Prev/Next Blog
by date

Check Out My "Make It Big In Games" Blog

Name:	Jeff Tunnell
Date Posted:	Feb 02, 2006
Rating:	4.2 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Jeff Tunnell

Blog post

Make It Big In Games

My new blog, Make It Big In Games, has been up for several weeks now, but I have not officially announced it here on GarageGames. I wanted to build up a bunch of articles before I launched, but yesterday several big blogs like Major Nelson and XBox Circle picked it up, so I decided to tell you all about it, too.

I decided to write a blog outside of GarageGames for several reasons, but the biggest reason is to bring more people to the GG site. Another reason is that running a server with dedicated blogging software is a little more flexible than our .plan/blog service here on GarageGames. Lastly, using my blog outside of GG gives me a chance to have a little more independence from the GG message as well as have more credibility with the blogosphere community. I don't want MBG to just be a mouthpiece, corporate blog for GG, and I want the freedom to rant a little if need be. Joel Spolsky's www.joelonsoftware.com blog is a great example of what I am trying to do. I will always cross post my MBG articles here when they are appropriate. Likewise, many times when I need to just talk to the GG community, there will be posts that are GG-only.

Please continue to post your .plan/blogs here at GarageGames. You will get a lot more reads, more comments, and it keeps the GG community alive. I know many of you have blogs outside of the GG service and cross post into here. That is a good method.

Content of Make It Big In Games

MBG will be all about the games industry, but mostly about the Indie side of it. It has been long time since I have worked in the major studio environment, so I will refrain from advice on how to get into this industry, how to succeed there, or what they should be doing. This is convenient because, obviously, I think the heat in the games business is going to come from Indies.

So, MBG will be all about helping you get into the business, strategies for surviving, how to find and build a team, what kind of products could be successful, and even ideas on how to market and sell your products. I will give nuts and bolts, real numbers information as well as provide cheer leading from the sidelines. Eventually, I would like to pull a bunch of the articles together and make a free eBook, which can be widely distributed around the web and in print. Maybe a string of those eBooks will eventually make it into a printed book?? That would be very cool.

For the future there are a couple of things that would help me...

First, while I have created my own editorial schedule and ideas for subject matter, I would like to know what you would like me to cover. Please comment below, and I will add to my schedule. Also, I would like to have some idea of the order I should tackle these articles, so include that too.

Second, I would like to start profiling successful Indies, so if you want to be profiled, or know of somebody that should be, or want a profile of a certain company/individual, let me know via comments or email.

Third, help me promote and build an audience for this blog. It is human nature to want to know that what you are doing is either successful (by shear numbers) or appreciated. Yesterday, I got both, and it felt awesome. I got about 3,400 visitors, 30 comments on one article, and the comments in the links back were very encouraging. Now I need to keep it up.

Ways that you can help me promote this blog would be to include links on your websites, tell your friends, write about it in forums, etc. Another big thing would be to submit it to www.digg.com and have enough people "digg it" to make the front page. A similar thing can happen with del.icio.us. If somebody Tags it on delicious, then more people tag it, the site goes on the delicious "popular" page which gets a ton of traffic.

Lastly, if you don't know what RSS is, you should do a little research and start using it. Go to www.bloglines.com, sign up for a free account, and start "subscribing" to web feeds. Look for the little orange XML tag or look for links that say syndicate or subscribe to blog feeds. Then go to MBG and subscribe to my blog and you will get automatic updates any time I post a new article.

I look forward to discussing the things you all want to learn about.

-Jeff Tunnell, GG
Make It Big In Games

Recent Blog Posts

List:	10/17/08 - Don't Fear the Economy 06/13/08 - The "Better Assholes" Clause 06/09/08 - Working For Big Publishers 06/02/08 - First Day Of The Rest Of My Life 05/29/08 - Make It Big In Games Call For Help 05/15/08 - An Itch That Can't Be Scratched 12/20/07 - Blog O Fix 10/09/07 - Acquisition Fun!

Submit your own resources!

Simon Love (Feb 02, 2006 at 20:49 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I think with your notoriety and knowledge, you should definitely write an article about what indie game dev is NOT About. So many beginners start out with delusions of grandeur, and end up with unfinished projects. I know it has been done to death a thousand times, but I think you should use the opportunity to offer them realistic goals...be it GID's, some form of small games contest.

Just my two cents. I totally enjoy your blog (even though it only has two entries so far) and I think your unique point of view might be a big help to many would-be indies.

John McArthur (Feb 02, 2006 at 21:17 GMT)

I think theres this idea that if its fun, it must also be easy. I always giggle at people who take up surfing, motocross, or golfing (sports Ive had a couple years experience with) and they think they will be kickn azz the first day out! Next day comes around and its like, 'wow, I couldnt even paddle out...the waves just kept coming in,' or 'wow, its hard to hit that golf ball...straight no less.' Does anyone expect to be a pro at something like being an electrician, or a carpinter right off, I doubt it.

(Link is fixed, nevermind.)
- John
Edited on Feb 02, 2006 21:22 GMT

Tom Bentz (Feb 02, 2006 at 22:08 GMT)

I'm at a point where I'm trying to think about what kind of game to make. I would like to know what type(s) of casual games are hot and how many units are being sold. I think it would be cool to talk about the games that GarageGames sells and maybe others that you have a good understanding on. What you and consumers think that works really well on games, as well as what you think doesn't work well, what consumers don't like. I think that understanding why an indie game sells is very important as well as why it doesn't sell.

In a nutshell I guess just a good understanding of the casual games market and also a review on games for their fundamental concepts for people trying to understand what works and what doesnt. That would help me right now.

