Let's Be Honest About Indie Game Development — Q&A

[Music] hello my name is Thomas fresh I am an indie developer I made a game called pinstripe and it was really stunned console and on Steam and I also made a game I'm working on a game called once upon a coma and that was kick-started this year so I had a little QA yesterday on Twitter and Here I am answering those questions I also asked patreon supporters to ask me some questions and basically the questions range from anything from what's your favorite color all the way over to how does an indie game developer make money how do you market yourself and so I just want to be honest with you guys and tell you everything that I've learned about the indie game industry I've been in this thing for almost a decade and I've definitely screwed up a lot of things in regard to releasing games but I've also learned a lot and I want to share that with you so that you don't have to make the mistakes I did so let's just get started on these questions I'm gonna

favor patron supporters our patreon supporters over Twitter followers just because they're supporting me financially if you want to be favored and sort of cut the line and get in the front for the next Q&A head on over to patreon and just become a supporter you can give a dollar you can get five bucks or ten bucks and will for the next Q&A you'll be at the front of the line so let's get started this is from Matt Parrish and let me zoom in here I can't really read that ok Matt said on patreon he said when you were initially building up your following what was your method for getting current followers to engage and share your game with friends I don't have a ton to say on this because it's such an organic thing it's so hard to pinpoint exactly how to get engagement and on what platforms I noticed that Twitter and Kickstarter a great way to get people engaged is to ask their opinion about something so

instead of just saying look at my stuff retweet please what you could do is say what do you think about this or here's a character from my game what should his name be or something that I did that was really fun for pinstripe the game is about a minister who goes to hell and it was released on console last year but was what was really fun about pinstripes Kickstarter campaign is I said hell is a place where dot dot dot basically fill in the blank and I offered them an animated gif that they could click on and this was in an email they could click on the animated gif it was an animated gif from the game and it would auto populate a tweet and they could fill in the blank Sohail is a place where you never get your quit your thirst is never quenched or something like that and it would hatch tag the game and it would also put a link to the Kickstarter campaign in

the game so people when they have the opportunity to offer their opinion about something they're gonna give you engaged and this is just I guess human nature right and I'm the same way if I want to be part of someone else's social media posts I want to express my opinion about something and I want to feel heard so whatever you're doing on social media if you want engagement make sure you're thinking almost from the perspective of what would you want and what kind of participation or activities would you like to participate in on social media what will make it fun for you so that's a great question Matt Matt also had a side question here he said how did I approach getting the word out for my games and growing specifically growing my email list I gotta say I've been thinking about this question for a couple days now I don't really have a good email list and I haven't really thought of or convinced myself that I

need to grow it and I know that I should I just know that email lists work really well for certain industries and I would just ask you you guys what do you think about email I mean for me like maybe I need a little bit of convincing as to why email is an important thing my list is small I think it's got like 500 people on it and I just have a subscription sort of filled on my website that's about it so I'm sorry I can't answer your question there Matt Colin Ryan you said how do you balance work and this is on patreon how do you balance work and personal life when engaging in a project like this I'm considering switching to a work from home model but I'm scared that I will easily get distracted and you probably will that's what's so tough about working from home is it's so hard to stay focused which I'm working from home right now I'm actually in a garage I moved out of my home office because my

my daughter she's 5 months old now she was screaming her head off for probably every day for a month or two and that's okay that's what babies do but I was right next to the living room and I just couldn't focus so I moved to the garage did a full renovation of the garage so your question Colin I think is basically how do you manage that and there's two ways that you can manage working from home the first thing that's really important is to isolate yourself from your family and that sounds so bad doesn't it to say don't talk to me I'm working but it's true in the sense that everyone else who's not working from home they have that leisure are not that leisure what am I trying to say they have that luxury a family not interrupting them and so make sure that there is an agreement between your girlfriend or your spouse or kids that they will not interrupt you and an easy way to do this is first have the

conversation but second find a place in the home that's far away from your family so for me I'm in the garage there's a hallway between me in the living room I can close both doors and it just feels it feels far away from the home and that's important when you're when you're especially when you're being creative it's really important to feel far from home and that's it makes it so much more special when you go home the commute home from work when I used to work at a marketing agency I had a 30 minute commute I could just detox almost and get my mind back to being a family guy you know and that 30 minutes was also a time for me to just kind of relax and shrug off all of the pressure from work the second thing that you want to do to ensure that you're efficient when you're working from home is you really need to convince yourself through certain

methods that you're a professional right so what I used to do when I when I first started working with home this is about three years ago I just work in my pajamas I didn't take a shower I know that's gross I didn't even brush my teeth sometimes I wouldn't even get ready for the day I would just go straight to work get a cup of coffee go straight to work and work all day in my pajamas in kind of a messy environment it gets to a point where especially if you want to be a productive human being it's pretty depressing and you forget that you're a professional you almost feel like you're on summer break and that sounds exciting but again it's depressing if you want to be if you want to be productive so I would say just make sure you're you're taking care of yourself look great put a pair of shoes on that's a funny thing for me actually I just started wearing shoes to work I walk into the garage and I put on a pair of shoes because for some reason it makes me feel more professional because

