Indie: Idea is the driving force behind game development. $1 million in a week: How indie developers Punch Club hacked the gaming market

Based on their experience, and the experiences of other developers, as promised, we will tell you what rules to follow in order to become a video game creator. By the way, if you have not read our articles about the best indie games, then we advise you to read some of our reviews.

1. Skills

It is worth starting with a simple realization that in addition to dreams and ideas, you must be able to make games, or at least have basic knowledge in programming or game design. This implies that you need to learn how to work in C++, Objective-C, or C#. The ability to "play around" with such well-known engines as Unity, Unreal Engine or Source. This is the package of knowledge that will help you not only write your game, but go to work in any studio. You can also practice writing scripts, creating levels in the same RPG Maker, Unity, or try to make mods, for example, for Skyrim.

Fortunately, you can find many courses on learning a programming language - so it all depends on the desire. If you already find it difficult to accept this fact, then remember Dean Dodrill, the creator of Dust. He was so eager to make a game that he began to study programming on his own, without knowing mathematics at all, but attending courses.

2. Story and Gameplay

With skill, you must concentrate on the idea. It must be fresh, which the world has not seen before. However, it is not always possible to look for sources of inspiration only in the head. Looking around, at your life, you may come up with an idea that you will embody in your game. Think Lucas Pope and Papers, Please - the creator took his boring experience of going through a checkpoint checkpoint, flying from country to country, and made a tense story based on it.

However, whatever the idea, at the beginning of creation, you need to work out the gameplay.

3. Borrow, inherit, but don't be afraid to change everything in the bud

Do not forget that many mechanics, gameplay features, most likely, have long been invented before you, and do not be afraid to use them. A striking example is Daisuke Amai, who created his Cave Story by inheriting the principles of Castalvania and Metroid, diluting it with an interesting setting and written characters. He just wanted to create a good game in his own way, based on the ones he liked.

Eric Baron did exactly the same, taking the casual farm genre and turning it into a new interesting project, changing the mechanics, and gave the world Stardew Valley.

Or go further - change the genre. When Toby Fox created Undertale, he basically changed the concept of fighting in RPGs and made it possible to talk to enemies instead of fighting, to look for ways not to kill the enemy. He took combat mechanics from Pokémon and early RPGs with a different focus.

4. Focus not on graphics, but on the atmosphere

Yes, today some might say that any indie developer who imagines himself makes a retro-like mainstream game that is lost against the background of the same ones. However, if you do not have the ability to draw, this is not scary. This did not stop Marcus Person from creating Minecraft. The main thing is your idea, its depth and message.

And do not forget that without focusing on graphics, you must implement high-quality sound. Yes, it will be a bit of a scam, but if you are not a composer, you can always find someone who will write an atmospheric soundtrack for you.

5. Tell that you are a developer - share it

So you can find those who will support you, your like-minded people. Here are a couple of examples.

80s. Young programmer Sid Meier. He is engaged in programming cash registers. One day, he meets a former US Air Force pilot who played Red Baron pilot simulator Bill Steele on an arcade machine. They got to talking, and that evening Sid beat him more than once in this game. Bill was amazed at how it was possible that he, a former pilot, was losing to him. To which Sid replied that, as a programmer, he understood the weak points of the game and, in general, could make the game a hundred times better. As it turned out, Bill was a businessman, and this is how their collaboration began: Syd - studio Bill - publisher. Today, this collaboration has led to the fact that all of you know who Sid Meier is.

Edmund McMillen has always loved to draw. In the 2000s, he was engaged in making original animations and flash games, one of which was Meat Boy. At one of the exhibitions, he met the same peculiar loner developer Tommy Refenes. They became friends, formed the duo Team Meat, and combined their skills to roll out the iconic Super Meat Boy.

6. Production, PR, finance and more production

Having an idea, skills, design in the form of visual and audio, maybe even a partner - push the game to be noticed. Today it is not enough just to make a project and wait until it is noticed. To be more specific:

• Exhibit the game on Kickstarter, Green Light Steam
• Do beta tests
• Make the demo available for free
• Attend game exhibitions with the project

Do everything to be noticed by both gamers and potential publishers.

