Many people are very curious about whether a person can support themselves by making independent games. Some people even think that only people who are crazy will make games alone; but many people have tried it.
but few people go to the end;
After all, the last person to hit the road requires quite a strong psychological quality, especially if people who are used to team production (regardless of the size of the team) change to single-handed fighting, it will take at least one to two years to adapt, but once you get used to it, you will found this to be very interesting;
it's a war
First of all it is a struggle between capital and labor;
Most of the time, capital cares more about labor's loyalty, especially in today's society; if everyone's ability is similar, the loyalty of labor will greatly determine your long-term interests;
Many talented people do not understand this. In a large and good platform, a single ability may sting the team, because you set off the mediocrity of others. If your ability and influence continue to speak out To the cohesion of the team, the capital will see you as an obstacle.
If you think you are a capable person, you must be good at hiding yourself on a big platform. You must understand that most people actually follow the crowd, so you have to pretend to be a follower, at least when you learn or get what you want before getting something.
Because it may involve politics, let’s take it a little bit; capital has advantages over labor, and the advantage is that capital can organize resources more efficiently, and labor is worse than the concentration of resources; in the long history, labor has always surrendered to Capital, the biggest reason is the lack of information and asymmetry, but in the Internet era, this advantage will be weakened; once the labor force and these stragglers form a joint force, it will be a bad news to fight against capital. You can look back on history, such as the land revolution; but in modern times Said, we do not want this fatal internal friction to happen, it is more about mediation games, communication and dialogue; independent games greatly reduce the squeeze of capital on labor, and make labor and technology and technology more organically combined, but for capital, it is also A loss, the effective use of capital is reduced, which is not good news for developing countries; this balance point is difficult to grasp, and requires conscious macro-control;
Case analysis, for example, a game I made last time, the game content is not much, it caused some repercussions in the society, but it was killed by a large-scale capital, if you analyze from the game production, it seems that the game can not do well, but From the perspective of capital analysis, it is not so simple; because once the independent game, especially the independent game of the lone wolf individual, succeeds, it will have a great impact on the previous ideology, especially today when the awareness of lay flat is prevalent; but it is not necessary to cooperate with capital. Head-on conflict, because that's not the advantage of an independent business;
Then there is the struggle between traditional ideas and new ideas:
Even if you have mastered enough technology and art to start your independent project, it is undoubtedly slow suicide in the eyes of the people around you, you need their understanding, but no one will understand because no one has experienced it, they usually will Give some negative conclusions; so this kind of thing is not suitable for the vast majority of people, you know, most people follow the trend, you are a very assertive person to seek some opinions that follow the trend, the motivation itself is humorous ; In addition, if you are a producer who quarrels with family and friends, it is not recommended that you engage in an independent career, because independent producers will deal with similar things more calmly in advance, such as the landlord will accumulate decades of wealth so that he can develop his own business in the future. Independent career, and it will also be honed for decades; so calmly handling the conflict of ideas around it is also an art;
This is a war of self-discipline between the body and the will
This does not sound so important, but once it is not handled properly, the secondary conflict will quickly change into the main conflict; it is nothing more than time arrangement, physical, and psychological self-regulation; when you start working independently, you will not be able to do this, but time After a long time, I have formed my own concept of time. I have to exercise from time to time and participate in some activities. I don’t need to care about the results of the activities. Just find a normal person to chat with.
So, this is no joke, I think it's helpful that you realize these backgrounds in starting your independent career.
There's a lot to feed yourself
There aren't many of them, and you rarely hear them make a sound;
Because independent developers usually only deal with computers and technology, and rarely need to communicate with the outside world, you don't know their living conditions at all;
According to my observation and understanding of independent game peers, as long as you can really make a complete game by yourself and put it on the shelves, and also spend a little money on basic marketing to publish it yourself, you can make money; you see a lot of People say that they want to make an independent game, but in fact, they can completely toss it out and reach the mid-to-high level on the market. In fact, there are really few people, usually two or more, and more than five people can make it, but this There is not much difference between this kind of basic and small business team, and there are only a few people in the initial stage of a large company; that is to say, you have to do it, don’t say that there is no work for a long time; usually lone wolf developers are very taboo to just say no For training, that kind of person is very popular in the company and is very popular with leaders; but to really play, you must have two brushes;
Personal indie game experience
Let me tell you how I think about this. I entered the industry around 2012. It can be said that if you can make games (especially mobile games) and put them on the shelves, you can make money, and there is a high probability of making money freely; I remember 2012 Years, I made an action game, [Kung Fu Fist] (now on IOS and Android, both at home and abroad); I actually spent some time learning Unity, a few weeks, and then tossed The last game I played was purely for playing. At that time, I didn’t know much about in-app purchases, so I added an admob advertisement. After it was put on the shelves, I didn’t pay attention. After a few weeks, I found that I had dozens of dollars in money every day. It was only then that I realized that this was really profitable; so I tossed a few more games, in fact, there was only one level, nothing more than a protagonist, add a few monsters, and then it was over after a while, and then I added localization, added a few more The language of the country, one of them is [Galaxy Craft] (now called Galaxy Soul), which is incredible. It ranks 5th in Thailand. I don’t know if there are no mobile games in Southeast Asia. It is about 500 US dollars a day. It took several months; in fact, I really should have quit my job at the time, but I didn’t realize it at the time, I thought it was a temporary phenomenon, and then the big factory entered the game, and the situation took a turn for the worse. This is the norm; it was not until the end of 2016 that I did this full-time full-time, but the overall situation has actually been decided, because the income was quite good in the past few years, so life is completely fine, I will not say how much money is still making indie games now Possibly, but to be honest, entering the industry has long been king, especially if you consciously enter the industry early; if I would immediately come out and do my best to develop independent games, it would almost crush the games at that time, because then the big factories would not enter the game, and the small teams would not (then would It is the world of client games), because without this awareness, I missed a chance to succeed.
