$1 million in a week: How indie developers Punch Club hacked the gaming market. Development of an indie game by one person (history, tips) Development of an indie game
We looked at where to start your journey in the gaming industry. At the same time, most novice game developers are driven by the desire to start developing that very dream game. Today we’ll talk about how to do this if you are an indie developer. By the way, you can see the projects that indie developers started at our Higher School of Economics in the “Game Project Management” program in the graduate projects section. So, depending on existing skills and not wanting to start by working in a game studio, a novice developer has a choice of two options for the development of events:
- Rely completely on your own strengths
- Assemble a team (usually from the same enthusiasts)
Let’s imagine that a decision has been made to cope on our own.
In this case, having assessed his skills, the game developer decided that he was quite capable of developing the game on his own. He has programming skills or, for example, has a high skill in graphic design and is able to bring the project to fruition using a design engine that does not require writing code. If the project does not claim exorbitant ambitions and is built around certain mechanics, the task becomes quite feasible. All problems begin when building the pipeline and frequent omissions in individual stages.
Where to start and what to pay attention to
Firstly, project development primarily involves time. Depending on the scale, this will be approximately three months to infinity. To prevent this from happening, you need to clearly calculate the time that the developer can allocate to complete all the necessary tasks. If this is a game that is done in free evenings, it is obvious that the time frame will increase several times. If you have made a decision that is not the most popular, but still occurs from time to time - to focus only on developing the game, you need to decide on sources of income or immediately set aside a budget, in the presence of which you will not have to deal with issues of your own survival.
To begin with, it is best to take care of drawing up a schedule - deadlines/needed assets/tasks and budgets. Any free task manager like Wunderlist, Trello or OneNote can be suitable for this. You need to check them every day and write all changes there. Thus, you can track the progress of the project and make the necessary forecasts in advance, optimizing and rebuilding processes. This will also help with motivation and self-control. Since it is much easier to make calculations and plan tasks for one person, budget optimization will be analyzed in more detail using the following option as an example.
The second solution is to assemble an indie team
Let's say you have a clear understanding of the gaming industry, the organization of the development process, and, in general, quite a significant amount of familiarity with game projects. There is a catch - you are not included in the number of completely applied specialists, such as programmers/artists/composers, etc. In order to become a specialist in any applied field, it will most likely require a huge amount of time, but even to organize the process you will have to delve into everything at least at a certain level. You need a clear understanding of what exactly the people on your team do and what tasks will take how much time. As in the first case, you will need to calculate the timing and create a budget. With the exception of those funds that will be needed at a minimum to ensure at least some more or less own existence. As with a solo indie, the project's budget may vary or may not exist at all. Then the team will consist of only enthusiasts. Similar projects have been published and virtually all unofficial localization teams work using this system, but usually this is not the best scheme. Practice shows that people who work with enthusiasm either “burn out” within a few months, or, one way or another, always put their interests and problems at the forefront and are not ready to devote enough time to the project. It’s better to set at least some budget - it may even be below average, but it’s still highly motivating and allows your enthusiasm to live on much longer.
With such budgets, you can only count on the same people - who will be as passionate as you are about making the project and trying with all their might to bring it to release. The question is - where to find such people? You should not expect that these will be highly qualified specialists, so you should focus only on those tasks that are needed specifically for a given project. IN best case scenario, the team will gradually grow, mastering new horizons, but most likely there will not be time to constantly master new tasks. Before creating budgets and deadlines, you need to draw up a clear technical specification and game design document. This is where the creation of any game project begins. When all tasks are known, budgets have been allocated, and deadlines have been calculated, the formation of the team begins.
Pre-production
The project has already defined a graphic style, the platform, possible engines, genre are already known, and in general, a common vision has been formed. This means that you can already start looking for at least an artist, programmer and game designer. If the game promises to be thematic or is aimed at a specific setting, it makes sense to go searching in all thematic communities: social networks, portals, thematic sites, fan groups for similar games– at a minimum, there is a section with fan art everywhere. You can select several decent works at once, look at the accounts of artists and designers (usually everyone who is serious about creating art has accounts on deviantart and behance). Programmers and game designers also appear in such communities, but much less often. It still makes sense to give up the cry, but it’s better to do it in groups related to the necessary engines, programming, and game development itself. Usually, these are people who have already decided for themselves to go into this field, and there are many who also don’t know where to start and are looking for a team - unite! At game development conferences, the likelihood of finding the right people also increases - you find yourself in a concentrated area of the gaming industry and it definitely makes sense to attend them for a number of reasons. Starting from finding the right specialists and enthusiasts, ending with self-development.
