Lessons from a developer who entered the indie game independently from the game company

byGlenn Carstens-Peters

GameloftYaMobility GamingAfter working for 7 years at a game production company, such as a game production company, I decided to become a free game developer and release an indie gameKonstantin BacsauMr. Currently, Mr. Bashio seems to be in a situation of "I do not know if he can pay the rent in December", he says the risk of working away from company work and working as an indie.

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Mr. Bashio, who has worked for a game production company for seven years, was awarded the 2006 Game Creator Forum on the forum,BASICYaC ++I started game development using a language such as. At that time, there was no affordable engine available in Eastern Europe, so Mr. Bashio said he learned how to code the game in a more difficult way than normal.

After trial and error, Mr. Bashio saidDirectXYaOpenGLAfter that, after experiencing development for more than 10 years, I felt that all the skills, know-how, knowledge and experience necessary for surviving in the game industry was obtained, and I got a job I decided to quit and become a free developer.

bySimon Abrams

When quitting work, Mr. Bashio seemed to have secured enough money to work without having to work for at least 4 months, and that the game created just before it was going to give money for 6 months now It turned out to be "I should have learned firmly about laws other than game development". Also, if there are people who are thinking of quitting the company and becoming free, he says, "You should save at least three times the money you are supposed to save."

While writing down his resignation, Mr. Basio was preparing for preparing an indies game that he was already planning to release. We also prepared the necessary money for that, and he seems to have done necessary investigations to start a business. However, game development as a business was more than imagined, he said he did not have enough information to continue.

Suppose, for example, you sell games to earn a large income. At that time, if the transfer of money exceeding 15,000 dollars (about 1.7 million yen) to the registered bank account matches, details of the transaction are shown to indicate that it is not money launderingUnited States Internal Revenue Service(IRS), which will require a fee of $ 150 (approximately 17,000 yen).

In addition, Mr. Basio seems to have decided to hire an accountant to act on behalf of detailed procedure etc, but the cost is 30 dollars a month (about 3300 yen) every month. Furthermore, we encountered various unexpected subjects such as $ 80 (about 9000 yen) in a document from a notary who gives the right to submit the documents, and eventually it will cost $ 550 (about 60,000 1000 yen) also seems to have a lot of expenses.

Bashio, who bought the apartment as a home and office after quitting work, notices that the inhabitants who lived in the apartment in front of himself are destroying a part of the room. Because it was necessary to repair this with pocket money, Mr. Bashio said that he plans to prosecute the previous inhabitant, but for that reason it will cost about 600 dollars (about 67,000 yen) At the moment I can not hire a lawyer.

byFabian Blank

Savings have halved at this point, but Mr. Basiou has continued game development and has not given up the dream of selling games completed on the PC game sales platform Steam. The initial goal is that "the game created by himself is downloaded 700 times", and in terms of finance it seems that it was feeling like "if you download 300 times it will not be a problem for the immediate future."

Since know-how on game development has been well accumulated by experience so far, development seems to have progressed smoothly. When I tested a game developed on Linux and Windows, it seems that there was no big bug and beta delivered on Steam was also popular. In addition, development progresses smoothly enough that the delivery start date of the completed game can be set to "days with fewest game releases in November." However, when it is about to be released actually, Steam users said that they felt stressed that the number of notifications entered in the "wish list" for registering the game they wanted is only once a day and sales information can not be checked in real time It is.

After such such twists and turns, Mr. Basiou finally released the game "Ebony Spire: Heresy".

Ebony Spire: Heresy on Steam


People who purchased the game posted screenshots on the community at the actual delivery start date. Bashio says he thought that sales would not be so low as Mr. Basiou had done as much advertising activities as possible within the budget, such as sending mail to the news site or sending information from Twitter.

In addition, immediately after delivery Steam's top page "New and Trending" in the game "Ebony Spire: Heresy" made by Mr. Bashio was posted, blessed from many friends and SNS friends.

Mr. Bashio's "Ebony Spire: Heresy" in the red frame part


And, when updating the number of sales pages, although 500 items were registered in the wish list, the actual sales number was 60 pieces. Mr. Basiou who saw this, "Steam will not update the data after 1 hour after release, so let's check the actual figures tomorrow morning", I heard that they slept that day. However, even the next day, the number of sales has increased only 68, which has nothing to say that people who play live on YouTube or threads that are talked about are on reddit was.

Mr. Bashio said that he confirmed what the people who purchased Ebony Spire: Heresy on the forum talked about and constantly updated the game for three weeks from the release. Later, as many as 90 games were sold in addition, some blog posts that praise the game and so on came to appear. Some say that some people rated it as "a game that can be played on Linux is pretty wonderful", but it seems that the number of reviews written on Steam's page was only nine. In the end it was not far beyond the target sales of 700, and we could sell only 160 books, which is less than 300, which was the minimum sales target we needed to live until January, It is a situation that does not stand.

byCristian Álvarez

About this experience, Mr. Basiou expresses "experience like crushing the soul" and may not be able to pay the mortgage next month, as in this time to sell my game in the future I am afraid that I can not risk taking risks.

Although he thought that Mr. Basiou was able to deliver enough niche games at a good price on a good release date, still the game could not be sold, and it was said that it became a reason to write such a blog "Do not put up with the indies unless you are prepared to suffer from a major failure!" "If you feel that you love the industry, work, games now, you feel the same as me I do not want it. "

Of course this is Bashio's story, and certainly there are game developers who earn a lot of money overnight. Nevertheless there is no doubt that a certain number of people will fall into a failure, and those who intend to step into the indie games industry while having a regular job can realize that they should challenge themselves at their own risk.