I wouldn't know I wouldn't go into a regular office barefoot so why would I go into my home office barefoot and I know that might sound a little crazy but it works for me also what I do is I have posters that I hang around the office posters of my games and my artwork and I also have an intern coming to the office and working for me and I asked him what his favorite quote was in his favorite game and I put together a really cool poster and how to print it at Vistaprint that quote and also that artwork just to make him feel and also it makes me feel like this is an environment for employees and and an environment for being creative it's not a home it's a professional environment so really you want to trick your subconscious into thinking you're not at home and if you can do that with your environment changing your environment making your office look professional I'd say absolutely go for it okay next question here this is from

Powell and again this is on patreon how well I hope I'm saying your write your name right it's not Powell it's Powell how did you manage to learn everything you need to finish pinstripe I've been trying to figure out the answer to this question I was reading it before I started recording and it's such a broad question I think that for Pinstripe it was just learning on the job for five years I didn't know what I was doing I wasn't a very good coder I just kind of just figured it out and went with it I think the best way to learn is to just make sure that you're passionate about what you're working on so for example if I were to make a game if I were to say I'm gonna make a racing game why hate racing I hate NASCAR I hate stuff like that if someone wanted me to make it like a sports game like that I would hate it well it would be important for me especially if I was learning how to make games to make sure I didn't make a game like that it don't make a sports

game don't make like a puzzle game anything like that I am really passionate about adventure games I'm really passionate about uncanny weird games and it's important for me to choose to work on those kind of passion projects especially while I'm learning otherwise I'll get bored and they'll quit so whatever you're working on whatever you're learning if it's you're learning how to write music for games or learning how to code for games just make sure you are passionate about it because you really need to be in it for the long haul it takes a long time to learn how to make games I'm not gonna sort of dodge it and beat around the bush there it takes a long time to learn games so make sure what you're working on you're passionate about that's a really good question Paul I appreciate it all right let's go to Twitter so again if you want to sort of get in the front of the line of these q and A's because I'll be doing a lot of these q and A's just go to patreon you know subscribe for a buck or

if you want to be 5 bucks 10 bucks whatever I will put you in the front of the line I answer your question all right let me open up my my questions for Twitter here great great response our questions on Twitter we had a huge response to this Q&A I really appreciate you guys being engaged nothing makes me happier than hanging out on Twitter and seeing all these questions so let's start at the top here somebody at Oscar Barta you asked what do you think about cloud gaming I don't really have an opinion about cloud gaming but you also asked should steam be the only platform indie games distribute through absolutely 100% no and I would say in the current gaming environment you might not even want to release on Steam it's a hit-or-miss kind of thing lately over 7,000 games were released in 2016

and that's nuts I think that's right let me know in the comments what the correct statistic is but I think it was over 7,000 games so to try and make a ripple in the ocean of steam it's almost crazy to think about even trying that if you have the capability to launch on Steam go for it but I would say this this is gonna be totally incorrect in a year because the game industry changes all the time but I would say right now focus on Nintendo switch focus on Nintendo switch it's a great market I have a friend of mine who I can't say who it is but but I do have my sources I promise he said that he he's making more money on switched in steam and that's amazing I would say absolutely if that's if that's the case give it a shot go for it but if you can launched simultaneously absolutely go for steam switch Xbox Playstation yes so no steam should not

be the only platform indie games get distributed through a Nintendo switch is just great I love it it's also a really fun platformer I actually just got a Nintendo switch last week and it's super fun okay how do you deal with criticism this is from Jill little kitten it's so hard it's so hard to read these Twitter handlers because they're just weird Jill Jill licker kitten wait what does that say Jill little kitten that's the name that's a beautiful name okay how do you deal with criticism Thomas let me talk about criticism this is my favorite topic on planet earth because I like to think about you get this gonna sound weird but I like to think about life as a video game okay and the only way to upgrade your life is to do things that

make you suffer that sounds what's the right word bad but it's not it's actually a wonderful thing so for example if you do if you suffer through a workout once a day you'll likely grow muscle become healthier become stronger become more attractive it's a response to suffering and I think the same is true for criticism so if somebody critiques you it's a way for you to find out a potential flaw in yourself a gap let's say in your creative potential and if you can find a solution for that gap maybe the person making the critique could offer up a solution as well it's a way for you to grow and become a better person so the best way to deal with criticism is not to let it hurt you you got to get over that so the way to get over it is to embrace it and also pursue it pursue

