computer games forum

Found this video tonight, because I love these guys:



Left me curious: Celso, what do you think? As an "Indie" developer/designer, how do your experiences gel with those described in this video?

Also, can't get the embed to work. Sorry.

Fixed the embedding, you only need to put the video ID and not the full youtube link.
I am trying to understand but I have workers making noises at home, so I need a bit of time to fully understand the meaning

OK so I think I understood most of it.
1) FULLY AGREE. Start SMALL. I've seen many indies making the mistake of thinking "if I have to make a game, it must the BEST game ever". Totally wrong attitude. Better an average, or even a mediocre game FINISHED, than any unreleased next epic titles
2) about marketing, I partially agree. It is a super complex topic, and is also influenced a lot by PURE LUCK. Nowadays what you make heavily influences it. If you make a platform/arcade/retro/etc etc game you'll instantly get coverage. If you make games like mine... hmm... not really there are a few exceptions, but are people super-connected with the industry, journalists, and so on. Also, the geographical location has a BIG importance. I cannot fly to USA every year to partecipate to the various conferences for example. But I know many other indies that didn't attend a SINGLE conference and makes a shitload of money. I know though many indies with good products that quit or are starving because nobody knows about their games and no journalist wants to cover them (I know well what this means!).
3) other tasks: definitely. I spent WAY too much time doing "OTHER" stuff beside actually working on games sometimes I envy my partners because at least they can focus on stuff they like (writing, doing art, coding) instead of being bothered by support emails, lawyers, accountants, webdesign, hosting issues and so on...
4) distribution. I'm an atypical indie since I sell 99% direct. Getting on Steam with my kind of stuff is almost impossible, but on the other hand this way I'm more independent than others who rely completely on it to sell their games.
5) early testing: yes that's good advice, I discovered it with Planet Stronghold first and Loren then. On the other hand, you need to ship the game so you can't really have the testing / feedback phase last 6 months! (though for Loren it lasted 2-3 months in practice).
6) mechanics trump content: well that doesn't really apply to my games, since the amount of content is an essential part. But of course that is a video about more "standard" games.

I want to add one thing: you need to be ready for anything because for sure, people will bash your stuff publicly. You'll get insulted, criticized, laughed at. Many many times! You need not to care about this, because for 1 idiot that is laughing at your game saying is the worst shit ever, there are 1000 silent people enjoying and paying for it. But sometimes it can be VERY hard, believe me