Indie Challenges
November 14th, 2010
Several weeks ago I wrote up a post called “I’m Indie, and I’m Proud” about the things I love about being an indie game developer. The post was full of all the positive things I love about indie life. A few people pointed out that I wasn’t representing the whole picture, so I thought I’d write up a companion post about some of the biggest challenges I have encountered being indie. This is not meant to dissuade anyone from becoming indie, but merely to show both sides of the issue. Going indie is still one of the best decisions I’ve made.
Note: This article refers to being “indie” in the sense of running your own business. If you’re working a salaried position at a small indie studio, much of this won’t apply.
1. Lack of Stable Income
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat, because it’s the biggie. As an indie developer, you will most likely not have a steady income. Your income will fluctuate greatly from day to day. Until you launch that first game, your income will be $0. Even after you launch that first game, your income may very well still be close to $0. You need to be ready for that.
Game Developer Magazine does an annual survey of game developer salaries around the world (but mostly centred in the US). This past year they did the first indie salary survey [1]. The survey found that the average annual income for a solo indie developer (i.e. a dev working by his or herself) is about $11,000 USD. The average increases to about $20,000 if the developer works as part of a team of two or more people. This is why so many indie developers do contract work on the side. Making your own game is a risk, but being paid to develop someone else’s game is less risky.
But there’s an upside: if you’re one of the few lucky ones to release a really killer game that takes off and becomes a hit, the potential to make a lot of money is there. Just don’t rely on it as your plan for sustaining the business.
What does this mean? It’s going to be an adjustment. If you’re used to working a job with a regular salary, working for yourself will take some time to get used to. You’ll start thinking about your time differently, and also start thinking about money differently. Instead of thinking “This DVD is only $20, I’ll take it!” You’ll start thinking “Wow, $20…that’s like selling 29 copies of my game at $0.99…that’s like…three days of sales.”
2. Work/Life Balance
In my other post I talked about the freedom we have as indie developers to work the hours we want to work. However, the flip side of that is that the line between home life and work life can easily become blurred. If you’re working for a larger indie studio you may have office space and this isn’t as much of a problem. But if you’re working from home, it’s easy to “just work one more hour” after dinner, or “just write a few more emails before bed”. Next thing you know it’s 2:00 AM and you’re introducing three bugs every 15 minutes into your rendering system. When your work computer is in your home, it can be difficult to force yourself to stop working, or sometimes to start working.
I’m a guy who likes his routine (boy is that changing now that I have a one-month-old baby). My routine helps me to work during “working hours” and not work when I want to spend time with my family. Even though I work from home, (before the baby) I got up every day at 7:30, showered, ate breakfast, got dressed, and “went to work”. It helps me to delineate the difference between being at home, and being at work. A friend of mine told me about his friend who used to walk around the block and return home to force himself to think about being “at work” differently. Where I still struggle the most is at the end of the day. 5:30 or 6:00 rolls around and I need to start cooking dinner, but it’s easy to “just write a couple more lines of code” and get lost in it.
However, it can be done. You can find a really nice balance between work and life outside of work. It’s just going to take more discipline than if you worked for someone else.
3. Oh So Much Paperwork
All you want to do is make great games, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably pretty serious about it. You’re running a business. Running a business comes with a lot of work that isn’t much fun: filling out international tax treaty forms, doing your monthly bookkeeping (did I say monthly? er…yearly?), filing your taxes, dealing with copyright or trademark infringement, figuring out how to make money, etc, etc. But it all needs to be done. Your brain will want to say to you “hey man, you could be logging your business receipts in your accounting software right now…but wouldn’t you much rather be implementing that new animation system you’ve been dying to try??” Sometimes you need to tell that little voice to shut up and take care of the business.
4. Feeling Like a Failure
Ok, this is starting to get kind of personal…and I really hope I’m not the only one who feels this sometimes. 
As much as you’ll have days where you absolutely LOVE being indie and making your own games, you will probably have days where it just sucks. You’ll get your daily sales report (if you’re selling on the App Store) and have a day where you made $1.43 the previous day and you’ll start to wonder what you’re doing with your life. You’ll hit a roadblock with your game and wonder if you’ll ever be able to solve it. You’ll get to an alpha build with your game and realize all the fun work is done and now you just have to hunker down and finish the boring parts of making a game. You’ll have a day where all your ideas feel like they’re the worst idea you’ve ever had.
I’m here to tell you: that’s ok. But this is why it’s so important that you LOVE making games. Because not all parts of the process are fun. Some parts suck. Some parts will make you want to quit. But if you really love it, if you can’t think of anything else you’d rather be doing with your life, then you’ll push through the bad days and you’ll get back to loving it again.
But…It’s Worth It
So yes, there are parts of being an indie developer that aren’t all sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows (you really should click that link). But you know what? I still love it! Because for all the annoyances and hard days, they all pale in comparison to the fact that I get to make the games I want to make every day!
Owen
[1] Brandon Sheffield and Jeffrey Fleming. “9th Annual Game Developer Salary Survey“. Game Developer Magazine. April 2010: 12.
[...] (2010-11-14): I just posted a companion piece to this entitled "Indie Challenges", that looks at the other side of being [...]
