Are You Making Your First Game? Here's What A 30 Year Veteran Says...

I had a conversation with the indie legend Jeff Vogle, who has had a 30-year career as an indie game developer. You heard that right. He started making indie games in 1994. That was 4 years after I was born. And this was long before it was cool to make indie games. And he said something that shocked me. He doesn't care if his game looks good. In fact, he openly admits that his games look bad, but he's not lazy. No, he has a long-term well-th thoughtout strategy that has kept his studio in business for 30 years. Here's the thing. You're not going to survive if you focus on making everything perfect in your game. You probably won't finish your game. Instead, in order to survive and make a profitable game, you've got to focus on what matters. And Jeff is going to break down what matters. You may also be wondering how to turn that $100,000 or million dollar game idea into actual money. And some of you might want to do it before you even finish your game. For that, I have a gift below for you. It's

totally free. It's a workshop that shows you how to turn small game ideas into actual money. You strike me as a rarity for most indie game developers. I think a lot of people listening right now, and the majority of the audience listening, by the way, is aspiring indie game developers. Okay? A lot of them listening right now will probably admit that they are really good at one thing or the other. Meaning really good at the business side of things. Knowing how to schedule to stay on task, knowing when to limit themselves, knowing when good is good enough. So some people are really good at that, but they're not really good at the purity of the craft and being like really like staying true to their their creative essence, right? And you strike me as someone who you're both things because I'll listen to your talks and you're like, "It's good enough, you know, just get it done." And my you you said at one point I have a quote here. You said you don't make hits and you you talk a lot about how you

just don't polish things certain things because it's just not worth it to you and you want to make some money and you're very honest about that. Oh yeah. However, you're also saying here that there are certain things that are really important to you that you polish the crap out of like uh the story, right? And the the gameplay. So, I guess my question to you is is it that you don't want to make a hit and that you don't believe it's worth shooting for the moon? Or is it is what you're really saying deep down is there are certain things that don't matter to you in your games. Um, so I by the standard in 1997 I released a game called Exile 3 Ruined World. And by the standards of shareware games that was a legit hit. You know, a legit hit now means hund00 million. A legit hit then meant you know, I got a house. But, you know, I've I had by any reasonable standards a hit and but I think that whether you have a hit or not is a tiny is a bit out of your control.

It's about that when when you having not just a success but a phenomenon is catching lightning in a bottle. Yeah. You know it's it's it it there's a magical element of it. But you know since since um if there you are listening to me now and you are a beginning indie developer run. Oh god run like the hounds of hell are after you. Um you'll find find a shed in the woods. Just stay away. Stay o Okay. So, so everything you were just talking about I can answer by by by going back once again the fact we we're artists. Yeah. And every artist has their own process. Every artist has their stuff they're good at and not good at. Like for example, business. Um you to a certain extent you have to have a head for business. But you know we're artists. A lot of us don't. You know um Salvador Dolly was great at business. Monae was great at business. Vincent Van Go was not um

Vincent Van Go was was not um was not good at a lot of things though I understand he had quite away with the ladies. Um but yeah, you know, you have to go along with you have to figure out, you know, what what what am I good at? What am I bad at? If you want to make a living in this business, you know, there's no dishonor in being a hobbyist. God knows, you know, hobby hobbyist hobbyist game developers are awesome. If you want to make a living at it, at some point you are either going to have to develop some kind of a gut feeling for business or have a very close trusted um associate who does have a head for business. And for one thing about business, for example, is um time is money. Your time is your most valuable asset. You need to make sure as much as possible your time is being used in a profitable way, which means you can't polish everything because if you do, your your your games your game's never going to come out and then you are what what are you even doing? Yeah. Um, so

yeah, and so I figure out I have one of my superpowers in this business is I have kind of a gut sense for what I really need to be working on versus this I can let slide a little bit. Like I like to say, I've been using the same icon for wolves in my games for um probably about 15 years because if it's a good icon of a wolf, it's still going to be a good icon of a wolf two years later and eventually I will get that wolf art redone when I'm sick of looking at it. Yeah. When I go into the game and I see see an icon, I go, "Oh god, I'm so tired of looking." Then I then I pay money to to to get it redone. Yeah. Um, but I reuse art mercilessly. I license art like I get I get um royalty-free art packs on online asset stores mercilessly. Then I Photoshop them because they always need a little bit of work to make them blend in with the game. And I'm getting better at

