How NOT to make an indie game
Developer
[Original Poster]
Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
Posts: 1,538
How NOT to make an indie game
A full post-mortem for our Great Little War Game is currently featuring on VentureBeat right now:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/13/gr...budget-and-pr/
It has numbers. And lots of gory bits. Hopefully a warning to new startups about getting your shit together before you start, just like we didn't!
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 122
Thanks for a good read! I must say I'm with you on the whole marketing thing - trying to stay away from it and wishing it would be just the game's quality that counts... Yeah : )
Developer
[Original Poster]
Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
Posts: 1,538
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EvilArev
... and wishing it would be just the game's quality that counts...
Yeah, that would good huh.
Good luck with your project. If we made it with all that against us, it should be a source of optimism for anybody!
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 2
Very informative read, thank you. Even knowing about some of the budget and pr pitfalls mentioned, I still find it difficult to side-step them!
Developer
[Original Poster]
Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
Posts: 1,538
Aye, I hear that.
It's very easy to mistake "knowing we have a problem" for "knowing how to fix it"
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 380
Fantastic read. AS GLWG and GBWG being some of my favorite iOS games I am very glad to see that post and the trials you went through and even the income. I hope they GBWG was a lot smoother for you guys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bhoy
Ask pbarillas how to make the character jump he's intelligent. He should answer. He sometimes doesn't answer though because he has other commitments like learning nursery rhymes, the alphabet and how to tie his shoe laces.
Developer
[Original Poster]
Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
Posts: 1,538
Well, maybe a little smoother. :s
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2013
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 7
Thanks for this, I feel the more I see articles like this the more I'm worried once my group's first app launches we may not have done enough pre-work.
I know there is no exact formula, but more thorough pre-release development and marketing can make all the difference I suppose
Developer
[Original Poster]
Joined: Feb 2011
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
Posts: 1,538
I think it's more important than the quality of the game in all honesty. There's so much competition about that getting people to try your game has become the #1 challenge. Only after they try does it matter if its any good, iyswim.
Member
Joined: May 2013
Posts: 32
Maybe you didn't make it big, but you didn't go into the red.
You spent: $190,000
You made: $500,184
So, between the 5 of you (if split equally) would have $62K each in bonus (because it said tech was included in the $190K).
Also, was this the only project this particular team was working on?
Plus the bump you'll get from being on the front page of VB.