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Indy Game Development: any GAF'er ever make their own game, or even make money on it?

Mengy

Mengy

wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
I've been doing a lot of reading lately about the indy game scene and even about programming C++ and javascript and game design. I've always wanted to make my own video games, but it's not what I do for a living. I'm a mechanical engineer. Before college I made a few simple games in basic and then even assembly for my C64, but that was a long time ago. Since college, life has filled my time and I left the dream of creating video games behind long ago and simply played games instead.

But lately my dreams are getting the better of me. I find myself writing out game design documents during boring meetings at work. Reading about game design and programming at night. I've been dabbling in programming with Python and C++ lately while teaching myself about the languages. I've decided I'm going to make a go at taking one of my ideas and turning it into an actual game. I realize that I have zero experience at making a modern video game, and I'm the definition of beginner when it comes to programming something like this.

I have no delusions of making anything worth a damn, let alone making any money off of it. I'm going to be teaching myself as I go along, so there's a good chance that I'll never even finish a game of my own. But I'm going to start this just as a hobby, a learning experience of sorts, because the desire to make my own games is something strong that I have had inside of me for over twenty years now. I have to at least give it an honest shot. Hopefully I'll learn just how hard and impossible a task this is for someone like me and the dream will finally take a back step into the reality closet where it belongs.



But i was wondering, has anyone here on GAF ever made their own video game? Has anyone made any money at all from a game they made? If so I would like to hear about it, both the success stories and the failures. I'm certain I'm not the only person here who has ever had the gumption to take a stab at this...
 
I wouldn't exactly call it indie, but I worked on a game earlier this year for school:

http://chris-fox.com/blokhead.html

First and foremost, it was an amazing learning experience. Neither myself nor my teammates had any prior experience with this kind of thing. I mean, over the course of 3 months I went from not knowing what a bool was to scripting the enemy AI, menu system and achievements.

In terms of success, Blokhead was nominated for best student game at the 2011 Unity awards, and it's pretty much directly responsible for getting me the job I have now.

If you have the itch, I definitely recommend scratching it. Just have fun and try stuff out.
 
C-Jo said:
I wouldn't exactly call it indie, but I worked on a game earlier this year for school:

http://chris-fox.com/blokhead.html

First and foremost, it was an amazing learning experience. Neither myself nor my teammates had any prior experience with this kind of thing. I mean, over the course of 3 months I went from not knowing what a bool was to scripting the enemy AI, menu system and achievements.

In terms of success, Blokhead was nominated for best student game at the 2011 Unity awards, and it's pretty much directly responsible for getting me the job I have now.

If you have the itch, I definitely recommend scratching it. Just have fun and try stuff out.
Click to expand...


Wow, thats impressive. Nice job! When I get home tonight I'll try your game out. I'm gonna spend some time reading about the development on your site too, thanks for linking it.
 
C-Jo said:
I wouldn't exactly call it indie, but I worked on a game earlier this year for school:

http://chris-fox.com/blokhead.html

First and foremost, it was an amazing learning experience. Neither myself nor my teammates had any prior experience with this kind of thing. I mean, over the course of 3 months I went from not knowing what a bool was to scripting the enemy AI, menu system and achievements.

In terms of success, Blokhead was nominated for best student game at the 2011 Unity awards, and it's pretty much directly responsible for getting me the job I have now.

If you have the itch, I definitely recommend scratching it. Just have fun and try stuff out.
Click to expand...
Wow, I remember meeting you online on GAF a year back when you were getting into school.

Maybe we'll work together in the future cuz you're not so far away. =P
 
I'm making an iOS game at the moment, but you're right, just having the motivation to finish can be a huge struggle.

I'm doing the same thing you are and just taking this as a learning experience.
 
Mengy said:
Wow, thats impressive. Nice job! When I get home tonight I'll try your game out. I'm gonna spend some time reading about the development on your site too, thanks for linking it.
Click to expand...
Thanks man. If you have one, I highly recommend using a wired 360 controller or something similar. It's playable with a keyboard, but it's not great.
 
I've been working on a new spin to a breakout style game for far too long.

I only touch it every now and again, which makes the process very slow-going.
 