And remember the main thing: Do not quit the game, but do it to the very end, not paying attention to empty criticism.

Called the role-playing strategy "the first indie hit" of the year. Punch Club was developed by the St. Petersburg studio Lazy Bear Games, consisting of three people: two developers and a designer. "Secret" met with partners and found out how the team made its first hit.

The first million programmers from St. Petersburg Svyatoslav Cherkasov and Nikita Kulaga waited a long time - their studio Lazy Bear Games (first name - GameJam) did not earn money for four years and made several failed games. Punch Club is not only a victory for Cherkasov and Kulaga, small teams of Russian developers have made sure that what they love can bring a lot of income. “For a small Russian studio, this is a success, they often do not earn at all,” says Maxim Donskikh, president of the Game Insight gaming company. In the West, such cases are more common - for example, recently the game Dear Esther by the British studio thechineseroom paid for itself in the first five hours of sales on Steam, and The Witness puzzle by an American programmer brought $ 5 million to the creator and publisher in the first week.

Indie games are produced on a small budget and driven by the enthusiasm of the team. The creators only risk their time, so they can experiment and remake the game as much as they want. Experts argue that the definition of "indie" today is very arbitrary, because the goal of both mainstream and indie developers is to find their audience and make money. “In the paid games segment, there is only one chance - the game shoots right away, and then a slow decline begins,” says Donskikh. If you fail to excite the public right away, the game dies under the layer of new releases. For example, about ten games appear on Steam every day, in App Store or Google Play - hundreds.

Playful childhood

Cherkasov began programming in the sixth grade, went to courses at the Youth House, where they were forced to take reporting games once a year. “They instilled in me the habit of bringing the project to the final point. I see a lot of teams with good ideas, but they can take a very long time to release a game,” he says. I met Kulaga in 2008, both hardcore gamers, they played every night in World of Warcraft. Kulaga was 22 years old, he had just graduated from the Faculty of Information Security at the Electrotechnical University (SPbGETU) and got a job at a branch of a subsidiary of Gazprom. Cherkasov was 26, he developed the site wowdata.ru - Wikipedia for fans of World of Warcraft - where you could buy game currency and fan paraphernalia.

They talked in a game chat, and six months later they met in person at a meeting of gamers in St. Petersburg. Kulaga began to help Cherkasov: together they made electronic Warcraft guides, sent caps and T-shirts by mail all over Russia. Together we launched the ladata project, a Lineage II knowledge base with the same monetization as wowdata.ru - selling souvenirs and game money.

At first, the partners worked remotely, but quickly realized that discipline was required. We rented a room for 16,000 rubles a month in the Ekateringofsky business center, where Kulaga worked then. “Firstly, you pay for it and you already understand that this is not just pampering. Plus, you share energy: you relax at home, and you work at work, this is very important, ”the developer is sure. Every day, Kulaga finished his main work and went down to the neighboring office to work on his projects. His working day began at 8 am and ended at 11 am.

Photo: Photo: Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov/Secret Firmy

First attempts

Once Cherkasov looked at the YouTube reports of the Developer Conference computer games(CWI) 2009. Speakers talked about the boom of free to play games (access to the game is free, and additional features cost money) in social networks. In 2009, the game “Merry Farmer” appeared on VKontakte - a translation of the Chinese Happy Harvest, a year later more than 8 million people played it: they watered the garden, stole crops from friends, and raised pets.