Legal support can be very different, from opening an LLC to hiring through freelance platforms. If there is any budget for the project, the second option is simpler and provides confirmation of your financial relationship in case of disputes. Our most famous platforms are Fl.ru and Upwork.com. The first one has more of a segment of the Russian Federation and the CIS, the second one has specialists from all over the world. If the goal is to fix relationships, FL is quite suitable; Upwork has a more powerful platform, but the percentage of the platform is higher and it makes sense to use it only if you need to find an outsourcer.
Optimizing available resources
When forming a budget in such conditions, it is very important to use all opportunities to reduce costs, but only those that will not be to the detriment of the project itself. For writing musical accompaniment it is not necessary to contact individuals or companies. Sounds from free license can be found on freesound.org, a full license to use ready-made tracks can be purchased at fairly reasonable prices on audiojungle (approximately $25-70 per track). Most graphic assets/packs and plugins for the required tasks are available in the store of the engine itself (Unity, Unreal) or on similar resources. If there is only one project, does not involve a gigantic scale, and the team has less than 10 people, there is little point in purchasing subscriptions to large-scale task trackers such as Jira or Redmine. A standard set of Google docs, Trello, Slack and Telegram is enough. We are also considering the option when the entire team is “remotely”, and not sitting somewhere in the office - you don’t need a full-time working day, break up tasks over time. Who does what and when doesn't really matter as long as the work is completed on time. It is best to focus on this kind of process design and keep in mind that any free tools that meet the objectives will not only be a solution, but will also help reduce the budget. You should always budget ahead of time – at least two months. Due to various circumstances, something can shift, even people on the project can change - this also needs to be taken into account. It’s almost never possible to take everything into account, but if most of it is calculated possible problems, and roles in the project and associated tasks are clearly distributed - risks are significantly reduced.
What to do with the game at release is a different story. Whether to look for a publisher, publish it yourself, attract additional investments or go to crowdfunding - each team decides due to too many circumstances. It also makes sense to think about this in advance, but sometimes the goal may be for the game to just at least see the light of day and serve as a start to more serious projects and new prospects. Nowadays, marketing budgets vary too much depending on the platform and methods of promotion, but at a minimum, nothing prevents you from creating a community for the project and communicating all the news related to it, while keeping the potential audience active.
Papers, Please; Her Story, Stardew Valley, The Stanley Parable, Minecraft and Braid are games created by just 1 person.
Punch club was developed by a team of several people.
Blizzard Entertainment was founded by three UCLA graduates.
From all the examples it is clear that such cases do occur and have a right to life. Everything is determined by the goals set, perseverance and the desire to let the project see the light of day. Most of the negative circumstances are solvable and it all depends on the willingness to adapt in time and be able to quickly make a number of decisions depending on the situation. Almost everything will depend on the team - these are people with whom you should have similar goals, mutual understanding and a similar attitude to what you do. Otherwise, you will end up with a fable about a swan, a crayfish and a pike, where even efforts and perseverance will not move the cart from its place. Setting one direction is your main goal.
We wish you successful projects and invite you to join the training program “Game Project Management” and launch new ones good games together!
If you've wandered here, you may be confused about finding a publisher for your indie masterpiece. Or someone whispered to you that all games need a publisher, or something similar. So, publisher you don't need.What is Indy?
Let's start from the beginning. What kind of word is " indie"? Of course, it came from the word " independent“, that is, “independent.” And the essence of the “indie” movement was that a product is released without a publisher, directly from the author, and without his financing. This applies to games, music and other cultural phenomena.