I am one of those people that has some ideas but can never get motivated to hunt out like-minded people to get it off the ground. :D I cannot program, do graphics or anything else, apart from writing down crazy ideas. :P
 
I know some GAFers are game makers and doing OK, nothing super swell tho (although those people might be hiding it just a bit better), it's good to see people that spend their time on forums and such doing video games professionally, it's like a fresh new generation that has the potential do bring some good into the industry that has their own firm planted ideas and fundamentals

I started making games somewhere a year and a half ago (I still remember that XBLIG post on GAF from when I started the first day), back then I just put together a small 4 man team of friends, we didn't have a programmer yet (only knew some basic XNA stuff myself) but we worked our asses off on a concept that I designed in a day or two. It was crazy now that I look back at it but we had so much fun at the time. Because we didn't make any money the whole feeling was lessened every week until after 2-3 months we kinda started giving up. I already had a programmer fixed but we were still in way over our heads with what we were doing considering our backgrounds. Then I just set up an official company and tried to secure funding, which was pretty much hell for 6 months but we're doing OK now, nothing released yet but we are sitting on two projects waiting to get released. We're all making maybe about 500 euros a month but we can manage and hopefully when we finally do release the games we start making some more money, but we still have most of the path ahead of us so I can't say for sure if doing it was the best or worse decision of my life. I certainly had to sacrifice a lot for it
 
I've been in bigger studio production since 1997, indie since 2009. Never really interested to do my own thing until it just sort of made sense, and happened. After a couple of years I am extremely proud to finally see my work being featured on the Android Market and making a little bit of money (not enough to make a living, but finally I can say "it paid my rent!") More importantly it's taught me so much, helped me grow as a designer (and producer), and opened the doors for bigger and more exciting things :)

But yes, it comes with a lot of cost. Lots and lots of trail and error, heartache, aggravation. has it been worth it? Absolutely (though I am seeking studio work once again, to help pay the bills, as stuff tends to go fairly slowly even when it is getting good).

Now is probably the best time in history to be an independent developer for many reasons. But most importantly, one must not expect to be "the next big thing" because for all your efforts as a designer/programmer/whatever, you must also be an excellent promoter/sales and businessperson, and even then it's a huge headache that you must learn to not only deal with, but excel at. It's more important how you sell it, than what you are actually making. Get into it for the fun of it, maybe if you are lucky you might get a feature and a couple of extra bucks to have a good time with, but making a living off of it "for real" is a long haul and a lot of work!
 
been trying to make my own game for around 3 years now, haven't really finished something that i can be proud off... well, i haven't really finished anything, except for some functional arkanoid / bejeweled clones in Flash.

learning can really eat alot of time, and your life will get in the way. right now i'm sticking with Pygame (Python is a breeze to learn), and i'm just starting to realize why a lot of indies are praising the "iterative design process". sure beats making long winded design docs.

i just read an article on lostgarden.com about keeping a "design log". really helps, and i plan to finish my current game using this (i'm starting simple, just a game with 1 button control, and i'll probably use photographs for art, as i can hardly draw anything)
 
I've made several games on small-scale game creation systems like ZZT and MegaZeux, and even RPG Maker 2000. Now I'm part-of-the-way through making a game in C#/XNA.

One of the first games I ever made, when I was 14 years old (1996), it was shareware (first half was free)... I sold it for $5, and actually made about $70-80 off of it! Later on I released the whole thing for free... My dream is to one day make the spiritual successor to the Phantasy Star series.
 
Ive left my job in so I can focus 100% on making a game alongside some friends

so yeah Im on it making it happen.


If this dosent work well its back to some 9 to 6 job lolz


Ive seen games with lower quality standards than mine make a huge success (economically speaking) so Im quite optimistic this wont fail but of course Im aware of the realities
 
i'm working on an android game to fulfill a childhood dream of mine, creating and selling a videogame, and i don't care if i just sell one copy :)
 
EvilNando said:
Ive left my job in so I can focus 100% on making a game alongside some friends

so yeah Im on it making it happen.


If this dosent work well its back to some 9 to 6 job lolz


Ive seen games with lower quality standards than mine make a huge success (economically speaking) so Im quite optimistic this wont fail but of course Im aware of the realities
Click to expand...

Is your avatar from that game of yours? If not, where is it from?

Looks cool and interesting.
 