“Everyone was crazy about how much money it could bring, we also wanted to become millionaires,” recalls Cherkasov. The partners decided to write a social game, although they themselves, like most real gamers, did not like free to play, and the idea of ​​​​how they work free games, had a vague. They hired a freelance designer and spent eight months building Micronia, a mix of MyBrute and Spore sims where you train a virtual pet. It turned out that making a social game is not so easy: you need to calculate what users will pay for, think over their path, motivation to buy, and so on. The game was released in 2010, when social networks had already flooded thousands of applications, and the mechanics invented by Cherkasov and Kulaga did not seem unusual to users. It also turned out that promotion is not their forte: relationships with social networks required routine work and individual skills. Six months later, Micronia brought 5000-7000 rubles a month, I had to admit defeat. The game was sold to a friend for 50,000 rubles, the project still lives on VKontakte, according to social network statistics, 200,000 users played the first game of Cherkasov and Kulaga.

Cherkasov described the conclusions drawn from this experience in an article on Habré when they were already working on a new project. "Citybuilders" like Farmville were still successful, clones of the project grew like mushrooms. At Russian conferences they said: "If you want to survive, make a city builder." The partners created another copy of the social game, called it "New City" and even enlisted the support of a large publisher, Social Quantum (in the 2014 Forbes ranking - one of the richest companies in Runet).

The partners again missed the moment - in the year and a half that went into development, city builders went out of fashion and a large publisher disappeared. Kulaga recalls how, while working on the New City, he ate pasta with cheese sauce for several months in order to save money.

“We started making free to play because there was a boom in free to play, but we ourselves, firstly, didn’t play it, and secondly, we didn’t like it,” Cherkasov admits a global mistake. He again drew conclusions and designed them in the form of an instructive article on Habré called “What to do ???”, it was accompanied by a picture with the inscription “programming for food”.

Russian companies responded to the cry of the soul. The Moscow studio Game Garden offered the studio to jointly make a free mobile game "Kingdom of Fairy Tales" with kind gnomes and fairies. The partners agreed - after the "New City" their studio had to somehow survive. Moreover, the company took all the risks, promised a share in the profits and a decent salary to the hired workers. Working on the project, even if not close in spirit, helped to keep the office and relax, that is, to think about a new idea. The partners decided to make the game not for easy money, but for love.

New model

“They say the games are played by weird freaks, and that's true. The entire industry is inhabited by pronounced introverts, it is difficult for them to make contact with strangers. Slavik and I are like that too,” Kulaga says. Overcoming the reluctance to "shine", the partners participated in game jams - competitions for developers, for which they need to make a game on a certain topic in a short time. In 2014, at Games Jam Kanobu, the partners presented the nostalgic strategy VHS-Story and won the Grand Prix. This instilled confidence. Kulaga quit his job as an employee, and the partners focused on a new idea.

At one of the conferences, Alex Nichiporchik, founder of the European indie game publisher TinyBuild, noticed the game. He realized that "humor is well intertwined with history and the game will shoot for nostalgia." TinyBuild agreed to publish VHS Story, and at the same time offered to change the name to something more understandable for Western audiences - for example, Punch Club. Kulaga's wife Lilya offered to draw a logo in the form of a red cork.

“The game is thought up like this: you look at how the mechanics are implemented, what you like in other games. I look at how I feel when I play, when I get the most pleasure, where my heart rate rises, where I get frustrated. I try to form all these sensations and put them into my game,” Kulaga explains. He watched the movie Rocky one night, and the next day he came up with the idea. “I know what we will do!” he said to Cherkasov. For half an hour he waved his arms and showed how Stallone-style fights would take place. He envisioned street fighting with references to action movies from the 80s and 90s.

The partners divided among themselves the films that need to be watched in order to collect material and quotes. For example, we decided to use the moment from the movie when the coach gave the hero a medallion in the shape of a glove. The project was considered for two months. The logo of the studio Lazy Bear Games - a sleeping bear. “It's not for nothing that we are called that,” Cherkasov laughs - the upcoming Jam Game Kanobu, for which a demo version had to be submitted, became a magical kick.

For the first year and a half, the partners worked on the mechanics, they did not write any dialogues. In the process, the project was constantly changing: the interface was redrawn several times, the impact system was reworked. After winning the competition, Kulaga took up the script: “I was looking for the most crazy turn and the most crazy event - the hero ate pizza with hallucinogenic mushrooms, started fighting crocodiles, met gangsters, ended up in prison, ended up in Russia, fought with a bear. It's a little crazy, but people are having fun... If you look at the action films that we refer to, there is also nonsense, so we had complete carte blanche.

