Times are tough, or so the old RPG cliche goes, and it seems harder and harder to pursue a career in something so frivolous as game development. Nevertheless, the games industry has been characterized by many as remarkably recession resistant. It’s a gleaming beacon of hope to the aspiring nerd, but what’s it really like out in the development trenches?

We asked IGF finalists and student finalists what they thought about developing independent games under the shadow of economic collapse. Not only that, but we asked them for words of wisdom for the aspiring indie developer. Some were flippant and funny while others were concrete and helpful. Read on for their insight.

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Our commenters: (Click to jump)
Alex Amsel (Cletus Clay)
Garth Deangelis (Winds of Orbis)
Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn (The Graveyard)
Søren Fruergaard (Dish Washington)
Oliver Trujillo (Incredibots)
Warren Post and Benjamin Ching (Kid The World Saver)
Lucas Pope (Mightier)
Mr. Phosphorous (Brain Pipe)
Kian Bashiri (You Have To Burn the Rope)
Peter Jones (Snapshot)
Ian Dallas (The Unfinished Swan)
Thomas Bedenk (Zeit²)
David Caloguerea (Zenoclash)
Erik Svedang (Blueberry Garden)

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Alex Amsel (Cletus Clay):

I think most publishers are fucked…and it’s a bad time to be a traditional developer, which is why we’re not being a traditional developer anymore. I think it’s a great time to be indie, if you can get through what’s happening now. The people who are successful in the next two or three years are people at this IGF stand, and people who are inspired by this stand. If they can just get through what’s happening now then they’re going to be successful.

The whole industry is changing. You’re going to have a few brilliant big games, like s or Fallout 3s, which are fabulous, you’re going to have the much lower budget rubbish games, or party games, which can be quite fun but okay, and you’re going to have these [indie] games. There’s a whole sector of the game industry, which I’ve worked in for many years, that’s not going to disappear, but it’s going to shrink. It’s going to struggle and they’re not going to have any money, whereas we can sell over Live Arcade, or the Playstation Network, or Steam, and despite the economy, we can become self-sufficient.

If you write good products, you will do really well; if you write bad products, you won’t. Previously, you could write a really good product and never sell, and not make any money, but you could make a bad product and make loads money because the license is great.

Actually, we do contract work on the side and one of our contract jobs has been number one in the UK budget DS charts for many months, but I don’t think we make anything off that. It does its job, it’s exactly what it should be, but we don’t really benefit from that. If we were digital, and it were our game, and it wasn’t a license, we’d be doing really well. So there’s no reason not to [be indie].

The trick in the current economy is to have enough money to make your game in the first place, but [indie] games don’t cost as much to make. It’s a tough economy out there for everyone, but that’s the point: it’s tough for everyone, so if you survive right now as an indie, you’re going to benefit. I’d advise anyone thinking about leaving their company or just trying to do their own thing as a student to just go for it. What’s the worst that can happen? You could lose your house or you car or your girlfriend, or whatever. Well, all that could happen, and to be honest, most of that has happened.

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Garth Deangelis (Winds of Orbis):

I would never say don’t do it. It’s hard for me to give words of wisdom, because I think [the rest of the IGF companies] are doing it better than me. But for the graduates that are coming out, I would say get into indie games. That’s what’s going to get you noticed.

Even if you don’t want to make indie games, and most likely you’re probably not going to make money off of it, but have a project that will make you stand out. Have a project that you can show to these people that you want jobs from. If you want to make an indie game and hope that that blows up, you can do that, too.

The money’s not there right now, but I don’t think we should ever stop. That will stifle motivation and stifle creativity. Everyone should be working on their own special project. That’s probably the biggest thing I learned at Carnegie Mellon. In this industry, It’s not your résumé, it’s not how you present yourself, and it’s what you’ve done that will get you into the industry.

Katie: That’s one thing [game development] has in common with art. People want to see your portfolio instead of your résumé.

Exactly, it’s all about the portfolio in art, and in game design: it’s about what game you’ve made. You can talk all you want about the games that you’ve played, and what you know, but if you’ve made an actual game, that makes you stand out so much more. So I think that’s the biggest piece of advice that I’ve learned, for myself, and I would pass along.

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Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn (The Graveyard):

Auriea: The thing is, we’ve always been jobless; we’ve always been working on our own projects.

Michaël: It’s always crisis for us.

Adam: So, this economy is business as usual for you?

Auriea: Yeah.

Adam: Do you have any insight for people who want to keep themselves alive until things get better?

Michaël: That wasn’t possible before the crisis either, so nothing has changed.

Auriea: No, you really have to do it, and work out your own plan. No one can really advise you about that, because everyone’s life is different. The important thing is whether you really want to make it or not? If you really want to make [your game], go ahead and make it. You have to look at the opportunities around you.

