The way to success that the indie game developer who produced as many as 22 games in 22 years talks

ByWild Rumpus

Develop and sell indie gamesSpiderweb SoftwareJeff Vogel, the founder of the company, has been engaged in development even after starting a business, and has produced 22 pieces of work in 22 years. The latest work among 22 works "Avernum 2: Crystal Souls"Was launched in January 2015, IT related news siteVentureBeatInterviewed Vogel and published its contents.

The original indie dev: How one man made 22 games in 22 years, mostly from his basement | Games Beat | Games | by Heather Newman
http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/17/the-original-indie-dev-how-one-man-made-22-games-in-22-years-mostly-from-his-basement/view-all/

18 years since I was involved in game development, Vogel seems to be locked in the basement at home and working on game production. As a matter of fact, Spiderweb Software, the name of the company, was named after the Spider's web in the cellar. However, Vogel moved to a new house a couple of years ago, and writing an article Currently I am working in a special room I made for my new house.


Mr. Vogel, born in 1970, met 8 years of age to develop games, or 9 years old. Vogel, obsessed with the appeal of the game after playing the game for the first time, was blessed with the opportunity to study programming at the age of 8 or 9, after that he was keen on developing games with programming It was. When asked about the appeal of game development that attracted a boy who was Vogel, Vogel says, "I think I was interested in phenomena like chemical reactions that occur in the brain. When I play an insanely fun game, You feel a sense of accomplishment that you accomplished, etc. This feeling is a sensation peculiar to the game, and there was tremendous interest in that feeling. "

Vogel's maiden work was made at the time of graduate student "Exile: Escape from the PitGame called. Vogel, who was able to take time to complete the busy exams, decided to take seriously the game development he had secretly planned. A few months later the game was completed and the reputation was good on selling on the internet. As a result, Mr. Vogel succeeded in earning money that can not be thought of by graduate students and graduated from graduate school as it was.


Many of the work I worked on since Vogel turned to a game developer was a genre of role playing game (RPG), but in recent years Vogel has also developed games other than RPG in recent years.

About the change in the genre of the game to be developed, Vogel said, "I am just working on the development of works that I always want to make.When I was just a game developer, Although it was a style to put it in, as I grew older I learned a lot of things such as code and management, I grew myself, However, there is a feeling of young people and existence of fans that support myself even for years It is important to believe in yourself and your fans when you were young in the current game development. "


Services such as Sony 's PSN, Microsoft' s Xbox Live, Steam, and other digital distribution services appear and smartphones are spreading, and the types of platforms that can develop games compared with the past have dramatically increased. In addition, with the rise of cloud funding sites, developers can more easily collect funds and PR.

Although this kind of situation seems to lead to the expansion of the indies game market, Vogel says "When I went to a certain event, there was a booth to introduce a new indies game at the event. There are more than 100 indie games being played.When you think about the game market as a whole it is not currently necessary to have more than 100 games in a year "and the problem of the indies game market Pointed out.

ByMarie Foulston

"If you are born now you will not want to engage in game development, as the number of indie games is increasing, there are not many opportunities to succeed, as it is often the case when going to an event, It is said that you became a developer of the game longing for you! "Of course it is a very nice single word, but since the situation of indie games has changed completely in the past, it makes me feel sorry "Vogel tells of suffering.

However, it is also true that individual developers and users have become easier to communicate than before thanks to Steam and Cloud Funding site. Vogel also admitted that, "When I developed and launched the game, there was a time when nobody knew about the existence of the World Wide Web, and from that point onwards, Steam that can sell games if there is only a credit card It is a wonderful service for developers. "


At the end of the interview, Vogel sent advice to young developers. The content of the advice is "to understand exactly what kind of jobs you are engaged in, what kind of attitude you will work on your work, you should understand properly, then to continue without giving up". In addition, Vogel is planning to tackle a completely new work using a game engine that I have never used before, and I have already thought of many ideas about new work.