To make the game interesting for a young international audience, references to more iconic films of the 2000s were inserted into it - Jay and Silent Bob were placed near the store, and Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction were placed at the table in a pizzeria. When they were drawing a new game scene, the three of us sat down and said: “We need a cafe, for example, from Pulp Fiction, let's have a ship in the back, put familiar characters at the table.” The synopsis came out like this: “As a child, you witnessed the bloody murder of your father and were separated from your brother. You promised your dying father that you could take care of yourself! Now you have to train hard, eat steaks and punch your way to the top of your fighting career. And, of course, to find the father's killer and take revenge.

The hero must first be sent to the refrigerator for a portion of food, then made to swing in the hall, go to work, on the way back to the store and back to the hall. In the reviews, users complain about the dynamic first part and the boring second - everything repeats. According to Donskikh, this is typical of many strategy games. “The trouble is that everything else, except for such homages to film classics, turned out to be banal and boring. The path to the heights of boxing glory is littered with primitive grind and farm,” noted one of the reviews.

The partners wanted to launch Punch Club several times - they had been making the game for two years and were pretty tired. Nichiporchik insisted on launching in January, when other publishers would just wake up after the New Year. In October 2015, January seemed unattainably far away: “We thought we couldn’t do better,” Kulaga recalls.

launch

On January 7, the collective mind played on the Twitch site - 3300 users sent commands through the hashtag on the Punch Club channel in front of thousands of viewers, in 25 seconds they determined by a majority of votes what the hero would do. For this, the studio has developed a special program. In addition, the publisher stated that the game will be available on Steam only after the collective mind passes it on Twitch. Tinybuild had previously come up with new solutions to launch their games on this platform, and when they proposed such an unusual move to the PR team of the site, they agreed. This caused a big stir, users tore and threw - they pre-ordered on Steam, but could not start the game. Game forums were filled with negative reviews with a proposal to boycott the game. After 36 hours, the game became available for download, Punch Club set a record for the shortest pre-sale period in the history of Steam, the publisher received 25,000 pre-orders. For several days, Punch Club stayed in the top 10 on iOS and in the Steam rankings (today it ranks 17th), many media wrote about this. The game costs from 199 rubles (Android) to $9.99 (publisher's website), depending on the platform.

“The studio did the right thing by choosing a paid model, despite the fact that free to play is more viable. It is simply not possible for a small team to make it, such games need to be supported for years, all the time to provide an influx of new content, ”Donskoy believes. According to the co-founder of the developer Games Black Wing Foundation by Alexey Savchenko, retro gameplays are now extremely popular on Steam, which is why the creators have found their audience. In addition, "the game is made with great attention to detail, while without opportunistic thinking and the desire to do what you would like, and not "what the experts said on the Internet"".

At the end of January, the game was launched on Android, now it has been downloaded 5,000 times at a price of 199 rubles. Partners have been shutting down the ability to use Punch Club on phones that couldn't be tuned for (it needed to be adapted for 16,000 devices) all night to reduce the amount of negativity.

According to the Steam Spy analytical service, 25% of users buy the game in America, 24% in Germany, and 14% in Russia. Only on Steam bought 116,000 copies. Kulaga believes that victory came as soon as they did what they loved themselves. “When you put yourself in a rigid framework, you start working not to make a good game, but to fulfill the plan. In the case of indie games, when the game is interesting with original solutions and ideas, it kills. There are different rules in the assembly line games with budgets,” he explains. - Of course, we could earn more. But we work in such a way that we feel comfortable: we get enough sleep, rest, come to work by 12. There is some kind of plan, but it is needed for self-organization.”

prospects

“We develop in Russia for rubles, and we sell for dollars. Therefore, we are in a winning position. Now 100,000 rubles is $1,500. Developers in Holland or Germany now cost an average of 7,000 euros,” says Kulaga. They want to expand the staff a little, but they are not going to turn into a big company in order to maintain home comfort. The partners have ideas for future projects, but it is impossible to predict whether they will succeed.