Michaël: you have to push through and not say, “okay, I’ll do this job for a year, and later I’ll start painting.” That’s not going to work. You have to really do it and find a way.

Auriea: You have to look around to find the possibilities. There are probably things you didn’t think about. We work a lot with arts funding, for example, which is from a local film fund in Belgium. However, when we first talked to them, they said, “No, we do not do games,” because they had a very narrow view of what games were. So we had to do a lot of lobbying. We had to bring in all of our equipment, and sit there and explain to them, demos, and explain why games were culturally relevant.

Michaël: At least as much as movies.

Auriea: Set up meetings with people who are knowledgeable in the field to consult. To this day we’re still talking to them so they will fund our projects, but also [talking] became more important in general. [A meeting] is something where you can’t just say, “Oh, they don’t do it.” You have to say, “Well, wait a minute, you really ought to do that, and here’s why.”

If it really means something to you, then find a way to do it. But also try to make good. I feel like we did a lot of good locally, to make the administration understand that games weren’t this sensationalist thing, that they were poetic and important for culture. We didn’t do that alone, of course, but it was something that had to be done, and we were a part of it, and we were happy to be.

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Søren Fruergaard (Dish Washington):

I think one has to approach new types of business models. You can’t just make a fun game and hope that an investor, like a publisher, will just buy it and distribute it. We’re looking for a different kind of business model, where a company with a totally unrelated kind of product really needs an internet angle to get people’s attention. So a company that has nothing to do with computer games, we can sell them a computer game because everyone goes to the internet for marketing. If you’re just there with a web page, and you’re not really there. You need a game, and that’s our angle.

I think making a game for a publisher is really hard. [Dish Washington] should be an easy-access sort of thing for getting your game on a web page. You can also have a product placement game out in the mod community, with a company giving you support for it, but I think avoiding publishers, avoiding this AAA market, and the usual way of financing a game is the goal in the future.

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Adrian Sutz (Feist):

So, this is our first game, our first big project, so we don’t have anything to relate it to. It’s a small game, so we’re not going to sell it for eighty bucks. We’re going to sell it somewhere in the range of ten to twenty. So it’s not like you have to spend a ton of money to play the game. So, for people I think, I think it’s a much better incentive, to say, “Hey, it’s just twenty bucks, if it’s bad, it’s not going to be so bad for me.” But we really hope that people like our game, even though these hard times.

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Oliver Trujillo (Incredibots):

I think the games industry is pretty recession resistant. As far as our profits [at Grubby Games] are concerned, we’re doing pretty well, actually. Our last game, My Tribe was actually our most successful game. I’m sure some people are less willing to shell out the money for games, but gaming has proved to be pretty recession resistant.

I’d say try to focus on building a good game, but not focus on trying to make a perfect game. Find something that your game can do well, and build a game around it, without necessarily trying to fulfill your idea of a perfect game, whatever that might be.

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Warren Post and Benjamin Ching (Kid The World Saver):

Warren: Big companies have to churn out games or they’re going to go out of business. So, if you can prove that you have something valuable, it’s actually a nice situation to be in. You have to do a lot more to prove that you’re at that point, but if you can, then the big companies need you.

Having a strong demo like [Kid the World Saver] is really helpful. Indies usually have an almost complete demo of their product before they start shopping around, as opposed to big companies who have design documents. Saying, “Here’s what our game will be like,” is a lot riskier then something like, “Here, you can play it. What do you think? Is it fun?” So it is hard, but also, there are benefits.

Katie: So, in your experience interviewing for industry jobs, do you think that having a game was useful for you?

Benjamin: Oh, it’s huge. Michael is actually thinking about showing this game to a couple of companies. In the past at USC, I had a couple projects of mine as well. So being able to walk into an interview, able to say, “Hey, here’s what I did at USC. I did all the coding with one other guy,” turned some heads. It helped separate me from the pack.

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Lucas Pope (Mightier):

Unfortunately, or fortunately for us, we have real game development jobs during the day. We feel [Mightier] is unmarketable, or close to unmarketable, so it’s a game of passion for us. I can’t really give any good advice to independent developers whose only source of income is their indie game, because that’s not us, unfortunately–or fortunately.

Adam: So the moral of the story is, don’t quit your day job.

Basically, yeah. There are other guys here that can say go ahead and quit your day job right away and make your game. For us, because we’re not marketing this game, we don’t feel it’s important to sell it, we’re keeping our day jobs.

Katie: I’ve noticed there seems to be a split among developers who say, “Keep your day job, but cram 40 hours a week of your spare time into your project,” and 2D Boy’s advice to save up and quit your job; you can get another one in a year if it doesn’t work.

That’s a good one. I’d recommend that; keep your day job until you can afford to work for a year without any money. We worked an eight-hour day at our job, and then we come home and we’d come home and work for five hours on the game. You can only do that for so long; this took us six months and it nearly killed us. We couldn’t have kept it up for a longer game or a game with a bigger scope.