that. The the new game is going to be way better at that than our previous ones were. But yeah, and so and then if I find a really good um piece of art of say a monster, I might rewrite the game a little bit so that it's that sort of monster instead of what I was using so I could use the big piece of art. I'm very cheap. Very very very very cheap. But you're not cheap when it comes to the things you're good at. Right. So like writing writing character dialogue takes a ton of your time, right? Oh yeah. Yeah. It's writing dialogue is the hardest part. It's it's really I find it really tiring. Um I work a lot more at that. But I for that I don't want to say cheap, but I do want to say frugal, which is to say I put in time and energy. And I'm 55 years old. The energy is limited. I put in just enough energy and time to make it work at a level where I'm like, "This is good. It's satisfying. and it is in balance with

the things around it, which is to say all of the characters have the amount of dialogue that is appropriate for their role in in in the game. But once I get there, I stop. You know, very of you know, all the time my beta testers say to me, "Wouldn't it be cool if this character said this? Wouldn't it be cool if this character reacted to this?" To which I say, "Yes, yes it would. That was a very good That is very cool. I am tired." or I got to put out the next fire. I got to do the next thing or I got a whole another town to do, you know, I I just when I when I play these games on streams when when when I'm selling them, I just I my my head is constantly screaming all the things I could have done. And if I was if I was Larry and if I was working on Balders's Gate 3, all of those things can be done. But as it is, I'm just trying to put enough into it so it feels and I'm going to use a word that actually become kind of kind of a pet peeve for me. It really

aggravates me in marketing and yet it's sometimes it's hard not to use it. Rich. I'm trying to put enough of it that the game feels rich. The story feels rich. But as in detailed, as in it feels real, as in it's engaging. But I'm I'm I'm old enough and cranky enough that I'm just going to start using the word good. Yeah. I'm in my just to say, look, the story's good. I I didn't halfass it, okay? It's got a beginning and middle and end, interesting characters, and interesting choices. I got one, but I don't want to use the word rich because nobody knows what that means. Yeah. Well, how do you know how do you know when you've hit good enough? I feel it. It's a feeling in my chest. It's purely up to you, not your audience. That's a question. How And I've I've been asked this question before. How do you know when it's done? When how do you know when it when it's good enough? and to which I can only say, man, that's where the art is. Yes. You know, one of I have a friend who's a who's a professional artist who's his name is Phil Folio has been doing it a million years and he he's told me that like the art is in knowing when to stop,

you know, at at getting to and one of my favorite TV shows, Community. My f my favorite line from that is it's better than good. It's good enough. you, you know, you have to just develop a sense for and and for me honestly it is a physical feeling when I write a character, when I write a story, when I think of an idea and it it's correct and it works. I feel like a sense of of craftsmanship, of satisfaction, of peace in my chest and that's when I know I'm on to something. It's it's a, you know, it's go with your gut. In video game developing and in life, your your gut is a powerful resource and it'll tell you when what you're working on is the right thing or the right thing for you. Bear in mind, if it's perfect for you, it may still fail. But you ha but it's the only thing you can do when you're an artist. You have to do the art that works for you and works for your process and that you can

get up in the morning and stand to make it. Yeah. I mean, um, you know, indie games so much is about finding the next hot thing and trying to copy that thing before everyone else copies that thing. And that's some people's process. I don't it's it's difficult to me to to to comprehend that. Um, I know there are people out there now starting their new Vampire Survivors clone, and I I don't have a personal understanding of how anyone could start a Vampire Survivors Clone. Now, if you want to make money, here's your hot tip. Start your awesome Vampire Survivors Clone in about I'm going to say 2032. Yep. Someone is going to write a Vampire Survivors clone in 2032 and they're going to make bank and it'll be retro. You know, it'll be considered retro. You may also be wondering how to turn that $100,000 or million dollar game idea into actual money. And some of you might want to do it before you even finish your game. For that, I have a gift below for you. It's totally free. It's a workshop that shows you how to turn small game ideas into actual