In February, Punch Club will have the first update, while it's free, then there will be paid ones. Now they are thinking in which direction to develop the game further: release additional game content for money, make a sequel, release the game on consoles - PlayStation and Xbox.

“If now developers can count on, say, $300,000 in income, in the next few months the amount will reach $500,000 - 600,000,” says Valentin Merzlikin, evangelist of the Creative Mobile publishing direction (30% of the proceeds are kept by the site, another 30% is taken by the publisher, the studio earns the rest. - Approx. "Secret"). - Punch Club became successful thanks to the original product and live marketing from the publisher. The hackneyed, cliched game captivates with humor and perfectly recreated with the help of the popular pixel art atmosphere of the 90s in the gaming environment. Despite good sales, the game is subject to fair criticism. Buyers are counting on updates - we expect the authors to improve the interfaces, make it easier to enter the game, introduce the player to the rules faster, adjust the length of the battle and get rid of the quickly boring 8-bit music. According to him, the funeral of premium games has been going on for several years, but now their sales on Steam are growing. Punch Club once again confirms that a quality game and competent promotion will always find its fans.

Cover photo: Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov / Sekret Firmy

What is Indy?

Start over. What is the word " indie"? Of course, it came from the word " independent", that is, "independent". And the essence of the "indie" trend was that a product was 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 the buyer? Of course, a lower price, due to the fact that the publisher does not need to pay any royalties. And most importantly - the likelihood of having more recent conceptual ideas, as some say, such games have "soul". At least that's how it was in the early days of indie games, before everyone (including me) started indie games.

Games for the masses

But as time went on, the phenomenon of indie culture grew. Greenlight was opened, which allowed thousands of game developers to realize all their wet fantasies, and sitting at home, drinking beer, receive thousands of dollars. Is it good or bad? The question is moot. I believe that no one is forcing anyone to buy anything, but really good projects still make their way through thousands of crafts and become successful.

Something went wrong

At the present time, the indie industry has reached its apogee of absurdity. Since the essence of the word "indie" is completely forgotten, and this word refers to any game with two-dimensional graphics or just a low budget. More than once I noticed how in any indie public they post art on the 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 the game has a budget from the outside - can it be called independent? After all, it directly depends on the money that people throw in.

Do you need help?

Well, now let's get back to the original topic. Why do indie developers need publishers? But you probably already got the idea. The bottom line is that for indie developers, the indie developer must be the publisher. If you think that your game needs a publisher, then you are deeply mistaken.

If you have an almost finished game that you plan to publish in Greenlight, or your project is already at the stage of receiving a green light, all sorts of smart people will probably start writing to you with an offer to become publishers. What do such people usually offer?
- 100% guarantee for the passage of Greenlight;
- PR games in various publications;
- translation of the game into English;
- they will ask for only 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 feel sorry for the money at all, then you can agree. But if you believe in yourself, then I will tell you a secret: all this can be done easily. by ourselves.

"Publishers"

About green light already well painted. All that is required from you is 3200 rubles for Greenlight (or $100 if you are not from Russia).

About PR . If this "PR company" has a couple of thousand subscribers on VK (or even less), a dubious website, no office, or even more scary, no banal contract (and this happens, oh yes), send such people to hell. At best, they will throw the keys of your game into all sorts of popular sites with game critics, at worst, they will wind up reposts through some left cheat services.

In fact, nothing prevents you from sending pre-release keys of your game to anyone. If you send 100 keys to 100 different sites with game reviews, then you don’t lose anything anyway, and if you get a dozen reviews, you will have the opportunity to insert quotes from reviews into the description of your game, and also get their readers as your own audience.

About the translation . If you need it (there are a lot of lines in the game that you can't translate), then that's bad :) In fact, it's very difficult to find good translators into English. Almost every translation of an indie game will be accompanied by reviews about poor translation into English, and all because most translators write sentences in English, but with Russian meaning. And it sounds, to put it mildly, bad. Thus, if you are playing for the first time, I strongly advise you to limit the amount of text in the game.

