It’s Dangerous To Go Alone!
By: Patrick Fluke
Tags: Game Development, Games, Programming, Gaming, Developer

It’s Dangerous To Go Alone!

A list of things you should consider when starting your journey in Game Development.

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

You hear lots of stories these days about indie game developers hitting the pavement and creating their groundbreaking and runaway successful game. You hear these stories because they’re the ones that are fun to tell. What you don’t hear are the thousands of heartbreaking tales where a person has poured their heart and soul into their game only to have it die an early death upon launch.

The gaming industry is fickle. Think back to Flappy Bird. That game was out for months before anyone cared, and when it gained popularity, it was only a matter of days before clones were everywhere. The game became the craze it did because it was in the right place, at the right time, and met the standards that the community had indicated were required to become famous.

Those standards change every fifteen seconds. They may not flip on their head entirely, but over a year or so, an indie game will have to look altogether different to catch the kind of wildfire that most first time developers have come to expect. So what can you do about it?

If you have the choice, work with a partner.

Photo by Patrick Amoy on Unsplash

While it’s a widespread pass-time, game development is a time consuming and challenging endeavour. Even when done correctly, there is no guarantee of success. That’s why my most significant piece of advice is to work with a partner when building your games. Of course, this means you will have to split any profits, but it also means you can get the work done more quickly, and as a result, get your game to market faster.

The speed at which you can get your game to market is essential. If you build your game fast enough, any variables you identified as critical to success when you started to have a greater chance of still being necessary by the time you ship. The result will be a much better shot at making your game a success.

Further, and this happens to all of us, sometimes our ideas just aren’t going to work. They seem fine, perhaps even amazing in our heads, but as soon as we bounce them off someone else, everything unravels. Using a partner will quickly eliminate these bad ideas, allowing you to focus your time and energy on developing the best game possible.

Now, there are potential downsides to working with a partner, but at the beginning of your journey in Game Development I know that you’ll find they are out weighed by the good. Over time you may realize that sharing profits/creative control/time management will become less desirable, but certainly consider it when you’re just starting out.

Make Your Game Relevant

Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

The big publishers don’t need to compete for attention in the overly saturated market in 2020. I don’t mean to scare you, but the gaming industry is cut-throat, and most games are not a financial success. Of the many things you can do to increase the odds, I think this is perhaps the most important.

Your game isn’t Call of Duty, and people won’t buy it simply because it’s in its series. You need to earn that right. You have to earn that by getting your games some attention and then wowing the people who gave it a shot. Now, how do we go about getting that attention?

There are many ways you can do this, and first and foremost, as with many of my stories, I’m going to recommend that you build your social media presence. Sparing that, however, what can you do? Well, you can build cultural relevance into your games.

Making a game and it’s going to be ready near Halloween? Take advantage of those trending hashtags and push your Halloween themed game. Spring? Christmas? St. Patrick’s Day?! These are great, widespread, culturally relevant topics to which you can relate all kinds of gameplay.

Making your game relevant to a time sensitive event requires that it be ready on time, but it gives you a bridge into the life of your potential customer, something they can relate to. That is vital when you’re trying to establish yourself as a developer who produces content worth buying.

Don’t Aim Too High!

Do you have an audience for that game? Then maybe you should focus on something smaller. Something that you can use to build your audience and the end-users trust in your development abilities. A gaming start-up is just like any other start-up. It takes effort, a lot of effort.

Make a few seasonal games, and build a following on Twitter. Make a few smaller games and put in some advertising dollars. Suddenly you’ve developed a broader audience, and you’ve got a loyal fan base subscribed to your mailing list. Then build your massive dragon game! Did it do well? Great! If not, make another few smaller games, and try and catch that spark again. Just like building a fire from kindling on a game show, you need to nurse your spark into a roaring fire.

Take the time, build more and more projects, and learn from your mistakes. Engage your followers, and share your accomplishments. Before long, you’ll be in a position to make money from your games. In the meantime, you need to put in time and effort.