Diprosalic said:
i'm working on an android game to fulfill a childhood dream of mine, creating and selling a videogame, and i don't care if i just sell one copy :)
Click to expand...
If it prominently features either A)dudes or B)bros, you can sign me up for a copy.
 
wondermega said:
I've been in bigger studio production since 1997, indie since 2009. Never really interested to do my own thing until it just sort of made sense, and happened. After a couple of years I am extremely proud to finally see my work being featured on the Android Market and making a little bit of money (not enough to make a living, but finally I can say "it paid my rent!") More importantly it's taught me so much, helped me grow as a designer (and producer), and opened the doors for bigger and more exciting things :)

But yes, it comes with a lot of cost. Lots and lots of trail and error, heartache, aggravation. has it been worth it? Absolutely (though I am seeking studio work once again, to help pay the bills, as stuff tends to go fairly slowly even when it is getting good).

Now is probably the best time in history to be an independent developer for many reasons. But most importantly, one must not expect to be "the next big thing" because for all your efforts as a designer/programmer/whatever, you must also be an excellent promoter/sales and businessperson, and even then it's a huge headache that you must learn to not only deal with, but excel at. It's more important how you sell it, than what you are actually making. Get into it for the fun of it, maybe if you are lucky you might get a feature and a couple of extra bucks to have a good time with, but making a living off of it "for real" is a long haul and a lot of work!
Click to expand...

yours was that ios puzzle game right? I loved it.
 
BlueMagic said:
Is your avatar from that game of yours? If not, where is it from?

Looks cool and interesting.
Click to expand...


before knowing these two guys that are helping me making this game I was a one man army and tried to make a whole game by myself .. the idea was to make a simple RPG in a medieval setting

here are a couple of graphics I started sketching. this gave me an idea of what I can accomplish with my limited art skillset

here are more stuff I made for that game now cancelled...

fixedsideways.gif

Characters-1.png
 
There are several GAF-made games, including mine, in the Android Gaming Thread.
I started doing homebrew games for Gameboy and GBA when I was 14 and have been making lot's of crappy incomplete games since then. I haven't finished or released very many however. Then after a few years in the industry I quit my job and I'm trying to make a living of Android and iPhone games. I haven't released much yet, but I'm making some money from it, though still not quite enough to pay the bills. I'm working on something a bit more substantial, and less silly, than Trouser Trouble now and will hopefully be able to release it in a few weeks.

It's really fulfilling to to make a game by yourself; but it's also very slow. After working in a full team it's easy to get spoiled by having content dropping in from every direction and not having to be responsible for every single byte of data.
 
I've just started "recently" (Got together with a team a year ago, started development in current project since March of this year).. I'ts been around 6-7 months since development started and while things doesn't move as fast as one would want (work beign the primary deterrent) we are as pumped as at the beginning :)

The best way to pace things out would be to start with small projects that you can publish in several places (Android, iOS, XLIG, PC) and then start growing in size and scope. Our current project will be our first published one (XNA/C# game) and while it is not big, it is not small either... But yeah the ball is harder to get rolling if you start like that.

What is important is to pursue your dreams, it really brings a lot of satisfaction and they really itch if they are left unattended :P
 
Made a game a few years ago on XNA (never released on XBLIG) as a demo. Got hired off it as a level designer. Left recently and am working on my own Android stuff now full time. :)
 
Almost two years in the making, yeah. It's about 85% done but that last 15% is killer. Still gonna release it by the end of the year, even if I have to start cutting stuff. It's time for it to be finished. I don't plan on making money from it but I think I could find ways to monetize it if I needed, through ads (which aren't hard to do since it's HTML5.)

I was "making" games before then, but never finished them (and really, didn't have any real intention of finishing them.)

Best advice I can really offer (and I can't offer much) is that definitely finish your design doc before you start making your game (excluding prototypes, and definitely do make prototypes.) Finishing your design doc makes a clear map of goals and milestones.
 
Andrex said:
Best advice I can really offer (and I can't offer much) is that definitely finish your design doc before you start making your game (excluding prototypes, and definitely do make prototypes.) Finishing your design doc makes a clear map of goals and milestones.
Click to expand...
Also start really really small, like reaaaaaaaally small.
 
Lets see... Feep (Sequence) and the guy who made Blocks That Matter on XLIG both post here, right? Those guys both placed very highly in DBP.

Not to mention tons of other posters who are still working or just don't make their identity known.
 
The Friendly Monster said:
Also start really really small, like reaaaaaaaally small.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, DEFINITELY that too. I thought I was starting small with 15 levels. Lol, not even close... should have been like 5 levels...

But making them was fun and the game is better for it so I can't really complain.
 