But most importantly, all these "publishers" will most likely hire some school teacher to translate you. of English language for a couple of thousand rubles. Accordingly, the quality of the translation will be far from the best.

About deductions. The whole point is that they are the publishers, which means they have full access to your money, they will receive it directly from Steam, and give you the cores. They can endlessly lie, invent, and at some point completely disappear, and you will not receive a penny from them. An interesting story happened this week with a game on Steam made in China. The publisher just threw the developer, and in order for the developer to prove to Steam that the game really belongs to him, a court is needed. IN THE USA. Hire a lawyer in the USA. Can you afford it? Are you willing to take that risk?

Steam is indie?

By the way, here you can raise another philosophical topic. Since "independence" implies no publishers, then... isn't Steam a publisher? Of course, if you want to sell through Steam, then Valve will be your publisher. Will your game be indie at the same time? The question is moot. But the fact is that without this publisher, everyone would have a hard time right now, and it is he who is driving this wave of amateur developers. Then ... what do these "publishers" who ask for a percentage offer us? But 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 based on such huckstering.

Don't rely on this. Better make games. If you will good game, then people will not pass by it. Peace for everyone.

affiliate material

Previously, in the news of the gaming industry, mainly large game projects from eminent publishers were mentioned. Today, on the contrary, various games from unknown developers are increasingly attracting attention to themselves, which often amaze with their genius, absurdity, and sometimes both. But what are such craftsmen guided by when creating, say, a bread simulator or an epic confrontation between angry birds and green pigs? Where do they draw inspiration from and where do they find the means to implement their ideas?

Who are indie developers?

Before we move on, we need to be clear about which titles fall into the indie category, and why. It is easy to guess that the very name of the category comes from the English. the words Independent, which translates into Russian as "independence". And indeed - everything here is literally saturated with sovereignty and originality, because, as a rule, the following is inherent in such games:

• The absence of a publisher, which means that developers have to think not only about how to create a project, but also where to find money for its implementation;
• A small development team, the staff of which does not exceed 10-15 people.

The main thing here is the idea. There is no need to customize your project to someone else's standards. It is worth working in the direction that you like. And then, over time, success will come by itself.

How to become "indie"?

Have you been dreaming of joining the ranks of independent game developers for a long time? Would you like to try your hand at some extraordinary project? Or maybe you already have a million dollar idea, but lack the skills to implement it? Then remember the following:

• The result is important for the team you join, and therefore they will be interested not in certificates and awards, but in real skills and abilities;
• You can find partners for a project or a team to implement your idea on the forums of independent developers, who cannot be counted on the network;
• For your game to be successful, it doesn't have to be just another variation of a big hit. However, it is not worth pushing extremely radical decisions into it. Experienced developers do not accidentally refuse some ideas, because they will not attract the player, but only repel him.

Where to begin?

First of all, put the thoughts about advertising the game, getting into the tops of the stores and similar worries away. Before them, you still have to study and study, work and work. The first stage is the need to master game maker or Unity, on the basis of which most indie projects are created today. You can, of course, create your own engine, but is the game worth the candle? If you do not have enough skills to create something workable on existing resources, then the probability of success of your own development is also zero.

Stage 2: design

If you have successfully overcome the first stage and can no longer only ask for help from more experienced developers, but also help beginners, it's time to think about the visual component of the project. It is she who will attract the attention of users, it is on her basis that they will initially make a choice. Therefore, remember: in drawings, models and sprites there should be a stylistic unity (even if the pictures themselves are not of the best quality). But copying someone else's style and ideas should be abandoned if you do not want your project to be perceived as "another clone of that game."

