Life of an Indie Game developer

For indie game devs starting out, there is a lot to do.  Particularly if you have no budget and no colleagues.  If, like me, you are creating your first game in your spare time in between going to work full time, and the busyness of family life, time and money aren't readily at your disposal.

This brings about 2 realities that you have to accept:
1) You are responsible for every aspect of development:
2) You will not create an angry birds, or clash of clans on your first attempt, and expect to see a release this side of the year 3000! ;)

1 - Master (or attempter)  of all trades

This includes design, creating art work whether 2D or 3D, If 3D, this will involve modelling, texturing, animating; programming, marketing and the list goes on.

If like me you love each stage of the process, then chances are you will persevere and see the result of your labour.  It may get tiresome with all there is to do but the end result will be worth it if you don't let your standards slip.

2 - Time ain't on your side

In view of the realistic amount of time you have to devote to your first project, choosing a simple game will enable you to produce something within realistic time frames.  A simple game can be fun and addictive, and grow your name as a developer.

My aim is to produce a few smaller games, watch as the revenue comes in, and create larger games as the funds and opportunity affords.

The first game: Save The Mouse

The first idea for this game was simple, yet the ideas grew and grew so it became more difficult to produce quickly.  I simplified the gameplay, and created a slightly different game, with the aim of it being simple and quick to produce, whilst still being fun and engaging.  the new idea is still growing so there are already numerous updates planned after the initial release.

This will probably be a series of games, with our hero, the mouse, getting into all kinds of scrapes he needs to be saved from.

The first game will be Episode 1.  the original game idea will be Episode 4, as I already have ideas for Episode 2 and 3 ( these will be very similar to Episode 1 so should be easy to produce once the first game is made)

Well, time to get back to my coding!

Cheers for reading,

Lee.
www.j-labs.net

Dev update 2

The first game, save the mouse, is becoming a little larger than I intended as I keep getting more and more ideas ( lots of small features that all add up!)

So, I will now be utilising some of the design already finished, and creating a really simple game (at this point it's really simple, that could change!)  that I can knock together relatively quickly so I can get something out there and develop more of a following.

More details will follow soon so stay tuned... :)