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Mr. Phosphorous (Brain Pipe):

First, you never spend any money, because you already have a computer. Second, you make it for the love of making the game, and the ability to make a piece of entertainment and never worry about the marketing end of it. We all have day jobs, so we can keep it truly independent, which is just making it in your garage for the love of making it and trying things out that you wouldn’t normally be able to. We don’t have to ask ourselves, “Oh, is this going to sell?” It can be as easy as, “Oh, that looks great, why don’t we put some music and a couple of different moves around it. Oh, that sounds great.”

I thought at first that this game was so unlike anything else, but that’s what makes it fun. It’s nice to demo, because people can just walk up to it and just play…People don’t have time for a big lengthy game, waiting for a train or something. People don’t want a big lengthy experience; they’re looking for a microexperience.

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Kian Bashiri (You Have To Burn the Rope):

Kian: I think it’s scary. I’m studying game programming right now. My big plan is to get a job in the industry. Unlike most indies.

Adam: So you’re clawing your way in?

Kian: Yeah, I think they will take care of me.

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Peter Jones (Snapshot):

It hasn’t even really crossed my mind. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a steady job for the previous three years. I’m in a great situation where I don’t have any obligations to anyone but myself. So to continue doing this thing that I love is an easy decision. It hasn’t even crossed my mind. It probably should.

It’s probably crossing my parent’s mind; I’m out of school, now. However, as soon as we got this nomination, Kyle and I said, “We have to do this.” It was an easy decision. Doing things that you love and then seeing reactions, positive feedback, the message boards, and people who have supported us the past few months and this week especially are the payments that we like. I know that sounds cheesy, but that’s the stuff that really make us excited to continue doing what we’re doing.

One year ago, I was a sitting in the audience, a sideliner. Snapshot wasn’t even a thought in my head—well, last IGF it was a thought in my head, but we hadn’t started it yet. We were sitting in the audience thinking, “How awesome would it be to be working on an IGF finalist title,” or even to be associated with that. Not even a year later, we find ourselves here. I’m not saying that to shine the spotlight on us, I’m saying that to the people out there that are in the same position I was in a year ago. We got this prototype–and that’s all it is, a prototype–done in three months. We were passionate about it, and I think it comes through in our build and I think that’s what the judges saw. That’s all it takes: passion.

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Ian Dallas (The Unfinished Swan):

I think it’s a great time to be an indie. People are looking to make great games for less money, and indies are very interested in helping them out with that.

Adam: So do you have any words of wisdom for people who are aspiring to make independent games?

I think just be able to make everything, is a big help. If you’re only a designer, then all you can do is make a design document. That doesn’t help you get your game made. What helps you get your game made is something interactive that other people can get excited about. Whatever you want to do, you should be able to make something that other people will get excited about.

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Thomas Bedenk (Zeit²):

The independent spirit is about not limiting yourself. Just go, make games, just do whatever you feel like doing, and try to be innovative at the same time. Really everyone can make games if they just do it. I mean, XNA isn’t that complicated if you have some programming skills.

You have to put your time and your heart into it. We submitted this game to the IGF and we didn’t expect to be in the student showcase, but you have to believe in yourself. I am still studying human factors engineering and I have my design degree already, so I’m not that worried if this doesn’t work out. However, I was also freelancing; you have to be able to make money somehow.

The IGF is turning out to be really an opportunity. You only get these opportunities when you put your free time to it. That’s pretty much what it comes down to.

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David Caloguerea (Zenoclash):

Yeah, but, I don’t know, because we haven’t really seen the [economic] crisis back in Chile. We hear about it, and we know it’s coming, but we haven’t really seen it yet. It is just arriving. The cost of living is lower in Chile, so the cost of developing this game is lower than developing in other countries. We don’t really need that many copies to make a living.

Adam: So if you were going to give advice to aspiring game developers, would you say, “Move to Chile?”

I wouldn’t go that far, but I think it would work very well . . . There is another company where we used to work, that was bought by a Canadian developer. More people are thinking about making games in Chile and starting companies there.

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Erik Svedang (Blueberry Garden):

Erik: Win the IGF.

Adam: I suppose that couldn’t hurt.

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Some Closing Thoughts

A lot of the advice makes development sound like any other job. Find money anywhere you can. Time spent outside work makes you shine. A resume suggests that you can do your job, but a demo reel proves it. Focus on realistic goals, and sell to suit the market.

The recession is apparently good for indie games, which are cheap to make and all the more appealing to both publishers and consumers when money is scarce. That said, don’t quit your day job, even if it means you spend all your free time on your fledgling game. You may lose your home, your car, and your wife, but just maybe you’ll win the IGF.

Whether or not that’s a good trade is up to you.

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