Stage 3: plot

The next step is to work out the actions and the plot. Before you start implementing your ideas, write them down on paper. Think about the links between various actions and decisions, determine their chronological sequence, designate the final goal. And most importantly: give up cheap tricks. If you promise the players a "revolution in the gaming market", "a masterpiece game that will change their idea of ​​the gameplay", at the end you will provide them with a typical platform game or "three in a row" with a couple of new bonuses - you can forget about trust and loyalty. Such tricks are designed only for a short-term effect and significantly damage the reputation, so any serious developer tries to avoid them.

Stage 4: advertising

There is an opinion among indie developers that a good game does not need advertising. They say, as soon as someone evaluates it, how word of mouth will work further, and a place in the tops is provided. Perhaps this is true, but even if your game is a masterpiece, it will in any case have no less strong competitors. And in the struggle for the user, it is the one who will be able to make his offer the most attractive and tempting that will win.

And finally, one of the main components of success, which many indie developers forget about, is comfort. You work for yourself, not for someone else, and therefore you can create conditions that increase the productivity of your work. In the park, at home on the floor, in a cafe where you will be surrounded by the aromas of fresh muffins and the unobtrusive chatter of other people - it's up to you!

This article will be useful to people of the "I want to create a game" class, to which we refer our studio. We don't aspire to be the next Zynga or Activision. We want to be small and useful.

If you're in a similar situation right now, or you're a lone developer trying to make a living with indie games, this article will be of great help to you. I don't have all the answers, far from it. We are still learning.

1. The need for business ability

To start making a living through indie games, you will have to start running your own business.

If this scares you and you are not interested, then immediately find yourself a commercially inclined creative business partner.

You need to hire a good accountant (you won't find it in the daytime!) and consult with organizations such as Business Link.

There is nothing difficult in the basics of doing business. Your accountant should be able to help you with things that you haven't figured out.

2. Realistic sales plan

How much money can an indie game make? We know that, statistically, only a small fraction of indie games can sell over a million copies!

I think the optimal project duration for an ambitious indie game is 1.5 - 2 years, but that's just my personal opinion.

3. Concept, Aesthetics, Gameplay

In reality, no one knows which games will sell well until they are released for sale.

However, there are some points that will allow your game to become a worthy product:

Concept

There is no formula for creating a great concept. You try to anticipate what a wider audience will notice, or anticipate a particular niche that you think is empty.

There is almost no point in giving this kind of advice. Remember that it is very important to consider people's opinion about your concept. Here are four games that I think have a very strong concept. They will illustrate my point better than another paragraph of my writing:

• Retro City Rampage
• farmville
• Uplink
• World of Goo

Once you come across each of these games, you will easily understand what I am talking about and why you enjoy playing these games. This is the purpose of the concept.

Aesthetics

People will come for the graphics and stay for the gameplay. You need both. I'm not talking about expensive AAA graphics. I mean something that will have an instant massive visual impact. Even Dwarf Fortress has it.

You need to develop a way to create a shiny, original look, at a very low cost. It's not easy, but as a resourceful indie developer, you have to be smart!

Lexaloffle did it by resurrecting a forgotten graphic technique in a low quality but amazing way..

That's why their trailer has over 200k views.

Finally, two things that never hurt: detailing and filling. Once your game is visually functional, go back and fill it up with: fun stuff, animations, quirky details, hidden areas, moving menu graphics.

Perfection is the result of honing small details by hand: reviewers and buyers are sure to notice the effort you put in.

Gameplay

A well-designed game includes a strong grasp of abstract control systems and a real, hands-on iterative approach: skills that are on opposite sides. If you are good as a developer, but you have problems with the rest, involve third-party people in development as early as possible.

I want to warn you that most gamers find it almost impossible to appreciate the gameplay of a game without decent art.

Game design is a life-long skill, it's a calling. Many people believe that they would succeed in this if they had the opportunity. These people are wrong.

If your gameplay isn't good enough for people to recommend your game to their friends, then you won't sell enough copies. And this is a fact.

4. Make Payment Models Part of Your Design

Think of your payment model as part of your game design.

Free games that include virtual goods now offer the highest possible revenue cap on PC and Mac. They allow people who enjoy the game to pay more. They also cover a small amount of income from players who only purchased full version games.