This is a cool idea Jeff...
Edited on Feb 02, 2006 22:15 GMT

Jeff Gran (Feb 02, 2006 at 22:42 GMT)

Jeff

I've been reading your blogs and I think it's a great thing you're doing - your insight is always interesting to me and invaluable to the community at large. I can't think of any specific questions for you at the moment - but it's obvious that you're coming at this new venture of yours with a great fervor, and that's really all I could ask for. When it comes from deep down it always comes out good. Looking forward to seeing where you take us with this. That's what it is: you're taking the flag and leading the charge. :)

Jeff

David House (Feb 02, 2006 at 22:49 GMT)

Jeff, I'm very interested in the advice for finding/building a team. I'm just a lone developer and realize that without an artist i'm not going very far. I'd also like to hear more about what types of games you think are going to make it.

Martin "Founder" Hoover (Feb 02, 2006 at 22:51 GMT)

I think an important topic to be covered (similar to what Simon is suggesting) is how to make a practicle game design that indies can actually finish. I personally believe that the #1 reason you aren't seeing many new indie games, is that a small group will get together with ambitions to create a game that would take 20 people 2 years to make. As the development process drags on and on and on, they become frustrated at the lack of progress, and eventually give up on it. You really have to _love_ what you are doing if you're going to spend all your spare time on it, but it also really helps when the finish line doesn't look impossibly far away.

This is covered in the newer introduction to the TGE documentation, but I think it's important enough that more indies, or potential indies should see it, especially coming from a person who's been there.

Jeremy Alessi (Feb 03, 2006 at 01:12 GMT)

This will really help a lot of people I'm sure! I'll be thinking of whatever input I can offer!

Anton Bursch (Feb 03, 2006 at 02:49 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Life is boring. Nothing interesting ever happens. I wish I could find something to feel some excitement about. Nothing worth living for. Nothing worth hoping for. Nothing worth working for. If only there were some kind of opportunity to do something worth just waking up in the morning for. Sigh. So very bored.

- words never spoken by an active member of the GarageGames community
Edited on Feb 03, 2006 02:50 GMT

abc (Feb 03, 2006 at 06:23 GMT)

I would love to see something reflective that compared the game industry in general when you first started your career to today's indie environment. Many aspiring developers around my age grew up as players in that era of gaming and could draw a lesson from knowing what factors led to profitable titles then vs. now. I think a lot could be said about the level of professionalism and expectations for quality, available skills, tools and technology, developer-publisher relationships, working environment etc. and it would directly bring out some of your experience to do a compare and contrast to clarify what lessons from the "old days" still apply. Any sort of historical perspective is sure to draw interest.

Phil Carlisle (Feb 03, 2006 at 10:18 GMT)

My question would really be about the business side of things I guess. How far do you think an indie should take a relationship with portal sites and wether you regard that as the best route to market.

In addition and as kind of a side-kick to that question.

How do you handle the time involvements when handling the dealings with publishers, partners, externals and such, especially considering there are so many risky partnerships (I'm thinking of the constant offers you must get to partner with people youve never heard of and they want to basically profit from you without paying etc). I.e. how to spot a "good" deal/partner from a bad one I guess.

My other request is really that you just maybe look at some games you like and describe why you think they in particular are worthy of interest. What you think makes a game stand out.

So part biz, part design is my request :)

Great stuff though Jeff, it'll be great for other people to learn from you like I have, its just a pity we cant all learn more often.

Phil.

Chris Labombard (Feb 03, 2006 at 12:32 GMT)

I just want to know how to build my games into something I can survive off of. There has to be a strategy that has some kind of success rate or good logic behind it.

Michael Cozzolino (Feb 03, 2006 at 16:22 GMT)

I'm really interested in finding out how to find and build a team. Outsourcing pros/cons and how to get potential team members to buy into your idea as far as presenting it. What should a good prototype consist of besides being fun in order to get others seriously interested?

Jeff Tunnell (Feb 03, 2006 at 21:05 GMT)

Cool stuff! Keep it coming. My last article now has close to 40 comments, and many of those were great fodder for future articles.
Edited on Feb 03, 2006 21:06 GMT

Andy Schatz (Feb 03, 2006 at 22:03 GMT)

I've also been thinking of starting an external blog. Blogging here on GG gets a ton of exposure (in fact, you can trace all the business deals and media coverage of Venture Africa back to some early blog posts I made here) but I'd like to be able to post into the general blogosphere. I think that many people enjoy my infrequent posts here, but probably not enough for me to draw a significant audience to another site on my own.

I'd like to start a blog site with a few other top-notch indie developers so that we could get more frequent content updates and visitors. The only problem is that all the software out there is for individual bloggers, not blogging communities. In fact, I registered gamedevblogs.net a while ago, but I have yet to do anything about it.

At any rate, I'm sure you'll have fun blogging off in your own sphere, and I certainly envy the traffic you are capable of generating!

Phil Carlisle (Feb 03, 2006 at 23:02 GMT)

Andy, blogger powered blogs allow you to have multiple posters to a single blog (at least i think they do). I'm sure wordpress or the rest would.

I wouldnt mind posting to a professional indie blog site thingy.. I can never sustain enough writing to my own site.

Dee (Feb 04, 2006 at 15:43 GMT)

Definitely interested in:
- What type of game genre is most popular amongst casual gamers
- real average estimated timelines on development of these types of games, from those who have successfully shipped
- average support and maintenance requirements of shipped games
- average team sizes for those who have shipped games
- views on 'copy cat' ideas, i.e. similar ideas presented/developed with reasonable differences
- suggested negotiation concepts/guidelines with team members, publishers
- suggested marketing/communication strategies, before shipping
- ideas/suggestions on rollback of profits into development of future projects

Kirk Haynes (Mar 06, 2006 at 17:55 GMT)

MBIG - Makin it Big In Games. I think having the BIG in the initials helps!

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.