do things quickly to validate if they work and then start to scale. A very interesting talk that also helped me a lot was given by Matthew Davis, one of the creators of Into the Breach, who talks about building on the bases, following the design. Into the Breach Design Postmortem.
Add value every day
One of the most valuable and at the same time most difficult tips to keep: do something every day, no matter how small. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of dedication, but the results are amazing.
A developer that maintains these guidelines is David Wehle, creator of The First Tree, and he talks about it in No Time, No Budget, No Problem: Finishing The First Tree.
The three benefits of this are:
You will see progress every day.
You will make a new step every day.
You will be fighting against the Demotivating Valley.
When you are in a long-term project, it seems you are destined to go through the same motivation curve.
This happens when you have been with your project for a while and there seems to be no end. The tasks are endless, everything costs a lot of work and it is usually when the project is abandoned. But the interesting thing is that, if you keep making progress every day, no matter how small, sooner or later you will get out of that valley.
That happened making the first demo of Farewell: I was very unmotivated and very tired until one day I realized that I didn't have much work left to do, I could finish it in less than two weeks. From that moment, I had all the motivation and each new step cost a lot less.
Other voices, other experiences
That was my experience, but there are others. I reached out to indie developers to see their experiences and what advices they could give.
@BlueAndRedGames, fan of the Resident Evil series, is developing a horror game with the original fixed-camera style: Ghost at Dawn. I asked him these questions.
How did you start your game?
I started almost a year ago as a half-hearted attempt at a new career after getting covid and dealing with serious health issues. I'm what's called a "long hauler". I get very tired after just a bit of physical activity, so I haven't been able to work at my old job since I got covid in February 2020. Since I've been in creative fields in the past and a lifelong gamer, I thought I'd teach myself game dev in an attempt to bring in some money. I can work at my own pace and can stop when I get tired, so it's been good so far.
I've also been an artist and musician, so I did all the art design and music recording myself. This game has been the most fulfilling thing I've ever worked on. I get to use every discipline I've learned in one piece of art. I've even found a joy in doing voice acting for a few characters.
What advice would you give to a new indie game dev?
As for advice, I guess I would say learn how to optimize and get things to run smoothly so you know the limitations of whatever hardware you're working on. And try to do as much as possible yourself. I planned out everything from the start with a clear goal, and I made sure it was a feasible task for one person to do in a reasonable dev cycle. Oh, and f*** C#. I use Unity Visual Scripting and I find it much more intuitive and easier to learn. You don't need to learn a coding language or syntax. You just connect the available nodes in a logical, straightforward way. I've yet to come across a method I couldn't replicate quickly in Visual Scripting.
I also talked @WatermelonPesto who is making The Senex Bird, a story-driven adventure where you're an old bird at a castle full of senile geezers.
How did you start your game?
I started tinkering around with the RPG Maker when I was a teenager and, together with a friend, made quite a few nonsense games back then. Later, at university, this tradition died down a bit. But we still played a lot of RPGs and were imagining how cool it would be to make awesome games that people enjoy and earn a living with them. Well, that didn't work out, since a little later, I understood just how much work it is to create a game and especially to make it known!
I decided to make one last nonsense game for old times' sake and let the tradition rest in peace, but my friend talked me into making it public so that I could treat it as a learning project to learn how to compose music, to learn the ropes around Steam and everything else. So in the end, I kinda made a 7-10 hours long game, The Senex Bird, alone in the shadows, finished it and just now started to make it public a few months ago.
What advice would you give to a new indie game dev?
I'm quite new to this as well, but: Don't repeat my mistakes! Don't make a game with a grandpa bird protagonist! Ok, now, seriously, don't make a game and only then start to market it. It works the other way round, I've learned. I would say: At first, you should start small by learning how to code and make very simple games you're not gonna publish. If you feel like you're ready to make a "real game", don't make your dream game first, but rather think about a concept that's fun and small in scale. Share it from early on so you get feedback about what people like and what they don't.
And although it's very cliché: Don't give up. If you really want to make a game, don't let bitter comments or missing success demotivate you. Remain realistic, success probably won't happen overnight and maybe it won't come with your first game.
Arise..
I hope that some of the experiences and advices that I mentioned in this post have helped you. Perhaps the most important thing I can say is: don't feel alone. We all went and go through the same things in some way, with our problems, insecurities and similar experiences that bring us together as a community.
What about you?
Are you already an indie game dev?
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start but doesn't know how?
If you found it interesting, remember that you can subscribe to be notified when I make a new post. I will be posting on the 7th of each month.
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