Richard Hawkins, an indie dev that created some cool games, today we had a session with him at the lab, a very cool guy with lots of experience on his shoulders.
Richard have sat with all of us and talked about our future projects, with my project, that had some issues, he did say it is a very nice little game but it lacked something, the motive for the player to play.
In other words he described it as the point of why the game is even there?
My game is about running away from a massive boulder on Mars, therefore, why are you running? and if you run what will you find? resources? fuel?
This is indeed an interesting point the I had not thought about it is all goes down to the planing section.
What is the game about?
Initially my game was an idea to try and promote myself and prove that I can make my own games, just a proof of ability.
As of today, it is a needed deviance though a proper planing is necessary, but considering the fact it took me less then a month to ship out a working prototype, I am very proud of it.
After all this game had some massive code change over the year and has changed from a mobile phone killer to a mobile phone surfer... is that even a thing?
Anyway, Richard talk was a good tip for me, but what was the real deal is his lecture about himself and how he started.
When we think about a indie devs it's all sound nice and easy, freelancing is easy, you are your own boss, but as Richard pointed out, where and how will you make money? why would people hear about you games? and why would they even pay?
Looking and the way he started and the "beta" testers he had, his family, it was clear to me that it's not going to be easy at all to start on my own.
He also noted that sometimes it's better to start in a place where you have some kind of a mentor or a guide and learn how to set up and "get a foot in the door" as the competition is very tough.
He also noted about the problems of publishers and costs, and how much can you actually make out of it when you need to pay for the engine, the publisher and other expenses you don't always think about.
This whole thing got me thinking, should I really go back to Israel and start on my own? or maybe I should start in a studio first get some experience and ONLY then try to see if I even have a chance?
So much for some hard cold truth.
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