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Ship it!
Ship it!
| Name: | Joe Maruschak |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Feb 04, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  5.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Joe Maruschak |
Blog post
After the great response I got to my last .plan, and getting a little inspiration from Dave's plan, I wanted to do a little followup.
First off.. I want to say to everyone that I am not even close to giving up.. it was just a little bit of introspection. I know that doing what I love is WAY more important than any amount of money I could ever have, and right now, today, I feel like the richest person on the planet. I am truly blessed, and I know it, and I am taking the time to smell the roses.
So, there was a little exchange between Jeremy and Joshua and I wanted to comment on it as it got me thinking.. Jeremy is in that mode where he needs 'something' to get him moving. Joshua is still in the early stages of the 'indie thing' and is satisified with just getting it done.
Weston has joined the 'shipping' club.. he just shipped his first product. Dave did the same thing recently with the Show Tool Pro. Shipping the first product is a high that can not be described.. It feels great. Even if you worked on other projects professionally, shipping something where it is all you is great.
side note: both the show tool pro and the urban pack are fantastic.. the value of both products is incredible.. both worth the money.. you would be wise to buy both now
After that, it gets harder. With each step you take.. you need more.. More challenge.. more goals.
With ThinkTanks.. the goal was simple. Finish and ship a game. My expectations for sales were very low, and I am happy to say that the sales have exceeded my expectations by quite a bit.
We made a fun game.. on the cheap.. we did a good job, and people like it. It makes me happy. What is the next challenge? Do it again.. and not just that, the big goal is to form a sustainable company that can do this again, and again, and again. Simple goal.. sounds like it anyway. This seemingly simple goal has got to be the hardest thing I have ever attempted in my life. If I was not so pig headed I would probably have given up in despair a long time ago.
I do not ever think that we will make 'the next big thing' that will take the world by storm. It would be great if something I worked on did take off, but my expectations are much lower. Make a game, make it fun, sell enough to keep on making more. As long as we can cover expenses and keep making games, it's good. Having this realistic viewpoint can be demoralizing at times. It does not work unless you are in for he long haul.. It is over time I will succeed.. and the work has just begun. It is hard to accept that there is a lot of work to do until we reach what I would consider 'success'. It is hard, but to succeed, it is important to accept that it is hard.
My challenges are different than most of the people reading this.. I have achieved much of what some of you are looking to achieve. Even so, I set small achievable goals at every step. I track my progress towards my goals.
it is all about finding your place, looking at where you are on your path of 'being and indie developer' and adjust your goals and challenges accordingly. You are probably going where I have already been, and I am trying as best as I can to help share what little knowledge I have.
So here are a few bits of advice:
1. Be clear on what you want to achieve. Rome was not built in a day.. and you need to walk before you can run. Pick an achievable and realistic challenge. One goal at a time.. building a game that is going to rock the world while building a company and assembling a team.. all at the same time is HARD.. and you have to be lucky as well as good to make it work. Don't set your sights so high that you fail and give up. I am not saying don't strive.. I am saying to gain the proper perspective.. If this is your first game project, shipping puts you in the magic 1%.
2. SHIP SOMETHING!.. gotta say it.. if it ain't done.. then you suck. Pick something you can finish and finish it. Shipping is a milestone..and it feels great. Do what you gotta do to ship it. It is good if it looks good and plays great, but done is the only measure that really matters.
3. Know your limitations. It is good to know, it is better to know what you don't know and seek out someone who does know and ask for help. If you can't wrap your head around the business or marketing end.. find someone who can. If your game is not fun, ask some people for advice. If the art sucks, be honest about it and work to improve it. If the project is too big, know when to trim.
4. Realize that you don't get points for being indie. Some will support you because you are indie.. most will not. The purchasers does not care if you gave blood and lived off the flesh of a beloved pet in order to ship the product. If it ain't good, it ain't good. It has to be good or it will not sell.
5. Experience is the best teacher. The more you do the better you will get. So keep doing and don't stop. You can't expect to get it all right the first time (or the second, or the third) so work on just doing the best you can.
6. Don't be afraid to fail. You don't know what you don't know.. and you are never going to find out sitting there thinking about it. Forge ahead and fail if necessary. Better to have attempted and learned from the experience that sit there, immobile.. thinking about everything that can go wrong. You are making a game. Things will go wrong. The best laid plans will fall apart, and you will have to figure it out and keep moving.
7. Reflect on failure. When you fail, look at the failure and examine why it failed. Look at where you fell short and learn from the failure. In failure is opportunity for growth.
and to answer Dan's questions:
Yes.. they are worth chasing.. and they are worth sacrificing for. I am in pursuit of my many dreams, and close to the edge is where I feel most alive. I would not trade my life, as it is now, for anything in the world. For my daughter, I feel that this is the best way to teach her.. by example.