What is the current situation of the domestic independent game industry now? It can be said that I don’t need to say that everyone knows that there is definitely no one that can make a lot of money. Like [Flying Birds] [Monument Valley] I think Apple did it on purpose, or Apple Of course, this is just a personal guess; Apple hopes to create one or two successful independent games to attract developers, and it is not surprising that Americans do this;
The work and life of an indie game practitioner
Let’s talk about the current work style and environment. Basically, I stay at home and stay in other places. The time in the park is half the time at home, and the time in the park is half the time at work. However, independent developers are really fairy-like existences. , they have completely different views on material desires, funds, and lifestyles than those who work independently; you can look at my work environment and daily life. I think it is better to call work than play, because I am very interested in developing independent games. I am interested; but basically I can’t find like-minded people, and even if everyone has the same interests, they care more about freedom, so independent developers are basically like Nightcrawlers, and most of them are loners;
Team vs Individual Production
There are many people who want to cooperate with me. In fact, I am also interested in cooperation, but after observing it, it is really impossible to cooperate. Many people talk about what to do, how much money they want to make, and how much money they will make. This kind of talk can basically be avoided, they are only forced to do so by life; if you come to talk to me about music, technology, life, the universe, and the meaning of life, I think you have a future; Investing, you will find that after taking the investment, you will become a person other than yourself, and spend a lot of time thinking about how to support the team and deal with shareholders; in fact, it is better to seek people than yourself. If you are taking a technical route, you still need to see which one is most suitable for you; the way to ask for help is generally a way for people with outgoing personality, strong communication skills, and no interest in technology at all; The road is still suitable for people who are interested in researching various cutting-edge technologies and have little interest in interpersonal communication. This is the subject of the topic. I have not talked to anyone for a year by myself, and I don’t feel lonely or lonely. I am sick, but someone is willing to communicate with me and I can talk freely, so I know that I am not afraid of socializing, but that my interest in socializing is lower than the research on technology; It's really hard, because there are too many pits to step on, but if you step on too much, you become very strong; but once you are familiar with all the processes, you will find yourself in a no-man's land, like a superman, thinking Fly as you want, go as you want, as hardcore as you want to be, as if you want to be a 2D element, as much as you want, and as casually yellow as you want. At present, my main game is available on all platforms, with hundreds to thousands of daily actives. It’s uncertain, plus I develop other games and income by myself, it’s ok to support my family; and recently I’m thinking about buying a RV to go out and develop while traveling; by the way, because the RV is in the transition from National VI to National V, it’s still tangled. Shuangtuo or non-extension is more practical, still waiting and watching;
personal folly
The following are screenshots and videos of some of the main games of my game, there are also links, you can go and see if you like
Baishizhou's past -----------------------------------
Although it has been scolded as a dog, so far no domestic individual can make a full-view open world with a plot, even a small demo;
Dragon Ninja --------------------------------------
This was originally intended to be an action game, but it became more and more troublesome as it became more organized, and finally it was a bit different.
China pushes gold coins -----------------------------------
I also have to take a wave of casual games. In the end, this game has become the main force for me to buy food and go out for gas :)
Profit model
In fact, there are only the following types of profits for personal production games:
1. Domestic distribution: free + advertising
2. Overseas distribution: both in-app purchases and advertisements are available
3. Steam computer charges
To sum up, a person can support himself, provided that you must complete the work and go online independently;
So you feel comfortable in individual production or in a group, because there is a sense of dependence in the group. We are all social animals. When you leave the team, that kind of fear takes time to adapt to, which is not suitable for most people;
The fun now is to observe the expressions of the workers who are holding a group; for example, how they face their bosses when they are eating, their daily dialogue, their acting skills are really better than the best actors, because this is for survival, in fact, I Respect them very much, their acting skills support a family;
If you spend some time learning knowledge in all fields to support yourself, and spend more time practicing in more areas of your interest, and spending more time with your family, of course you don’t want to;
There was an independent professional who was sarcastic about migrant workers, and I disagree with her remarks, because it's just a personal choice of adults.