The MOST IMPORTANT skill for Indie Game Devs

Hey guys, how's it going? My name is Thomas Brush and I make indie games for a living. I made a game called Pinstripe, a game called NeverSong. Those are sort of artsy-fartsy platforming games that are on pretty much every platform and I'm currently working on a less a less sort of artsy game. It's more of a shoot people in the face kind of game that's called Father. It's a first-person shooter. And over the last decade of making these games, it's really been more than a decade. It's been like 15 years, about half of my life. Uh I've learned one trait, one single trait separates the well, the game devs that do it full-time versus everyone else, the people who never really get there. And that one trait is follow through. Now, this video is a response to my buddy Daniel. His video is below. It's a a video about the same topic. What's what in 2022, what is that trait that that separates great indie game devs from the rest? He posits that it's it's

it's having good mental health and I I totally agree. You should definitely watch that video link below. But assuming you have decent mental health, what's really going to separate you from those indie game devs that fail? What what's going to make you successful? Well, for me it's it's follow through. That's what I've learned in the last 15 years. For half of my life, I've learned that follow through is well, the number one trait. And by the way, if you want to be helped with your follow through, I can make it easier for you. Just click below. If you're going to make a platformer game, I have a 2D game kit below. You can download it. It's my treat to you. Use it however you want. You can make a million bucks off this game kit. I really don't care. I used this game kit to make a game for PewDiePie in 14 days. So, be sure to click below, check that out. Um it's my treat to you. Okay, so what is follow through in relationship to games? It's finishing your projects, right? So, I get it. Like most of you have 10 to 20 projects on your computer that you never

finished. I get that. I do that, too. But ultimately, I have released games. I I've released a few of those. Out of the 10 projects I started, I at least finished three. I really finished like six. Um but I finished them. And here's the truth is about half of those I didn't even like. I just released them anyway. So, you really need to have follow through. You need to release those those uh some of those projects, even if they suck. Now, here's why. Follow through allows you two things. The first thing it allows you is it allows you to grow a thicker skin. Um you really need a thick skin. You really need to not care so much about what people think about you and what they think about your game. Now, really quick, I do want to address the difference between you and your game. They are not the same, okay? So, you really need to separate your identity, right? You are not the game developer. That's not your

identity, right? You're You're so much more than that and and making games is it's so small and silly. And you know the the the the longer I'm in this career, the more I'm like, this is kind of silly. Like this isn't it's not that cool. It's not that important. You're just making silly games. I probably I I watched Matrix Revolutions. Is that what it's called? Yeah. That's what it's called, right? It's kind of a forgettable movie, but Thomas, the main character, um he's kind of in this place where he's like, game dev is dull. I don't want to make another game, right? And I feel that a lot. It doesn't mean it's bad. I think what it means is that you kind of learn slowly what it really is. You're making silly games. They're not changing the world, guys. Uh and it's not you. You're not your game. So, let it go. Let it go and just start

making stupid games, get terrible reviews on itch.io. Who cares, right? You really need that thick skin ultimately to be able to release the great projects, right? You're You're not going to get to releasing awesome epic commercial releases that make you a million bucks. You're not going to get there by just making those games. Because ultimately, you you can't. You You don't know how to do it. You need to start small and you need to release crap games. So, if you have a 5-minute game on your computer, a crappy game, and it's not even done. The credits don't even roll. The game just breaks. Release it on itch.io right now with your name and call it a day. And you're get You're going to get terrible reviews. But that's okay. Because now you can say, oh, I just released my first game. I'm a game developer. And that's the second portion of what I want to discuss here. And that has to do with the identity shift. Now, this

just to clarify, just because I'm saying you you do have a shift of identity. Sorry, my phone's going off here. Just because you do have a shifting identity doesn't mean that it's your only identity, right? We were talking about that earlier. It's not your identity. It's not the identity. But let me discuss what happens to the part of your identity that I guess counts, that's important when it comes to game dev. What happens is when you release a game, um you go from I'm dreaming about this and I'm an idiot. And my parents think I'm stupid or my friends and family think I'm wasting my time. As you release crap games and they get better and better and better, your mentality slowly shifts into I've released games and this is legit. And it's really, really important to have that truth in your heart and your soul about being a game dev.

You're not dreaming anymore. It's real. You've released games. You've released three games. They might be crappy, but you've released them on itch.io. It's So, you slowly become a real game dev as opposed to a dreaming game dev. Okay? So, honestly, guys, if you've got crap games on your computer right now, pause this video, upload them on itch.io, put a thumbnail up, call it a day. Just upload it and get it over with. Because then you can just just say, well, I'm publicly now a game dev and I just released some some crappy games, but I'm on the right track, right? And now that you've released crappy games, like we talked about earlier, you can start releasing bigger projects, right? Getting that fear out of the way, that fear of releasing your first game, it suddenly releases all the pressure. Okay? And this is not coming from somebody who

did this right. I did this wrong. I put so much pressure on myself for my first commercial release, Pinstripe. I put so much pressure. That game took 5 years. And I launched it and you know what happened is it didn't really get the response I wanted. It did pretty good ultimately. In the long run, it made me some money and I was happy about that. It helped me maintain my full-time status as a game dev, but ultimately, um it yes, it brought in money, but what it did was it taught me that I had put too much pressure on myself in releasing that game because when I released it and it didn't get the response I wanted and it even got a 5 out of 10 from GameSpot, I crashed. I I I emotionally just just crashed. And this comes back to Daniel's video, again link in the description, about having good mental health. I didn't put

mental health first, but I did put forward follow through. And it was imbalanced. So, what happened is I did follow through and I did finish the game and I'm glad I did, but because there was so much pressure, I collapsed. And there was two or three months of just depression and burnout. Um it wasn't it wasn't good at all. And so, I recommend I highly recommend that that you release small games, small crappy games. And that's ultimately going to train that mental muscle of follow through. Think of follow through like a bicep. The more you train it, the more you put more and more and more pressure on it, um it's going to grow. And imagine just dream about this for just a second with me. Imagine you have the follow through of of some of that top indie game devs

out there and the top indie studios, and the top game studios, AAA included, where you you you say, we set out with a project idea and we have to finish it. We have investors, we have a game plan, we have a budget, we have a marketing plan. That kind of follow through, the discipline to build those kind of projects, imagine having that. Imagine being able to finish those kinds of projects. Imagine trying to do that now, though, when you haven't released anything. That's like trying to, I don't know, curl a 100-lb dumbbell with your first try. Instead, curl 5 lbs. Just be humble. Let it go. It's okay. Remember, it's not your identity. Let it go. There's so many other important things in your life. And have fun. It's okay to laugh at yourself and say, wow, I can only curl 5 lbs. Or wow, I just released a 5-minute crap game. And oh my

word, these reviews are terrible. People hate this game. And then you sort of laugh about it. And you smile about it, and you say, "Who Who cares?" This is There's no big deal here. Anyway, that's That's about all I got for you. Remember, download my free 2D game kit below. It's totally free, my treat to you. Um this game kit's going to make it really easy for you to follow through because you can download this game kit, swap out the sprites, release it on itch.io, and then you just released your first game. So, download that. It's my treat to you. And as always, guys, leave a comment below um about your thoughts about this video, maybe some some critiques you have about what I'm saying, or maybe you agree. I don't know. Let's have a conversation. Um leave a like and subscribe for more videos like this, and I will talk to you later. Cheers.