What does such a scheme give to the buyer? Of course, more low price, due to the fact that the publisher does not need to pay any royalties. And most importantly - the likelihood of having fresher conceptual ideas, as some say, such games have "soul". At least that's how it was in the dawn of indie games, before everyone (including me) started playing indie games.
Games for the masses 
But as time went on, the indie culture phenomenon grew. Greenlight was opened, which allowed thousands of game developers to realize all their wet fantasies, and sit at home, drink beer, and earn thousands of dollars. Is this good or bad? The question is controversial. I believe that no one is forcing anyone to buy anything, and really good projects still make their way through thousands of crafts and become successful.
Something went wrong 
Nowadays, the indie industry has reached its peak of absurdity. Because the essence of the word “indie” is completely forgotten, and this word is used to describe any game with two-dimensional graphics or simply a low budget. I have noticed more than once how in all sorts of indie public pages they post art on game Child of Light, which was published by Ubisoft. But the most interesting thing is to watch indie games that create projects on Kickstarter and raise money for their games. That is, if a game gets an outside budget, can it be called independent? After all, it directly depends on the money that people throw in.
Need help? 
Well, now let's return to the original topic. Why do indie developers need publishers? But you probably already got it. The bottom line is that for indie developers, the publisher must be the indie developer himself. If you think that your game needs a publisher, you are deeply mistaken.
If you have an almost finished game that you plan to post in Greenlight, or your project is already at the stage of receiving the green light, all sorts of smart people will probably start writing to you, offering to become publishers. What do such people usually offer?
- 100% guarantee for passing Greenlight;
- PR of the game in various publications;
- translation of the game into English;
- they will only ask for a modest 30-40% of your earnings.
Okay, what's wrong here? Of course, I want to say that if you are too lazy to develop your game and don’t mind the money at all, then you can agree. But if you believe in yourself, then I’ll tell you a secret: all this can be done easily. ourselves.
"Publishers" 
About Greenlight I've already described everything perfectly. All that is required of you is 3,200 rubles for Greenlight (or 100 dollars if you are not from Russia).
Regarding PR . If this “PR company” has a couple of thousand subscribers in VK (or even less), a dubious website, no office, or what’s even worse, no banal agreement (and this happens, oh yes), send such people to hell. In the best case, they will throw the keys of your game into all sorts of popular sites with game critics, in the worst case, they will increase reposts through some fraudulent promotion services.
In fact, there is nothing stopping you from sending pre-release keys for your game to anyone. If you send 100 keys to 100 different sites with game reviews, then you have nothing to lose in any case, and if you receive a dozen reviews, you will have the opportunity to insert quotes from the reviews into the description of your game, and also get their readers as yours audience.
Regarding the translation . If you need it (there are a lot of lines in the game that you cannot translate), then this is bad :) In fact, it is very difficult to find good translators into English. Almost every translation of an indie game will be accompanied by reviews about the poor translation into English, and all because most translators write sentences in English, but with a Russian meaning. And this sounds, to put it mildly, bad. Thus, if you are playing your first games, I highly recommend limiting the amount of text in the game.
But the most important thing is that all these “publishers” will most likely hire some school teacher to translate for you English language for a couple of thousand rubles. Accordingly, the quality of the translation will be far from the best.
Regarding deductions. The whole point is that they are publishers, which means they have full access to your money, they will receive it directly from Steam, and give you the stubs. They can endlessly lie, invent, and at some point disappear completely, and you will not receive a penny from them. Happened this week interesting story with one game on Steam made in China. The publisher simply cheated the developer, and in order for the developer to prove to Steam that the game really belongs to him, a trial is needed. In the USA. Hire a lawyer in the USA. Can you afford it? Are you ready to take THAT risk?
Is Steam indie? 
By the way, here you can raise another philosophical topic. Since "independence" implies the absence of publishers, then... isn't Steam a publisher? Of course, if you want to sell through Steam, then your publisher will be Valve. Will your game be indie? The question is controversial. But the fact is that without this publisher, everyone would be in trouble right now, and it is he who is promoting this wave of amateur developers. Then... what do these "publishers" who ask for a percentage offer us? Nothing. These are just hucksters who want to get a percentage of your share without doing anything. Such people have always been and will be, and oddly enough, almost all business in Russia and the CIS is built on such profiteering.
