Watch THIS If You Want To Make Indie Games (THE RIGHT WAY)

If you want to make indie games, you're probably going to do everything wrong. From the code to the art and the game design, in fact, every game dev, every Redditor, every YouTuber, including me, by the way, I'm a hypocrite. They're probably going to recommend a completely different way to approach making games than your approach. But guess what? The creator of Ary in the Blind Forest, his name is Thomas Mer, he told me something, and it's the perfect message for you. Guess what? How you make your game doesn't matter. Doing stuff the right way is actually well, it's kind of the wrong way to make games. Thomas' message is awesome. It's really encouraging to me and I think it's going to get you across the finish line in making your first game. Let's jump in. But before we continue this interview, I do want to thank this episode sponsor, Avani Sound. If you're looking to get some great quality music and sound effects for your current or future projects, I can definitely recommend Avani Sound. Their entire premium music and sound library is specifically designed for game development, and

there's no AI used in their production. All of their packs are onetime payment with no subscription, and everything is completely royalty-free, including commercial use. That's important. Right now, they're doing this spring into development bundle. It's honestly a really good value for your money and a great addition to any developer toolbox. It includes six music packs and seven sound effect packs, all in different genres, which make it a great base for almost any project. On top of all of this, you're going to get their music plugin and frequency link plugin, which makes music and sound integration a lot easier. So, if you're looking to add some highquality music, sound effects, and tools to your library at a very reasonable price, definitely check out their bundle before the offer ends by simply clicking the link in the description. I I can give you an analogy like so when I started out with 3D graphics right um and 3D modeling there was this whole debate on like subdivision surfaces on um everything should be modeled with quads right with

like oh you can't put a triangle in there and so on right and it's just I saw so many people that were so concerned about the technical aspects right of like but I can't do this thing I can't move this vortex here and turn it into a triangle because there's rules against it right and and it's this whole dude [ __ ] the rules. Like just just follow the shape. Make sure it's great. You can clean it up after. It's fine, right? But as long as it works, it works. You have to get to the gestalt. You have to get to what it what the thing that you're crafting wants to be. Do the clean up after. It's fine, right? But but get the art out of it. It reminds me of the way that uh America the the 13 colonies, the way we won the American Revolution was. You had um the British soldiers. They were straightlaced and they did everything the right way. They had their lines and they'd walk down and shoot uh in straight lines, right? In in rows. And

then the colonies were like, "Screw that. Let's go run around in the woods and wear and wear camo or whatever, wear brown shirts and and green pants. It's guerilla warfare." And the same is true with indies. I just feel like indies are running circles around AAA. Uh the same is true with the press. It's like shows like this and YouTubers and Tik Tockers, they're running circles around the press, right? And it's this mindset of saying, why do I need to do this the way that everybody's telling me to do it? What's the point? Um, for me, I've always looked at the end the the the end of the equation. By the way, this is always how things move forward, right? Like that's also what rock and roll was used to be about, right? That it's just why are we still playing this folk music or something? There's all this stuff that we could explore and like and then there were all the detractors of like this is Satan's work and all of that, right? And it's like, dude, we're just trying to have fun play do making art,

creating music and so on, right? And like if you can push like up the ante, right? Like I think a lot of times like I I I have kind of like the reputation now that I'm a little bit um that every now and then when I say things at Moon, right, that it's like, oh, Thomas writes this very much over the top, right? But it's like, no, you have to like you really have to try to push yourself and try to really up the ante doesn't [ __ ] matter. You shoot for 150%. So it's okay if you miss, right? Cuz you still land at 100%. I think the important thing in life is that you just do what you love, right? And then everything kind of comes easy. So I I I I think that's really the trick, right? And that you have to teach people early on, right? like that. It doesn't matter how long it takes, right? But find out your true talent. Find out what you're passionate about, what gives you motivation. Find out what it is like what task it is that you would do even

if you wouldn't be paid for it. And then do that, right? Because then like right now I work in 17 18 hours a day um because we have to get um this huge update out that we're working on for for No Rest for the Wicked. Yeah. And I love it. Right. It's just I I I can't like I literally wake up in the morning, right? And then I look at the watch and I'm like, "Oh, it's, you know, I've been working till 5:00 a.m. yesterday and then, oh, it's 11:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. now." And I just I just want to get back to But I set up this really cool special attack yesterday. I can't wait to put up set up the effects and so on, right? I still have that drive as excited as a kid of like, man, I can't wait to set up the special attack and then, you know, show it to everybody and like, you know, get the whole, oh my god, this is so cool that we finally have this, right? And I'm trying to to do that in other people as well, right? So when when we have Patrick in our team for example, right, he's a huge farming game fan and um and

we're getting into that very soon with the Sacramento update, right? And every now and then he does something and I'm just, you know, whenever he creates a cool feature or something, I'm just this is so [ __ ] cool, right? This is so so I think that's what's really important also in any studio, right? That you celebrate each other's successes, right? that it's that it's, you know, like that it's just, you know, that people know, hey, they're being appreciated, right? And there's there's a weird dilemma there with this, right? Cuz I am not the kind of person who constantly compliments people. I expect people to be great, otherwise they wouldn't be working at Moon. I'm sure they love you. Yeah. It's just I I I don't know why, right? But I'm I'm not that kind of person. Like I I but I love when I see them just committing something and then in the commit message I see oh I worked on this thing and I'm like [ __ ] yeah that's finally in you know like that's so exciting and then updating the repository and then loading that in and

like seeing that is just I still get a huge kick out of it. So it's that and then I I did have because you said you asked about kits and so on, right? So for some time in the industry uh especially in the development community I did feel that a lot of people were kind of negative against family and having kids and so on right um simply because it is energy you know like ultimately it boils down to like it's a lot of energy. Yeah. A ton of energy. It's just it's insane. But it also gives back a lot, right? And it gives you inspiration and it gives you like because otherwise if you don't have that um and you don't have the private life side figured out, right? Then I think you can very easily spiral out of control, right? And just have thoughts that are crazy and you know like really mess things up, right? I think the just as humans I think we need a solid base, right? And if you have that, if you have

a understanding wife that understands that you're crazy and if you have, you know, kids that love you and so on, right? I think that gives you that solid foundation and that feeling of like I know what I'm working for and I know that I have people that are behind me and so on and I don't fear anything, right? And that that I think is is what makes it work, right? like the whole loving the job and then just do the right thing, you know, just do what feels right to you, right? And even if people tell you again and again, you know, like, hey, it's not the right business decision or this or that, [ __ ] that, right? Just follow your gut. Cuz I' I've learned like if I've learned anything in the last 15 years or so, it's just trust your intuition, right? Like just trust your intuition. Because a lot of times you will, you know, look back and go, man, I should have done it in that way right away, right? Cuz, you know, just follow your intuition. For

some reason, there's this weird thing. And you said you're religious, right? I I'm not. Yeah. But but there is I don't know why, right? But a lot of times in life, like your heart already knows where things should go, and you just have to have the guts to say, "Okay, like it feels like I need to head into the direction, so I'm not going to do it." Also, don't forget to check out Alvani Sound and their Spring into Development Bundle. If you want to add some highquality audio assets to your library, as well as plugins to optimize your sound integration and design workflow, you can check it out simply by clicking the link in the description. Cheers.