However, if someone has high incomes, this does not mean that you should strive for this. It might just not suit your type of game. We are now in the "I want to create a game" class. You are doing this because you want to create it, not because you want to make as much money as possible.

Thus, the traditional form of "pay once" sales is still very viable, especially for individuals and small companies.

If you choose to sell as pay once, I would strongly recommend that you look into DLC and ways to offer more value to customers who genuinely love your game. Perhaps by paying once, players will have more freedom of action and will plunge into the game more strongly. And you can easily get loyal fans who will be happy to purchase additional content.

This behavior can lead to a more meaningful relationship with your customers: you won't have to beg people for more money every 5 seconds.

A good example of a long-term customer interest in a game is Penny Arcade. They make products (and host events) that their fans love. They really have a mutually beneficial relationship with their audience. There's no objection to an indie studio adopting this approach.

5. Start accepting pre-orders

Pre-orders are a very powerful tool for indie developers making pay-one-time games.

When someone pre-ordered our upcoming Frozen Synapse game, they instantly received a copy of the beta, as well as a free copy of the game for a friend. This has brought us some success. It was necessary to wait until the beta version becomes interesting to play and debug it before the release. I encourage everyone to follow our example.

We have decided not to add the demo to the pre-order. Therefore, pre-orders were made only by those who were passionate about the concept of the game.

Although, I believe it reduced the number of pre-orders. But it also helped create a support group that helped us a lot with development. When the game is ready to reach a wider audience, a demo will be the best solution.

However, if you had an easy to use and downloadable alpha version of a game like Minecraft, there is no excuse for not having a demo early on.

You must make a decision based on what will best suit your game.

6. Online will beat piracy

Piracy is a major problem for indie developers. In fact, your game needs an online component for buyers who want to pay. Only very good-natured people will buy something that can be obtained for free elsewhere and without negative consequences.

There are many ways to solve this problem by introducing online components. But I urge you to do it not to the detriment of the buyer. Don't force the game to access the server for no particular reason, come up with a fun online feature that adds interest and value to your game.

7. Directly and around

To get decent success on a PC game for download, it should appear on every major portal. What is the secret to getting into the portals? Do popular game and provide information about it in advance!

Don't rely solely on distributors to sell your game. To make significant money from direct sales, you need the following:

A clean site that makes it easy to get information about your game, with a page to buy and download a demo.

Spend time optimizing your site and setting it up for future changes

Marketing plan based on traffic generation

Your website doesn't have to be flashy and eye-catching (as long as your game itself looks good). It should be simple and workable.

8. Supply and demand

Some time ago, I wrote a long (approx. per.: it will be translated soon), which has everything I would like to say on this subject.

I will only add that your active appearance in blogs, social networks and videos is directly related to your success. Attract attention without harming yourself or others.

9. Own the statistics

You must have good web stats on your site. This is the single most helpful marketing advice anyone has ever given me. Without it, you won't know why your game is selling or not selling. Google Analytics is extremely powerful and free. I recommend.

10. Collaborate with other indie developers and indie communities

Increasingly, indie developers are coming together to collaborate. Take a look at cross marketing in games like Super Meat Boy or projects like Cliffski's ShowMeTheGames.com. Actively collaborating with the indie game communities can really benefit your work, as long as you don't get into fights and don't act provocatively.

11. Use activities wisely

Don't spend a lot of money on events. I have not yet found such a person who would provide me with income statistics after buying a large stand at some exhibition.

Definitely try to find legal ways to go to the festival for free.

In any case, go to exhibitions and talk about your games. There is always a small chance to make a new useful acquaintance.

If you are in the UK (and even if not) I advise you to support Gamecity - this event sums up why I want to be part of the gaming industry.

12. Do it and don't give up

Perseverance is the most important trait you need as an indie developer. You need to make mistakes, learn from them, and keep moving forward.

In order to do it, you have to love it. That's why the setting of indie games is the best place in this cruel world!