Don't be fooled by this. Make better games. If you have a good game, then people will not pass it by. Peace to all.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, indie game development fully lived up to its proud name: it was independent. The games were created and distributed in-house, with nothing limiting the creative process. With the spread of information technology, everyone was able to sell the fruits of their labors at a nominal price, and thanks to this, the heyday of indie became associated with complete creative freedom.
Niche games found their audience, usually ignored by the mainstream industry. In these halcyon days, experimental creativity led to the emergence of countless new forms and genres that have already become commonplace in our time.
“The indie gaming world is a real minefield now,” says Paul Kilduff-Taylor, co-founder of Mode 7 Games, best known for the Frozen Synapse series. “To be successful, a developer must understand what he is doing and do his job perfectly. However, even in this case, no one is immune from failure.”
And many are trying to protect themselves from financial ruin by collaborating with indie publishers. Most of today's popular indie games were released through Devolver Digital, Curve, Raw Fury, Double Fine, Finji, Adult Swim, Team 17, Humble and PlayWay. Some experts believe that this trend will put an end to the indie movement, and large corporations will turn the independent spirit into another way to make money. But this statement is far from the truth.
Tokyo 42, developed by SMAC Games and published by Mode 7.
The main and most obvious advantage of working with a publisher is financing. But the task of publishing houses does not end there. As of today, in 2017 at Steam platform more than 6,800 games were released (for comparison, 5,028 games were released in 2016, and 2,991 in 2015). The vast majority of these games can be classified as indie.
But how can a developer make his project stand out in the endless stream of blatant junk? And how to present the product in a way that shows it best sides? How to interest a wide audience without losing the spirit of independence? These and many other burning questions often keep game designers up at night.
“It’s not often that you see an indie project that’s well-represented in the media and the press, or backed by a clear marketing plan,” laments Kilduff-Taylor, who, after the recent release of Tokyo 42, began to venture into game publishing through Mode 7.
“One of the stumbling blocks for most indie developers is not being able to sell or advertise their game,” agrees Andrea Cifu, head of sales at Raw Fury, publisher of games like Gonner. The Last Night and Uurnog Uurnlimited.
Uurnog Uurnlimited, developed by Nifflas Games and published by Raw Fury.
“Yes, absolutely,” says Uurnog creator Niklas “Nifflas” Nygren. “We often don’t have time for this, and in general, it’s very, very difficult work.” For me it's real dense forest. I already write the code and music for the game, and do the design, so I’m happy to shift the responsibility for marketing and devkits to someone else. I have no idea how it all works, and I simply wouldn’t have enough hands to do everything at the same time.”
In addition to marketing, publishers take on a number of other tasks, without which the release of not a single modern game is complete: testing, localization, transfer to other platforms, communication with stores (for example, Steam), development of a branding campaign, moderation and administration of pages games (for different platforms it is necessary to select images of different formats, descriptions of different lengths, write about latest updates, add DLC to the page, etc., etc.).
In general, the publisher takes upon itself all the routine, bureaucracy and burdensomeness that is inevitably associated with game development. Moreover, this routine requires certain specialized knowledge, connections, experience and skills, which usually have little to do with the process of creating a game. And, as Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowry puts it, publishing is an additional tool that makes life much easier for indie developers.
“When deciding to use a publisher, a developer must ask himself whether he can handle this task on his own and whether this will help his game achieve success? And finally, will the publisher help make the game better?
Hotline Miami, the cult brainchild of Dennaton Games, published by Devolver Digital.
Each individual developer has his own needs and conditions, and a publisher – a good publisher – should be able to adapt to them. Experienced developers may only require funding, while younger ones will need full testing of the game, detailed feedback and general guidance on the workflow. Some people just want to dump the "boring" marketing on someone else's shoulders, while others only want to port the game to other platforms.
For example, this is what the guys from Cardboard Computer did, finishing work on Kentucky Route Zero without the participation of publishers, and then turning to the Annapurna Interactive studio to port it to consoles, translate it into other languages and organize an advertising campaign. “These tasks require a lot of specific knowledge and skills, so having a group of professionals in these fields at hand is a real miracle,” says screenwriter and programmer Jake Elliott.