First off.. I want to say to everyone that I am not even close to giving up.. it was just a little bit of introspection. I know that doing what I love is WAY more important than any amount of money I could ever have, and right now, today, I feel like the richest person on the planet. I am truly blessed, and I know it, and I am taking the time to smell the roses.
So, there was a little exchange between Jeremy and Joshua and I wanted to comment on it as it got me thinking.. Jeremy is in that mode where he needs 'something' to get him moving. Joshua is still in the early stages of the 'indie thing' and is satisified with just getting it done.
Weston has joined the 'shipping' club.. he just shipped his first product. Dave did the same thing recently with the Show Tool Pro. Shipping the first product is a high that can not be described.. It feels great. Even if you worked on other projects professionally, shipping something where it is all you is great.
side note: both the show tool pro and the urban pack are fantastic.. the value of both products is incredible.. both worth the money.. you would be wise to buy both now
After that, it gets harder. With each step you take.. you need more.. More challenge.. more goals.
With ThinkTanks.. the goal was simple. Finish and ship a game. My expectations for sales were very low, and I am happy to say that the sales have exceeded my expectations by quite a bit.
We made a fun game.. on the cheap.. we did a good job, and people like it. It makes me happy. What is the next challenge? Do it again.. and not just that, the big goal is to form a sustainable company that can do this again, and again, and again. Simple goal.. sounds like it anyway. This seemingly simple goal has got to be the hardest thing I have ever attempted in my life. If I was not so pig headed I would probably have given up in despair a long time ago.
I do not ever think that we will make 'the next big thing' that will take the world by storm. It would be great if something I worked on did take off, but my expectations are much lower. Make a game, make it fun, sell enough to keep on making more. As long as we can cover expenses and keep making games, it's good. Having this realistic viewpoint can be demoralizing at times. It does not work unless you are in for he long haul.. It is over time I will succeed.. and the work has just begun. It is hard to accept that there is a lot of work to do until we reach what I would consider 'success'. It is hard, but to succeed, it is important to accept that it is hard.
My challenges are different than most of the people reading this.. I have achieved much of what some of you are looking to achieve. Even so, I set small achievable goals at every step. I track my progress towards my goals.
it is all about finding your place, looking at where you are on your path of 'being and indie developer' and adjust your goals and challenges accordingly. You are probably going where I have already been, and I am trying as best as I can to help share what little knowledge I have.
So here are a few bits of advice:
1. Be clear on what you want to achieve. Rome was not built in a day.. and you need to walk before you can run. Pick an achievable and realistic challenge. One goal at a time.. building a game that is going to rock the world while building a company and assembling a team.. all at the same time is HARD.. and you have to be lucky as well as good to make it work. Don't set your sights so high that you fail and give up. I am not saying don't strive.. I am saying to gain the proper perspective.. If this is your first game project, shipping puts you in the magic 1%.
2. SHIP SOMETHING!.. gotta say it.. if it ain't done.. then you suck. Pick something you can finish and finish it. Shipping is a milestone..and it feels great. Do what you gotta do to ship it. It is good if it looks good and plays great, but done is the only measure that really matters.
3. Know your limitations. It is good to know, it is better to know what you don't know and seek out someone who does know and ask for help. If you can't wrap your head around the business or marketing end.. find someone who can. If your game is not fun, ask some people for advice. If the art sucks, be honest about it and work to improve it. If the project is too big, know when to trim.
4. Realize that you don't get points for being indie. Some will support you because you are indie.. most will not. The purchasers does not care if you gave blood and lived off the flesh of a beloved pet in order to ship the product. If it ain't good, it ain't good. It has to be good or it will not sell.
5. Experience is the best teacher. The more you do the better you will get. So keep doing and don't stop. You can't expect to get it all right the first time (or the second, or the third) so work on just doing the best you can.
6. Don't be afraid to fail. You don't know what you don't know.. and you are never going to find out sitting there thinking about it. Forge ahead and fail if necessary. Better to have attempted and learned from the experience that sit there, immobile.. thinking about everything that can go wrong. You are making a game. Things will go wrong. The best laid plans will fall apart, and you will have to figure it out and keep moving.
7. Reflect on failure. When you fail, look at the failure and examine why it failed. Look at where you fell short and learn from the failure. In failure is opportunity for growth.
and to answer Dan's questions:
Quote:
Are dreams worth chasing? Are they wroth sacrificing for?