I did this in about four weeks for a graphics class. The video isn't actually the final version, as I had to port it over to the school machines for the last sprint which didn't have video recording software.

It's a first person platformer where you have a grapple hook. Only one level, more of a prototype than anything, but it was a lot of fun to make. I think if I got my hands on a better engine (than one I write myself) and some free time I could do something special on this premise.

http://www.youtube.com/user/filkry#p/u/3/3mlVHwCHaIE

I think my biggest dissuader from doing a full indie game is that I don't know how to meet people to partner with. I know I can do programming and some game design, but art, sound, etc? No way.
 
Wow, great posts everyone. It sounds like quite a few of you are doing just what I'm considering. And some of you are even doing it well too! Congratulations to all of you. But like qqmore up there it's just going to start as a hobby for me. If I have a knack for it and turn out to be a better programmer than I expect to be, well then I may have to re-evaluate some things. But that's down the road a long ways, lol.

I'm going to have to take some time and try out a few of the games you guys have done.


vani77a said:
learning can really eat alot of time, and your life will get in the way. right now i'm sticking with Pygame (Python is a breeze to learn), and i'm just starting to realize why a lot of indies are praising the "iterative design process". sure beats making long winded design docs.
Click to expand...

Making design docs are a blast to me. In fact, I'm hoping I don't find out that I just enjoy making design docs and hate making games themselves! It must be the engineer in me or my college training. Hell, I've got outlines, sketches, design concepts and several page essays on over a dozen ideas for games that I have rattling around. Some are realistic for a single indie dev, some would be only feasible as studio games. Dream big, right?
 
Funny Mengy, the hard part for me is coming up with what I consider a 'good' idea. The programming is the fun part.
KuGsj.gif
 
Mengy said:
Wow, great posts everyone. It sounds like quite a few of you are doing just what I'm considering. And some of you are even doing it well too! Congratulations to all of you. But like qqmore up there it's just going to start as a hobby for me. If I have a knack for it and turn out to be a better programmer than I expect to be, well then I may have to re-evaluate some things. But that's down the road a long ways, lol.
Click to expand...

This is going to sound like some hippie bullshit, but never assume that you are incapable of anything humanly possible. Talent is 95% hard work.
 
thefil said:
This is going to sound like some hippie bullshit, but never assume that you are incapable of anything humanly possible. Talent is 95% hard work.
Click to expand...
Although that's true, programming does require a different form of thinking than normally in my opinion and it may not be for everybody.
 
I've most always been interested in making games, but I never really finished anything significant. I tried and failed at the global game jam last year, so hopefully 2012 will be more successful. I will presumably need to learn Unity beforehand and convince a team not to write from scratch in C++.
 
Cool thread! Fun to read about people's adventures and efforts.

My story:
Worked for some years with XBLA, PSN and some mobile stuff at a small studio. Mostly remakes, but also one original game, ilomilo for which I made the art and story.

It's always been a dream to do my own thing. Me and a friend from the studio I worked at before started our own company in August last year, so we've been doing this for a little more than a year. It's only us two, he's the coder, and I do the art and sound. We're doing even smaller stuff than XBLA games. We've been concentrating on iOS, but we'll see what happens in the future. Might look in to PC and Mac. We're bringing one of our iOS games to Mac, but we're in full production of our third game.

Super happy that we can make a living out doing our own games, without any investors or publishers. We will probably not get rich doing this, and it's a lot of work (and I mean A LOT, like, crazy lot), and quite a bit of worrying. But it's the best job I've ever had and I'm glad that we decided to do it.
 
I made a quick fraps video of my upcomming Android/iPhone game: Helium Boy

Some of you may actually remember this game (though it's very unlikely) from this thread. I made the first version way back in 2006, and then a few years ago when I had some time off, I dabbled a bit in Wii Homebrew and made a quick port. This time it's almost completely remade however, with all new graphics and a bunch of new levels (it only had one level originally). There's still some of my old messy code left in there though. I've been working on it for about two and a half months now and will hopefully be able to release it by early/mid october.
 
Warm Machine said:
I'm almost done my game, Orbitron: Revolution for XBLIG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yO8HW0Dl8U

You should be playing it before the end of the year.
Click to expand...


Woah, impressive looking game Warm Machine! It looks like a Defender type game but on a 3D ring. Very nice graphics. Are you making this on your own, or are you working with a team?
 
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