“Publishers now approach each project individually, carefully delving into the details of the game and the aspirations of the creators, rather than taking on work for the sake of a new tick in the portfolio,” Kilduff-Taylor said. – To achieve greater mutual understanding with clients, some publishers even specialize in certain types of activities or game genres. For example, Team 17 mainly takes on mediocre games and turns them into mega-hits, while Devolver prefers to work with projects that have a distinct atmosphere and aesthetics. So in terms of publishing houses, developers have a lot to choose from.”
In the case of the Cardboard Computer studio, which resorted to the services of a publisher after completing work on Kentucky Route Zero, it began negotiating with the Annapurna publisher back in 2011, when the game was still at the fundraising stage. “We liked Annapurna's portfolio of work and project-focused approach,” continues Jake Elliott. “To be released on the same label with artists and designers whose work we ourselves were inspired by while creating the game is worth a lot.”
Kentucky Route Zero developed by Cardboard Computer and published by Annapurna Interactive.
There is an opinion that the heyday of the Russian gaming industry occurred in the early 2000s and lasted approximately until the crisis of 2008. Then the domestic market believed in the development of large ones. This is the time of such series as “IL-2 Sturmovik”, “Behind Enemy Lines”, “ Space Rangers", "King's Bounty" and other legendary projects.
Today, the games market is more focused on online projects of various types, as well as mobile and social platforms. Large companies have refocused on free-to-play. Large single-player games, in fact, were left behind, with the exception of isolated experimental developments of AAA-singles within the walls of giants (yes, I’m really looking forward to Pathfinder: Kingmaker). And the online gaming market began to expand by leaps and bounds.
However, the advent of “digital” and the disappearance of the need for “retail” were able to enable small indie teams to enter the world market with game projects on their own, while bypassing large publishers, interaction with which can sometimes be lengthy and difficult for small teams due to the scale of such corporations. Using the same Steam, any studio, team or single developer had the opportunity to first go through the “greenlight” and, having received approval from the player community, list their project on the online platform, and with the introduction of “direct”, immediately release the project to a mass audience , making a symbolic payment by gaming industry standards of $100.
Why are so many small teams so enthusiastic about developing for Steam? Firstly, for many this is not their main job, but rather a hobby to which they devote themselves, in which they put their souls, and which they treat as creativity, and not as a business. And I want to create something that I would later want to play myself. That dream game that is not possible to make at your main job. And from the experience of my communication with indie developers, their dream game is exactly buy-to-play on a computer, and not the coolest free-to-play farm for social networks.
Also in the field of online games, the main thing that rules the day is the ability to attract traffic to each specific project. For large gaming companies, the marketing budget for a mobile or social game amounts to many millions of dollars per month. For a small independent development team, such budgets are prohibitive, and after the release of games in this area, everything is just beginning.
The “game as a service” principle in the online segment does not allow you to simply release a game, then a few patches and calmly begin developing the next project. When dealing with mobile free-to-play products, you constantly have to work with optimizing the purchase of traffic, with the community, regularly release updates, monitor the performance of servers, track “cheaters,” and constantly engage in analytics to improve metrics again, and again, and again.
And after a long time, we finally reach the point where the CPI (the cost of attracting one player) will become lower than the LTV (the amount of money that one player brings in for the entire time of using the game). It’s not surprising that after the launch of such projects, the team’s staff often only increases. It happens that a year passes before a game launched in soft launch is finalized and becomes available to a wider audience.
In the indie segment, too, there is no way without marketing, but there it works in a completely different way. The main bet is on tools that do not cost a lot of money. For influencers - bloggers and streamers, with whom we managed to negotiate for a small payment or even for free. Of course, these are not popular reviewers whose budgets are prohibitive for indie teams. The emphasis is on mentions in the press and creating a loyal community. To be added to various game catalogs and gaming portals. For independent posting on social networks, on Reddit, on forums and blogs. And, of course, on the traffic provided by the store itself where the game is located. And much more that can be done without large budgets and that several people from the team, and in some cases even just one, can do.