Yes.. they are worth chasing.. and they are worth sacrificing for. I am in pursuit of my many dreams, and close to the edge is where I feel most alive. I would not trade my life, as it is now, for anything in the world. For my daughter, I feel that this is the best way to teach her.. by example.
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 11/07/06 - Focusing development by way of bootstrapping 10/20/06 - New Human 2.0 09/30/06 - The Finish Line 09/03/06 - Value of a Thing 06/18/06 - The shape of things to come 06/11/06 - Starting a Studio: Things we did right 06/02/06 - You Can Do it! 09/05/05 - The importance of theme |
|---|
Submit your own resources!| Joshua Dallman (Feb 04, 2005 at 06:57 GMT) |
Quote:
With each step you take.. you need more.. More challenge.. more goals.
This may be the way you are, this may be the way a lot or even most are, but it's not the way everyone is, and it's erroneous to imply so. Again, I speak from a humbled point of view since I haven't "been there done that," but consider that symphonies are content to play the same general collection of music over and over and over and over. They improve their mastery and artistry over the piece to be sure, but the point isn't to play progressively more difficult pieces throughout the season(s), the point is to PLAY, period, to enjoy playing and enjoy giving the audience a fine performance. And that too is my goal -- not to have progressively more challenging goals to be conquered (a very "hunter" mentality), but rather to just enjoy playing and being where I'm at, where ever that is (a very zen mentality).
I am reminded of the conversation between husband and wife in the film "Memento" where the wife is reading a dog-eared novel for the umpteenth time and the husband says "But you already know how it ends." She replies, "The point isn't to get to the next page."
Anyway, great read, just sharing my POV...
| dakz0rz (Feb 04, 2005 at 07:02 GMT) |
| Joshua Dallman (Feb 04, 2005 at 10:42 GMT) |
A. Two. One to find someone to screw it in for them for a percentage of the profits, another one to actually screw it in.
Q: How many indies does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Five. Two to write the design doc specifications, one to start screwing it in, and two to explain why the project was cancelled when the bulb was only half-way in.
Q: How many indies with ADD does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Hey! Do you wanna go play Halo?
| Michael Cozzolino (Feb 04, 2005 at 12:24 GMT) |
| Edward Gardner (Feb 04, 2005 at 13:20 GMT) |
Quote:
SHIP SOMETHING!.. gotta say it.. if it ain't done.. then you suck.
'Nuff said.
| Adam deGrandis (Feb 04, 2005 at 14:22 GMT) |
| David \"Fulcrum\" Wyand (Feb 04, 2005 at 15:43 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Great read as always Joe. I'm with Ed on this one:
Quote:
SHIP SOMETHING!.. gotta say it.. if it ain't done.. then you suck.
Getting something out the door is the toughest thing there is. But boy does it feel great when you do!
- LightWave Dave
| monki (Wesley Beary) (Feb 04, 2005 at 17:33 GMT) |
| Joe Maruschak (Feb 04, 2005 at 17:57 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Quote:
This may be the way you are, this may be the way a lot or even most are, but it's not the way everyone is, and it's erroneous to imply so. Again, I speak from a humbled point of view since I haven't "been there done that,"
(snip)
the point is to PLAY, period, to enjoy playing and enjoy giving the audience a fine performance. And that too is my goal -- not to have progressively more challenging goals to be conquered (a very "hunter" mentality), but rather to just enjoy playing and being where I'm at, where ever that is (a very zen mentality).
@Joshua,
I hope this works for you and that this is sufficient to keep you going when the going gets rough.
I am sorry if I implied that the hunter mentality applies to all people. I did not mean to.. my sentiment was more along the lines of realizing the challenges that confront one today. If one sets out to 'be the next Bungie'.. or 'make a MMO better than World of Warcraft'.. then they might be setting a challenge that while not in the long run unrealistic.. in the short term, it is not likely to lead to success, and will probably not offer much in the way of learning (other than learning what not to attempt as a first step).
The other sentiment I meant to impart is that of overwhelming sales being the only measure of 'success'. Success can be measured in many ways, some of them very personal. These measures of personal success and satisfaction can change over time and that individuals would be well served to explore what it is that drives them in order to gain clarity, clarity that can be used to divine a path toward the place where they want to be.
