[auslegung]

I don’t want to discourage you, and I have never built a game myself, but I have heard a lot of horror stories from small shops to large shops. If you were my friend I would recommend you read about the failures of others before you and how to avoid them. I would recommend you use lean startup principles so that you get something into users’ hands ASAP. Maybe give yourself a short deadline, like 1-3 months, and say you HAVE to have a public demo by then so users can begin telling you what works and what doesn’t.

Good luck! You have a great runway if you’re able to avoid common pitfalls. And even if you never make enough money you (probably) can get another software job easily.

[cteague]

Agreed on the lean startup principles/short deadline. You've got to get something into the hands of users as soon as possible. You might also want to consider doing some design up front and making a landing page. Perhaps you can gauge interest that way and receive feedback.

[MeinBlutIstBlau]

I'm not saying this is the route someone should take, but the stardew guy made stardew solely to build his resume up while he was looking for a job.

[cableshaft]

That guy completely relied on the financial support of his girlfriend for years. I think he did some odd jobs here and there, but mostly he was just working on the game not making any income. Obviously for that game it paid off in spades, as they were millionaires pretty much overnight once it was released, but that won't be the case for every game, or in fact most games, and it's not something you should ask of your significant other most times.

I've worked on eight titles professionally working for game companies that never made the money spent developing them. It's a hit driven industry and there's no guarantees, unless you hit on an untapped market with a lot of pent up demand for something (like Natsume had been dropping the ball and releasing garbage Harvest Moon sequels for over a decade at that point, Stardew Valley came along and showed them what the fans actually wanted). Even then it's still not a guarantee.

I'm out of the video game industry now, but still work on my own games, but it's only a few hours a week here and there. I've had some success over the years, but not enough to justify asking my wife to let me quit my job and do it full time.

[MeinBlutIstBlau]

I didn't know that part about his girlfriend. I've had a hard time finding info on what he did.

But I wasn't suggesting that it's a "good" way to make it. I just said it's something to do to help.

[cableshaft]

There's a chapter about Stardew Valley's development in the book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, that's how I knew about it. It's a good book and a pretty easy read. I appreciated seeing the process of how other companies and indie developers work.

[auslegung]

From what I read in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, he’s kind of a case study in what NOT to do. I’m very glad Stardew Valley ended up being a commercial success, but if I were his friend at any point in his process I would’ve tried to get him to get something into the users’ hands immediately.

[Agathos]

Yes, that chapter reads like the postmortem of a failed project, except it all somehow works out in the end. It’s a fascinating story but I’m not sure what lesson to take from it.

[chii]

the lesson is that there's no recipe for success. every success is blazing their own way, and for anyone trying, they too, will need to blaze their own trail.