This is why developing projects that are designed for a buy-to-play monetization model is easier for indies. They can relieve themselves of the complex work associated with operations, ongoing support and updates, and this allows for much smaller budgets. Also, to minimize budgets, all participants work on the game in their free time and are not constantly busy with this, which means that the need to receive a regular income is not an issue for them with their main job.
Indie teams often choose simpler and more understandable genres that do not have a huge amount of content and complex mechanics that require fine-tuning. Also, the team can be decentralized and use many solutions that somehow reduce the cost of development. For example, free software, including an engine, ready-made assets, sounds, music and much more. Now there is large number resources with similar content that is distributed free of charge or does not require large investments from the development team.
Thus, game development for Steam remains attractive to indies and is actively developing in Russia. A number of Steam projects from Russian developers in recent years it has been lit up powerfully.
Examples of similar projects created in recent years in Russia include such games as “Party Hard” (2015), “Punch Club” (2016), “Beholder” (2016), “Sumoman” (2017), “ Hello Neighbor"(2017), "Life is Feudal" (2018) and others, as well as games, for example, made by one person, like "Light" (2012), "Train 2013" (2013) and "35MM" (2016).
Among the relatively large and interesting projects in development are “Be: Brave” from the One Dream team, the atmosphere of which is often compared to famous series"Zelda" "Escape From Tarkov"from the studio Battlestate Games (a project from a large but independent team) is a story-driven multiplayer online shooter that focuses on realism, physical model and ballistics. Here it is also worth noting that it will be distributed through the b2p system, although it is focused on “online”; And “Ash of Gods” is turn-based role play, combining tactical battles, collectible elements card games and non-linear development of history from the AurumDust team. Each of these games is now very close to the largest projects of a bygone era and should be released in 2018.
Similar projects from Russian independent teams continue to appear. The same “Punch Club” was created over the course of two years by three people, of which only one person was full-time.
A visual novel“Endless Summer,” which was released in 2014, is a truly unique case. Not only was the game developed by a team from one of the imageboards for 6 years based on sheer enthusiasm, it was eventually released on iOS and Android, translated into English and, according to SteamSpy, was downloaded more than one and a half million times on Steam alone. For a game that is distributed free of charge and made out of sheer passion, Endless Summer has an unprecedented level of detail, and a very strong community of fans who regularly create their own “mods” and grow the game’s community. After the release of the game, part of the team, already represented by Soviet Games, continues to work on a project in the same genre called “Love, Money, Rock'n'Roll”, which successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in 2017 and is preparing for release in 2018 -ohm.
Thus, there is indie development of iconic Steam games in Russia, it continues to develop and give players new unique products. There is, of course, indie development of free-to-play games for mobile and social platforms, indie development for new platforms, for example, for virtual reality, indie development board games etc. - but that's another story.
In our educational program “Game Project Management”, students unite into teams and, during the learning process, create their own game project, which is subsequently launched on one of the platforms. According to statistics, it turns out that almost in equal shares they want to make games for either Steam or Mobile. And on both platforms there is a chance of achieving some success. For example, on March 1, 2018, we will have a Lecture Evening on the gaming industry, at which our graduate Ilya Boytsov will tell how they created an indie studio from scratch, how they have already developed seven mobile games, and how we achieved almost half a million installs without purchasing traffic and without large-scale budgets. And the Steam game Sacralith: the Archer’s Tale from our graduate Dmitry Svetlov was among the finalists of the Best VR game at White Nights in Prague. At the time of writing, WN has not yet started, I hope Dima wins. This, in my personal opinion, is the coolest archer simulator that is currently on the market. Even in beta, I played more hours than any other VR game. You can see some of the games that our students and graduates make on our website.
To summarize, I would like to say that in our country there are a number of talented teams and developers capable of releasing indie projects both for Steam and other platforms. They stand on a par with world games and become successful in their niche. By developing education in the gaming industry in Russia, our goal is to increase the number of professional personnel and in every possible way contribute to ensuring that there are more such games from year to year, and the Russian gaming industry could develop and release increasingly large-scale projects even with small teams. And, of course, so that people have more opportunities, motivation, knowledge and experience in order to connect their lives with the industry, work in which brings not only a livelihood, but also satisfaction from what you do.