For you, it seems that just the doing is a measure of success.. and being able to continue doing it on your terms is what compels you to do it. Again, I hope this provides you with everything you need.
your reasons are different than mine... neither is right nor wrong.. they just reflect our personal feelings on the subject.
| Eric Elwell (Feb 04, 2005 at 18:23 GMT) |
I'll just join the chorus of quoters and grab my favorite line:
"Rome was not built in a day.." .. wha? Tell me this isn't a stab at Tom for GID9!? :P
| Paul Dana (Feb 04, 2005 at 19:03 GMT) |
| Matthew Langley (Feb 04, 2005 at 20:01 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Jeremy Alessi (Feb 04, 2005 at 20:19 GMT) |
Also, I think all of us do still enjoy doing this just for doing this on a certain level (oh and I can relate to the book thing ... I've read Game Over 5 times). However, it does get to a point where although you enjoy doing it just to do it ... you wonder if your time is better spent doing something else. I'd never imagine that I'd say that.
Two years ago I was the most motivated person around as far as I could tell ... I just had unlimited energy and thought I'd just steam roll everything. Everyone gets a wakeup call to a certain degree. Don't get me wrong I still believe lots of success will come to me but I do realize just how tough it is and that it may take many many years to really hit on something. Which before I always said and thought ... oh I'll keep doing this till I get it right or die ... etc... but even if I stick to that I now realize there'll be some gaps where I'm not motivated in between and questions will arise.
For example 'Do I ever want kids'? ... well if I can't become successful at this then I don't really ... but sometimes you think heh, maybe I can go so far with this and the next generation will have some built in genetic ability from all of my time spent on this and they'll be the one to succeed ... sounds strange but at a certain age you do start to think about that. I'm still a little young to worry but within another 2 years I'd like to be truly successful so that I can find a good girl to marry and have kids. Two years prior to now I'd never admit that ... I just would have said ... no successful game company no marriage, no kids, etc etc...
Rambling a bit but you see what I mean ...
| Mark McCoy (Feb 04, 2005 at 20:42 GMT) |
Quote:
The purchasers does not care if you gave blood and lived off the flesh of a beloved pet in order to ship the product. If it ain't good, it ain't good.
Pass the A-1 steak sauce please....
| Weston (Feb 05, 2005 at 00:55 GMT) |
| Joshua Dallman (Feb 05, 2005 at 01:00 GMT) |
In general, I've known so many "starving artists" that are so talented but working minimum wage jobs working off art school debt that that's always been a reality check for me. I've always thought of this game dev stuff as an ART venture, not a BUSINESS venture, which is where much of my perspective comes from; namely with an appreciation for that cliche starving artist reality. Thus, if I am having fun with my art, and team members working on the project are having fun too (while being at least modestly compensated), I consider the project an overwhelming success, no matter how sales may turn out. If we didn't have fun, then no matter how sales turn out the project was a failure, from my POV. Like the city bus company slogan says here, "HOW WE GET THERE MATTERS." Am loving the dialogue, is great to see other's POV on such an important topic...
| Tyler Frans (Feb 05, 2005 at 16:47 GMT) |
| Joe Maruschak (Feb 06, 2005 at 16:57 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
In total agreement on the 'how we get there matters' slogan. The advice above is geared a lot toward having people clarify their thinking so that they achieve many short term positive feedback 'milestones' that will encourage them to keep on developing instead of giving up in despair. I have seen too many projects lose steam at one point or another.. and I hope that my words serve as a catylst for introspection. The most learning (in my opionion) happens when we push beyond what we know and where we feel comfortable.. and this happens in game projects where things start to fall apart.. being able to get through those tough phases in production is sometimes hard, and there is no recipe for making it work.
On the starving artists comment.. I have been there. Most of my friends from school were at one point or another in the same boat (as was I).. now (10 years later) none of us are starving artists.. in fact, most are employed in the creative field in one form or another and the sentiment of 'as long as I can make a living making art' has faded a bit. I do love the fact that I can make art for a living, and I am aware of how lucky I am and count my blessings often. BUT, it is no longer good enough to just be making art (as in, any art).. self expression becomes paramount, and at least for me.. the need to extend my expression has grown from simple 'pieces' of art to more complex works.. it is no longer on design or one model.. the 'work' has become games.. and series of games.. and games that reflect a certain style that define the identity of our company.. in some ways, the growing of the business is an expression of my desire as an artist to give design coherence to not just what we make, but who we are (in a public perception sense of things).
I am not sure if it is excatly me looking for 'more' or ifit is just me looking for stimulation.. putting my brain to the test to design interesting things.. to be presented with design problems that need solving and applying who I am and what I know to solving them.
To me, game development is about confronting the unknown and, on daily basis, solving the problems that confront one that day. It takes everything I know to navigate this path.. and I find it invigorating.
I am in agreement that this discussion is a good one and it needs more discussion. Money is not the only metric in the measure of success.. we need to explore the many metrics that can be used to define who we are and what we do and why we do it.
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