With the growing popularity of crowdfunding platforms (Kickstarter and others), more and more developers choose not to depend on large publishers or investors. At the same time, even eminent developers do not hesitate to use their influence to raise funds for their own projects. For example, Brian Fargo (Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, The Bard’s Tale) bought the rights to Wasteland from Electronic Arts, and then went on Kickstarter with a proposal to make Wasteland 2 and raised $ 3 million! Also indie studios have created games such as Super Meat Boy and Minecraft, which was later bought by Microsoft for fabulous money.
Therefore, today we will analyze who indie developers are and how to make an indie game.
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Real indie developers are distinguished not so much by their professional qualities as by the presence of useful skills in the field of developing and promoting games. But the main thing is a great desire to constantly grow and expand the base of their knowledge in programming, game design, graphics, marketing and music writing.
Training of personal qualities and the right attitude will help to achieve professional success. An indie developer needs:
- bring all started projects to the end, do not give up product development after negative reviews, but continue to improve it regularly;
- attract potential users not by quantity, but by the quality of games;
- try to come up with original ideas and not be afraid to brainstorm with teammates or other indie developers;
- take a responsible approach to marketing the result of your work – create art, press releases, press kit, use various Internet resources to promote your project;
- determine the target audience of your games;
- think over strategies for explosive growth, retention, training, player motivation, opportunities for monetization and product localization;
- actively engage with the community.
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HOW MUCH INDI DEVELOPERS EARN
Despite the fact that most games from indie studios are made on pure enthusiasm, everyone is interested in the potential income in this direction.
It will take a serious investment of time, money and labor to generate income from a released game. At the same time, the amount of earnings directly depends on the quality of your projects. If the first (due to poor implementation) may not be the most financially successful, then the subsequent products, on the contrary, may pleasantly surprise.
As you gain experience and hone your skills, you will reach new heights, including financially. You can increase your income from creating indie games in one of three ways:
- creating many small but attractive products for users;
- improving old games, complicating their plot and changing the graphics;
- releasing fundamentally new in terms of plot and functionality of the game.
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If you can’t make big money on the first released game, don’t despair. The creation of any product is an invaluable experience. Over time, your hobby will start to generate a solid income. But, of course, you shouldn’t start making games just for the sake of revenue.
HOW TO BECOME A DEVELOPER OF INDIE GAMES
Indie developer is a creative profession and quite well paid. You can start in different ways. Someone begins to create gaming products on their own and over the years increases the level of quality, others gather a team of friends and acquaintances to work together on a long-conceived idea.
However, in order to quickly master all the nuances of the gaming industry and become a real specialist, you need to learn from professionals with extensive development experience such as aaa games.