I know from myself how incredibly cool it is when, when you wake up, you want to do your favorite job, when your eyes light up, and doing work brings as much pleasure as your favorite form of relaxation. Having worked in banking, real estate, and non-game marketing, I can say that only game development brought me this feeling of sparkling eyes and joy in life. Moreover, whether it is indie development or working in a large gaming company - everywhere there is a place for pleasure from the work done. So I hope that our face-to-face educational programs and the recently launched distance course will help many people realize their dream and learn how to make games.
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Petya, returning from school, again took up big volume about the art of programming - parents were very surprised when their son asked not new game for your birthday, and several large books about programs.
Petya is a young programmer, designer and screenwriter rolled into one. For a month now he has been carrying the concept of his future game - original, cool, with a big twist in the middle , which no one has thought of yet. He writes down his wonderful ideas in a thick notebook during class, and then transfers them to an electronic version, creating a design document. Petya doesn’t think much about the future: before his eyes is only the prospect of enormous success, big money and worldwide recognition.
But young Petya has few opportunities; huge books on advanced programming have not yet provided knowledge on how to make good games. Therefore, Petya, with a notebook in his hands, driven by blind enthusiasm, sets off in search of his own game publishing house. The goal is one - to obtain the required resources: a team of developers, designers, money for the implementation of the project and a lot of time. Petya doesn’t think about the success of his brainchild - he is confident in it.
Alas, Petit’s plan did not work out - the publisher does not need ideas, just like enthusiasts attracted only by the original concept. The golden window for idea creators has long been closed – that’s a fact.
And the thing is in the current game industry: creating a game today is a business in which there is not only success, but also risk. The price of Petya's innovation can be costly for the publisher.
This is business, Petya.
The sad truth is that with an original idea, Petya represents absolutely no value to the industry - everyone has ideas, they are not in short supply. In the book for beginning coders, which the parents gave to our hero, it is written like this: having a concept does not guarantee success, but only provides its prerequisites.
And no one needs originality now - as previously written, because of the high risk. To protect its budget, the publisher creates a generally accepted routine, proven and profitable. All Battlefields, Codes, Mobs and the like are created in the process of studying the market and the desires of the players themselves. There is a whole gaming fashion that the publisher focuses on. It would seem that such an approach - non-acceptance of originality - is not aimed at success, but in reality such a company turns out to be the most profitable.
The idea itself is a formless thing. Its main property is change. No matter how much young Petya would like it, his innovation will not be the way he intended it - the idea will lose its original form. The implementation process is to blame for this: all tasks and their solutions, all alternatives will lead the conceived ideal to the release product. This change can affect the structure of the concept, either positively or negatively. Prolonged transformation of an idea can lead to a fiasco - cool game, which Petya plans, has a chance to fail at release only because the player does not accept the idea.
But Petya did not give up and decided to develop his own game. Reading tons of literature, watching thousands of video lessons, drawing and practicing, he came to the moment of realization. Taking the idea in his right hand and enthusiasm in his left, Petya began long and grueling work. Perhaps he created the game on a phone or on a PC - it doesn’t change the essence: Petya worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that his idea took shape.
The moment of release. Petya's game turned out to be quite good - maybe not what was originally intended, but the result inspired the creator. The work is finished, all the final touches have been made - it's time to release the game to the public. This is where the moment of disappointment comes: no one downloads the game, it is not in the tops, and does not bring fame and money. With tears in his eyes, Petya asks a silent question: "Why?".
It's simple, Petya. No one is interested in your game, and it’s not about its quality. The idea, receding into the background, gives way to the banal principle “What can you offer.” Isolating all the fresh (and not so fresh) games from the gray mass will not lead to success just because of the lack of a unique offer. In other words, due to the lack of correct presentation in Advertising. It would seem that advertising is a secondary thing and does not require attention at the development stages. But this is not so - from the very beginning of implementation, the project must focus on the market and create a unique offer for the player. -the developer is obliged to organize a worthy place in proposals for his future game.