critique daily if people aren't critiquing you you're probably not being yourself something I found out with not only making games but also doing these vlogs if I don't get a negative comment I think well I probably didn't I probably wasn't myself because there's no way to be completely honest with somebody and not come across in a negative way - at least someone you have to be yourself and that's gonna result in critique now the beauty of critique again is that it makes you a better person it's just like working out so in order to combat the negativity that negative little feeling about critique you just have to receive it a lot and hopefully you'll learn to take it your medicine almost it's not fun at first but it really is like medicine it makes you a better person you're not gonna release good content if you don't embrace critique I promise you trust me I know how painful it is when I

launched pinch or two months before I launched Pinstripe I had 200 beta testers play the game that I worked five years on five years of my life and I said okay to these 200 people I said okay give it a shot tell me what you think and rate it and I had all these questions this questionnaire and I swear like when I opened up that survey and I saw all those responses I immediately ran out of the room grabbed a glass of whiskey took a couple shots and then went back and started reading the critique because I couldn't handle it it's a lot to handle now that's not a good way to handle criticism you shouldn't drink to handle criticism but my point is I totally understand how it feels but now I'm different I really am different I can take critique it's not a big deal I understand that my games are not who I am it's not my identity a lot of us our career is who we are and if our career fails or we get critiqued in our career

it affects our identity and that sucks so that's enough that's like the third solution to this is do not make your creative profession your identity because you will not be able to handle critique it's if someone was critiquing your infinite existence who you are your being it's going to hurt you every time but if you make your your existence whether it's your faith or maybe it's your family it's gonna hurt a lot less to get critique so find meaning and identity outside of I mean honestly games are sometimes can be really shallow so that that can possibly be a really shallow reason for existence if making games or being creative is your sole identity okay all right I have time for one more question on Twitter again if you guys want to get to the front of the line I know I'm sound like a

Salesman here but patreon really helps I've got to be honest it really helps so head on over to patreon subscribe and you can get to the front of the line with these these questions I love doing these QAS and I'd love to get to your question so just head on over to patreon if you feel like being generous today that would be amazing thank you okay one more question I'll answer this one really quick somebody said would I ever make a second pinstripe game all I can say is some stuff is in the works I'm not saying it's the second game but some stuff related to pinstripe are in the works and I'll keep you posted sorry excuse me um let's see are we ever going to get no I don't want to answer that how do you come up with ideas no no did you listen to music when you're developing games no yes I do but I'm not going to answer that what time of day overall do you feel most

productive or does it just vary from day to day I feel the most productive sorry sorry microphone I feel the most productive it's so sad probably 4 to 5 p.m. and it's sad because I'm all that's that's why I always end up working late that was a really unsatisfying answer should I answer another question I think I should answer another question you guys posted so many good questions just like a billion here maybe I should not a billion maybe 20 ok [Music] woo this one's fun how do you find the courage motivation - courage / motivation to start your game development when you you're scaled scared of failing and that was from pixel pixel I don't know how to say that that's

that's a cool profile picture of peak soul it really comes back so avoiding that feeling that fear of failure it comes back to embracing failure so I this is gonna sound so cliche but I really do pursue failure I pursue failure as much as I possibly can there was this book I think it was 40-hour Work Week no the 4-hour workweek by Tim Ferriss and one of the things he recommended doing in in facing fear is just I think this was Tim Ferriss it's just lay down in the middle of a crowd just lay down on the ground for like five minutes the point is is that you need to become calloused towards feeling embarrassed and the best way to become calloused is to just do it just do things that scare you I gotta admit tonight I was supposed to go to MMA training and one of my fears /

goals this year is to fight in the ring and and get beat up and that's my goal the reason I want to do that is not because I'm a weirdo it's just because it scares me and I want to face my fears I didn't go tonight because I was scared so that's the thing right is if you don't face your fears you're gonna be afraid of it next week and the week after so when it comes to game development the best thing to do is just get it out there hum put content out start tweeting animated gifs and ask for people's opinions and if you get negative responses that's great that's what you want you want people to critique you and even if people are trolling you good for you the worst thing you can do is put out lukewarm content that gets one like and no comments okay whenever I post these videos on Facebook for some reason Facebook is much more negative than like YouTube YouTube comments are always

great I always get negative comments on Facebook like critiquing my face or critiquing the thumbnail or critiquing how I talk that's kind of a good thing because it means that people are watching the content and I've done enough transparency and honesty on my part to get people involved and that is what marketing is you want people to act on emotions that you've stirred so market your indie games honestly and transparently don't be afraid of negativity actually I would say shoot for it shoot for negative comments see what happens alright that's everything that's not everything actually I'm lying those are maybe one twentieth of the questions that were asked but let me just pitch it one more time please

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