Reply to Rambling thoughts of an indy software developer
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You know its kind of hard for a single person to develop anything. Or at least for me it is. You have the wonderful ideas and the desire to get things done but once the realization of what it takes to get a game of any kind from start to finish sets in it becomes an overwhealming thing. You have to worry about the coding, the art, the advertising, the bug testing, the support, the web page development. The small things that most people take for granted pile up into a mountain of details.
And to top it off you have the end user. Those people who always she dog and moan about how they could do it better, or they would have done this and we should have done that. I run a small independent software company. Heh. Small wonderful idea. More like a single man company. At present I develop screensavers. I have had the wonderful oppurtunity to learn more about the development of independent games and am now learning more and more. I thought screensavers were hard to develop. My goodness games are even harder. While being a fan of all the bells and whistles that modern games have I realize more and more why it takes teams of 20-50 people to produce such games. Its just the amount of time involved. That and talent. To see small groups of people come togethor and work on games as a group and expecting nothing in return is a wonderful thing. As long as the communities stay open and friendly to the newcomers then that community will continue to grow and develop. A good example of that and bad also I should say is Neverwinter nights. I remember hearing about it years ago and just salivated at the idea of the promised product. And I waited.. and waited.. and waited... When it finally hit it wasnt everything they promised but I could deal with that. And I was a faifthul on their forums for months after the release. And then the community there began to just eat each other alive. At that point I lost hope and pretty much shelved the game. I dont really know what it is about people that make them turn and burn the very community that they strive to be a part of. But that is one of the "minor" things an indy developer has to keep in mind. From dealing with people who despise your prodict and are very vocal about it to people who email you for support and then never tell you if they recieved your email but just keep griping. ahh.. the wonderful world of independant games.....
And to top it off you have the end user. Those people who always she dog and moan about how they could do it better, or they would have done this and we should have done that. I run a small independent software company. Heh. Small wonderful idea. More like a single man company. At present I develop screensavers. I have had the wonderful oppurtunity to learn more about the development of independent games and am now learning more and more. I thought screensavers were hard to develop. My goodness games are even harder. While being a fan of all the bells and whistles that modern games have I realize more and more why it takes teams of 20-50 people to produce such games. Its just the amount of time involved. That and talent. To see small groups of people come togethor and work on games as a group and expecting nothing in return is a wonderful thing. As long as the communities stay open and friendly to the newcomers then that community will continue to grow and develop. A good example of that and bad also I should say is Neverwinter nights. I remember hearing about it years ago and just salivated at the idea of the promised product. And I waited.. and waited.. and waited... When it finally hit it wasnt everything they promised but I could deal with that. And I was a faifthul on their forums for months after the release. And then the community there began to just eat each other alive. At that point I lost hope and pretty much shelved the game. I dont really know what it is about people that make them turn and burn the very community that they strive to be a part of. But that is one of the "minor" things an indy developer has to keep in mind. From dealing with people who despise your prodict and are very vocal about it to people who email you for support and then never tell you if they recieved your email but just keep griping. ahh.. the wonderful world of independant games.....