Marketing is a complex thing, alien to Petya. It is not his fault that his idea did not find its fan and did not reward the author with a mountain of money. An independent developer is one thing. What do major gaming publications do? A specific document is prepared for the development team with all the wishes, requirements and restrictions. In response, the studio agrees to all the nuances, stipulates the number of people working on the game and the price of the issue. The main topic in the document is, of course, the game. All managers, analysts, marketers create the basis of the project - they give the genre, the topic. Everything that is interesting and will be interesting to the player is taken into account and converted into a plan, which is ultimately sent to the future creator - the developer. He is already thinking about the implementation of the project: about the plot, about the aspects.
Without giving up his dream of fame, Petya began a new job. This time he was more than serious. Asking his classmates what they would like to see in the game, Petya analyzed and created a whole system of options for transforming his idea. It was at the most difficult stage of development - preparatory.
During preparation, the developer, under the guidance of the publisher, works to describe the advantages and features of the future game. As a rule, the idea of a project is developed collectively by all members of the studio. Each designer, coder, sound engineer, screenwriter brings his own idea of the final result. In this case, the initial plan is blurred beyond recognition. Pre-development is the very moment when the studio tries not only to preserve the original idea, but also to improve it.
The result of the preparatory work within the studio is a whole document that expresses all ideas about the future game, all its features, all aspects. Such a document is sent to the publisher and is considered the final goal of the work towards which the developer should strive.
An indie creator should also have this document - it will help ensure the integrity of the idea and increase the chance of success. Typically, independent enthusiasts with a similar plan are looking for help in implementation - either trying to push the document to the publisher, or looking for help from the same independent developers. But our Petya does not have the money to pay a hired designer, and his age does not inspire confidence in potential sponsors - so he started development alone.
Today, an independent developer has every chance of finding success - crowdfunding, various communities of testers and developers, digital distributors can help any project. For example, the Early Access program on Steam has already provided many developers with the necessary coin, thanks to which their programs reach the finish line of development. Or a group of novice testers and coders ready to work on an idea. All the opportunities offered on the Internet give people a huge chance to realize their ideas materially, digitally. Sooner or later, the range of all available services will expand, as will the availability of implementation.
After some thought, Peter decided to attract a group of players to test the game. The project has reached the Alpha stage and is able to show all its main features. Which, by the way, the testers liked. But not everything is so optimistic: the tester is a critical person, his task is to find all the flaws and report them to the creator. At the same time, he is able to bring something of his own to the game, proposing ideas at an early stage of testing. So, to Petya’s headache was added a mass of proposals and problems that could unsettle any developer.
In general, a game at the testing stage requires a huge amount of resources, time and effort, which any independent developer lacks. An alpha test obliges the creator to experiment, introduce something new, and sometimes even follow the lead of the testers, without deviating from the intended result. It is at this stage that the future fate of the project is determined and a choice is made - the developer either gives up or goes to the end, despite all the tons of criticism. as if he were saying to the creator: “Why are you doing this? Stop all this nonsense." The developer must briefly and firmly answer “No”, and then continue the grueling work. The project at the beta stage is entering the home stretch, which is not as easy as it seems.
And here again - the end of development. Ready game, as a result of long months of hard work, lies in front of Peter and humbly awaits release. Petya is thinking: what if it doesn’t work out? Reincarnate the idea into a new image again? An independent creator asks this question every time in the run-up to a release, just as any other play author fears failure before going on stage. Such unrest is foreign to large studios, but quite familiar to individual developers.
The reality is this: the idea today is not the main thing. Originality is replaced by proven solutions, something new is rejected not by game makers, but by the gamer community. The idea itself can move mountains, but behind these mountains there may be a conservative who does not want the new, he wants the old. An independent developer just needs to humble himself and do what is accepted by the people to succeed.
What happened to Petya? Maybe his game still made it to the top, and people liked the idea. Or maybe it’s the other way around – something was missing for success. Generally speaking, an indie creator should be well aware of one simple truth: without bitter experience, victory cannot be maintained. His job should be to create many variations and make a great number of attempts. His essential qualities are patience and hard work. Its main engine is the idea.