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Bootstrapping for a indie game studio - tips?
Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
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Evening all,

I'm setting up an indie game studio and have started setting up a web footprint - I'm looking for tips, or ideas, antics, or experiences, links, any advice you might have I would appreciate.

So far, I'm planning a "probe game" which is essentially a first game, an MVP "product" that will include full playable features and a small battery of appropriate social marketing and initial web footprint for the studio. Rather than a post-game-on-a.cc-and-then-bye, this will be more of a scaled out end-to-end launch so that I can walk through a more comprehensive process marketing, allocating work among different departments, addressing shipping/timeline constraints, social outreach, etc.

There are a couple primary strategies I'm putting in place:

1. Keep things achievable - Lean scope is very much a key strategy in this initial phase.
2. Launch a product - Move quickly, focus on an early launch, get feedback, learn quickly about the audience and space.
3. Build an audience and a footprint - Setup the necessary accounts, sites, lists, etc. Establish the branding, brand voice, etc.

I've made some fun "mini-game" programs in the past that tend to demonstrate a mechanic or focus on a specific programming topic or technique (some of you may have probably played one or two), but I've never approached it in any way other than for fun and learning.

On the other hand, this venture will be more of a walk-through of the business side of things, which I think I will actually enjoy. :) I wanted to bring this up here as a very first outreach, because I want to get some early thoughts from your brilliant minds and because this is the place where I cut my teeth as a programmer. I hope to see if anyone has insights, ideas, or experiences that they would like to share, things you may have heard, etc, anything that you think might be useful during the early stages of this process.

Thanks :)

--
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killocan
Member #1,556
October 2001
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I'm going through something similar. I decided that after everything that went down in the world, and still happening here in Brazil, it's time I take a shot at making games, since that's the only reason I started programming in the first place.
So, from your list, from personal experience and from reading/watching blogs and gdc stuff, I would say that for an indie studio, your item number 3 is actually the number 1, big number one.
Building an audience is the most important part. I don't know you personal financial situation and how things are on your country when it comes to open a company, but here (and talking about my experience) the first thing I intend to do is to open a small IT dev company, so I can get some money flowing and invest it on my game project, while keeping my main job, because I can't go on without a secured income for people depends on me.
So, apparently, the easiest way to improve your chances of success, is to build an audience from the get go, and grow it while your project is being made.

RmBeer2
Member #16,660
April 2017
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very good initiative. Stay like this. :)

As a suggestion, moderate your energies so as not to burn everything at the moment, so you last longer in your work. And post more in the design forum, which is where it belongs.

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Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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RmBeer2
Member #16,660
April 2017
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As advice, forget about all that. Start with the minimum you can and take what you need. Do not do everything at the same time because it can be frustrating, because you run into tremendous limitations and everything is full of failures in each department.

The hardest part is marketing. This department has to be very large, and dedicated exclusively to harassing players. You're going to need to swallow money non-stop. It doesn't matter what games you're going to create, only the marketing says how good the game is. And never mess with this department, leave it to the professionals.

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Gideon Weems
Member #3,925
October 2003

I don't know if this will help or hurt, but for what it's worth, the project I currently work on attributes a significantly larger chunk of engagement to its email newsletter than I originally expected. So while you or I (or even your target audience) might consider the ol' β€œsign up for our newsletter” prompt annoying, it apparently remains an effective technique in the world at large.

Also, content is king. The aforementioned project continues to receive new features and shiny things, but survey after survey shows that ~90% of what people β€œcare about” is content.

To hear more platitudes and things you already knew, please sign up for my newsletter. :P

dthompson
Member #5,749
April 2005
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So far, I'm planning a "probe game"

Main piece of advice I can give is that this is a great idea. Even though it's barely sold, publishers have been far more interested in me since Feral Flowers came out! Most indies just don't have any portfolio.

Also (though I'm sure you're aware of this) be prepared to sink a lot of time into this. :P

______________________________________________________
Website. It was freakdesign.bafsoft.net.
This isn't a game!

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
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That's fantastic, thank you. I definitely am looking to the dthompson as a sort-of model for how this could potentially unfold in the initial stages.

At this time I have 3 "probe games" that have surfaced as viable options.

The initial probe game looks like it is really likely to be successful, we feel very strongly about it, but we quickly pivoted away from it because the concept proved to be better than we imagined, and as such began to require a lot of story, world-building, and character design to augment it to its full potential. Also, as it developed we realized it has the potential to appeal to a wide audience, but was still more niche and I'm not comfortable starting out with a targeted audience this early.

About a month before KrampusHack, we pivoted to "CubeShooter" (development name), which is a StarFox-like game. What we found while working on it, is that this prototype had a significantly faster workflow for designing levels and world-building, and, the gameplay is substantially more visual, meaning it would potentially get more eyes and more users drawn in to bootstrap the studio. So for now, the first game has been sidelined even though it has a much better chance of broad appeal and my team-mate and I decided to pivot here just for the purposes of the quick release.

And lastly, there's now the KrampusHack game KrampusReturns, which expanded the availability of tile-based gameplay and pixel art animation, opening up a (yet unexplored) possibility that the work done here could be leveraged quickly into a more substantial game.

--
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dthompson
Member #5,749
April 2005
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Ha, yeah, that all sounds too familiar! Possibly the most important decision I made with FF was to design it such that I could safely reduce the scope. Which I did, a couple of times actually, because it's often quite difficult to know when you're biting off more than you can chew. So yeah, in my case, it had to be a mechanically simple platformer.

Out of interest, how many people are on the team?

______________________________________________________
Website. It was freakdesign.bafsoft.net.
This isn't a game!

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

dthompson said:

Out of interest, how many people are on the team?

2 people. Just myself as a developer (and all the other things) and a partner who's an advisor and design consultant. There's a third person that I have an eye on to do some design and modeling.

Also, ChatGPT joined the team about a week ago. ;)

Quote:

So yeah, in my case, it had to be a mechanically simple platformer.

I hear that. Trimming things down to simplest possible form seems bland and mundane, but in the end it actually cleans things up and clarifies the actual game.

I saw a post yesterday about a team that had to abandon a game a year or so in because "it wasn't fun to play". They had tried to mix team fortress 2 and a rhythm game, which, kinda cancels each other out? Apparently they weren't honest enough with each other to realize that, and, after one of the designers left the team they gave a scathing review saying it didn't even make any sense. The players just end up clicking the left mouse button repeatedly and that's it. What a nightmare to have walked down a road like that and wasted so much time.

--
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dthompson
Member #5,749
April 2005
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More than one person! Glad to hear you're taking the high road :P

Hmm yeah, the fact that it took a year for them to figure that out is IMO the entire problem there. Get out that cake slicer.

______________________________________________________
Website. It was freakdesign.bafsoft.net.
This isn't a game!

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