Can You Make A Game Completely Alone?

[Music] hey guys my name is Thomas brush I'm the creator of a game called pinstripe which is coming out to switch came out on console earlier this year and steam last year I'm also working on a game called once upon a coma right now the cool thing about both these games is the first game I made like completely alone and there was like no help I did the music the art the development the design the puzzles the story everything I had a little bit of help and we'll talk about that in a sec towards the end I got a little bit of help from a publisher but for the most part I made that game completely alone once upon a coma I decided I'm not doing that again I'm gonna use a team so I'm using a team for once upon a coma now I want to answer the question that's probably gone through your head a lot and it kind of kept me awake at night a lot when I was thinking about making games which is can I make a game completely alone can I be a solo indie developer and is

that reasonable can I be successful at it and the answer to that question is um unfortunately no you kind of you suck and you can't do it thanks guys for watching this video please hit subscribe no I'm kidding you can you can do it you can make games completely alone and then we'll also talk about maybe why you don't want to do it all the time so the reason why you can do it is because hey if you're young if you have energy if you have creative ideas and you just want to go for it absolutely you can do it the only problem is is gonna take you a really long time to get your game done and make it really good it polished if you're like me and you feel like you're pretty competent in most creative endeavors like I'm lucky in that I can build you know world's I can write stories I can mark it I can do graphic design well with sorry my baby I'm on daddy duty right now she's actually let me go grab her just a second I swear I'm not doing

this to exploit my daughter and get more views she I'm on daddy duty today and I wanted to get a vlog done so I can do pretty much all things needed for a game but the problem is is that take such a long time so with pinstripe the game took five years I'm actually on the sixth year right now in terms of like getting it released on console and Nintendo switch so it just takes a really really long time the other problem with making games completely alone is that you know it's it's kind of lonely you feel lonely you don't you don't really know who to talk to when you're feeling low or when you feel insecure about your game so you're gonna get lonely but you can definitely combat that by just ensuring that you have a nice community maybe on discord when we have a great discord server or a YouTube channel or a Twitter account where you can post your content and get feedback so that's a great way to combat that so yes you can make indie games as a solo developer and the same is true even if

you maybe don't know how to write music I think probably most of you could do one aspect of game development but you might not be able to do another aspect of game development so there are ways to outsource and like maybe go to I think it's called eat Elance or updesk calm I'm not sure which one and maybe just get some help with copywriting maybe you're writing some story elements to your game or it go to like newgrounds.com and get some music or freesound.org get some music and just make sure you credit people so I would I would call that being a solo developer even though you're finding content online to put into your game the problem with this is that even though you can have great music in your game it might not mix well with your style of artwork or your style of game development so just keep in mind that when you're outsourcing things or when you're getting free stuff online it might not

fit well with your game so let's talk about why I decided that I was never gonna make a solo game again you like that oh no you're ruining daddy's day just kidding she's doing great the second time around when I was working on games when I decided I want to work on once upon a coma I learned that I can actually spend a little bit of time finding people who are interested in working on the project and you don't have to have a lot of money to do this you just have to have find people who are interested in making games and want to have a good time and be creative and this is typically found in young people in their 20s so a lot of times you can find people who are still in college or people who are interested in jumping into the game industry and don't know quite how to do that and they'd love to help you out with your project in some capacity so I certainly figured that out how to do that with my next project and if you can find the right partner let's say a publisher as well that's what I'm doing right now

that publisher could for exchange of a rep share would be willing to maybe give you some of their developers time to help you out with your game so that's how I was able to find a team for my next project and the reason why I found a team is because not only does it save you time it also helps make the game better so even though I'm a big strong believer in like people like Tim Burton and M night Shyamalan I think this how you say his name right Shyamalan Shyamalan even though I'm a big believer in these people who sort of spearhead a project and the whole project sort of comes from their mind I fully understand that it's not that they're doing all the work themselves it's that they know how to art direct okay so don't feel ashamed when you you can't do something on your own that's totally okay but what you should be focused on is ensuring that you're a

good leader and that you're leading your project well and you have a vision and that's what I'm learning how to do for my second project and that's why I'm not afraid to have a team because I feel like I can I have a vision in my head and even though it's not coming from my hands I'm able to direct that so the answer to your question of can a solo developer be successful is absolutely 100% percent yes but it's just gonna take a long time and that's okay especially with your first project that's totally okay well guys thank you so much for watching this video and watching my daughter - off my fingers please if you like this video I'm a by the way I'm really sorry that this video is kind of scattered and all over the place I'm on daddy duty today and I just got up and I'm sure I want to make sure that I did this was a busy week this was a really busy week and I it's Saturday and I gotta get this video

uploaded cuz I want to upload once a week but anyway take it easy guys if you want to hear the rest of this video which I'm gonna give three tips about how to make a game as an indie developer a solo indie developer three ways that you could make it a little bit easier on yourself the full video will be available on patreon so click the link in the description head on over to my patreon page and support me and I try and upload a video every week with bonus bonus content for patreon supporters so thanks guys see you later bye so the first thing that I want to tell you about how you can be successful as a solo indie developer is [Music]