Aw, I thought this was going to be about stuff like the Ludum Dare.
Still, valid points. There was a reaity-check posted in the Escapist’s “Extra Credits” feature this week about what it takes to be a game designer. Compound those challenges with the business side of being independent and it seems almost insurmountable!
But for those of us engaged in this there could be nothing more liberating than knowing we are ultimately and solely responsible for our own successes and failures. I think it’s why a lot of us do what we do.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for sharing both sides of your experience.
How do you know when you’re ready to go Indy?
I know that’s a loaded question. Would love a post about that to continue the mini series you’ve got going here.
Thanks, God bless!
Scott
http://www.myappventure.com
Well said! You make some really great points (especially the part about doing accounting work instead of development).
And the part about feeling like a failure is the most valuable part (and something that isn’t talked about enough IMO). I go through the same struggles and feelings. Some parts of development really do suck and those days where you question yourself are really hard. Glad to know I’m not the only one who feels that
There is a middle ground between making 100s of 1000s and making only a few dollars a day.
http://gamesfromwithin.com/growing-indie-style
Like Noel, I’m also in the developer’s middle class! No huge hits, but enough minor hits for a middle class type income.
@Wally – I completely agree. There are a lot of indie devs making a reasonable living without any major hits. My point was more that that doesn’t (usually) happen over night. It usually takes a lot of hard work to get to that point and that new indies should be prepared to live lean for a while at the start.
Omg it was like reading about myself. Nice to know I’m not the only one in my small boat bobbing around in a big choppy ocean….
Good stuff! I’ve got a draft of a post that started as my response here but got too long and I’ll put that up at Geek And Dad in a few days, but in the mean time I wanted to point out this related post by Paul Graham:
How Not to Die ( http://paulgraham.com/die.html ) is a good look at this in the context of a startup by a smart guy with a lot of insight into many startups.
About half way into the linked essay Paul comments about the feelings of doubt and the “lows” that are “normal” in the startup cycle which echo Doug’s comments. Then Paul talks about how knowing this can hopefully help by providing a perspective so you don’t give up. As he says, “Startups rarely die in mid keystroke. So keep typing!” Gotta laugh at that!
Then Paul make some very good points about failing and how that’s part of the process and again, you only die by giving up at that point instead of continuing to iterate and improve on what you are doing.
So, go forth and prosper!
On funding … well the only hard time to get by is when you have no games out and need to fund development with 0 income.
If you release a few games your income will gradually grow. At least that’s the experience I made developing “serious” shareware.
That’s why we’re starting out small with simple and fun games to get a steady income which should allow us to make more complex games in the future.
Great post. 1 & 4 are especially hard to write and talk about without getting all whiny and depressing, I’ve started writing things like that from time to time and almost always failed to get the balance I wanted. I think most of us go through the things you talked about, at least, I know we do…
Keep living the dream
.
Totally true! Very good.
Good write-up man. Keep fighting the fight.
@Gavin – I really tried not to come across as whiny or depressing. I hope I was successful. I rewrote parts 1 and 4 several times.
As hard as this job can be sometimes, I’m still amazingly grateful that I get to do this every day.
Thanks for this! ^^
Great post.
Leon, so true. We have skills, good design documents, and simple enough games that a team of two people should be able to develop.
Yet, these projects are still into the closet, because we are forced to do contract job and we seem to be unable to save enough to spend 3-4 months coding our own stuff.
It is very frustrating, and I am not sure if we will find a way.
You were very successful
Owen,
As always… thanks for the honest words. And no, you are not alone on feeling like a failure. Somedays I wonder why I’m still doing this for a few dollars a day (although somedays I make $30 or more — not sure why). But I’m still hoping for that BIG hit.
It does make my car payment every month though.
I also get frustrated, because I have so many great ideas but either not enough time to do them OR it wouldn’t be cost effective. I’m finding lots of little games is better than 1 big one.
Good luck to all of us indies!
Excellent post Owen, and I also really enjoyed the discussion here in the comments.
Yeah indie life can be tough sometimes (especially with all of the constant doubts!) but is the best job I’ve ever had – I’m learning at 10x the rate of my previous jobs and it’s really fun to be able to make apps/games and then ship them out to the store and have people use (and hopefully like!) them :]
@Dad – I’ve read that article by Paul Graham as well and also found it really inspiring (so for everyone else check it out if you haven’t already!)
Paul basically says if you keep trucking along and don’t give up, you’ll eventually make it. That’s my hope – keep hacking away, continue developing skills, and make each app better than the one before :]
completely agree and 4th point is the hardest till now for me to get used to or come over.
And the last lines from Ray Wenderlich is my hope too.
( Paul basically says if you keep trucking along and don’t give up, you’ll eventually make it. That’s my hope – keep hacking away, continue developing skills, and make each app better than the one before )
The most important thing here, I found is, I am not alone and thats a big boost in confidence. All the best to all my indie fellows.
[...] Yesterday I introduced you to the Rampant Coyote with his Eight Tips to Help You Finish Your Indie Game. Today’s Linkvent Calendar entry follows in these footsteps with a blog post from Owen Goss titled Indie Challenges. [...]