More than one way to make it as an indy..

Corey Martin — 2007-12-16T15:43:21+00:00

I've recently gotten into what I can only describe as the best game evar. The name of it is Dwarf Fortress. The premise of the game is that you are the expedition leader of a group of dwarves, with the goal of building and maintaining a prosperous fortress outpost. You must rely on the resources of the land and the skills of your comrades to amass your fortunes and defend from hostile attacks by orcs and kobolds (as well as the odd wolf, elephant, killer carp, hydra, titan, megademon, etc.), all the while keeping your dwarves happy, productive and well fed. Honestly, the depth and detail of this game defies a simple summarized paragraph. Here's a (small) snippet from the 'Features' section of the home page:

Quote:

# Command your dwarves as they search for wealth in the mountain.

* Craft treasures and furniture from many materials and improve these objects with precious metals, jewels and more.
* Defend yourself against attacks from hostile civilizations, the wilderness and the depths.
* Support the nobility as they make demands of your populace.
* Keep your dwarves happy and read their thoughts as they work and relax.
* Z coordinate allows you to dig out fortresses with multiple levels. Build towers or conquer the depths.
* Build floodgates to divert water for farming or to drown your adversaries.

The entire game uses an ASCII interface (although fan made graphic tiles are available), and borrows much from the roguelike genre. In fact, the game includes an 'Adventurer' mode which plays like a straightforward roguelike, though the meat of the game is still the 'Fortress' mode.

What does this have to do with making it as an indy? Weelllll..

This game is easily one of the most detailed, complex games i've ever played. Given this, it is also one of the least buggy games i've ever played with its degree of depth. And it's only in 'Alpha phase' to boot! Oh, and did I mention it's free (as in beer)? That's right, this game has been in development for *years*, truly a labor of love, and yet its free for anyone to download and spend hours upon hours utterly enjoying. So how can the developer, Bay 12 Games (a one man show, might I add), be considered a successful indy? The game is so good, and so well liked by its fan base, the players are literally taking it upon themselves to organize donation pools which go directly to the developer. I know what you're thinking.. "Donations are great and all, but people aren't going to just cough up enough donations to make this sort of long term development worth while versus a casual game with a focused audience and a shortened development cycle". Well, lets take a look at some figures:

2007 Donations, July to November

November Donations: $4079.43
October Donations: $3360.12
September Donations: $1363.63
August Donations: $1823.48
July Donations: $1104.20

5 month Total: $11,730.86
Avg/Month: $2,346.17

Keep in mind, this is with no advertising or marketing, thats all done via word of mouth.

While I would not assert that this would be a viable route for other indy's, it is certainly an interesting case; This sort of success story relies entirely on the quality of the product.

The importance of reflection

Corey Martin — 2006-10-01T03:25:10+00:00

Organization, persistance, and endurance are typically my weakpoints when it comes to development. I have a virtual graveyard of projects that never got completed, but each time I failed to bring a project to fruition, I feel like I learned a lesson. One of the lessons i've learned is that it pays to keep lots of notes. Goals, ideas, thoughts, everything. To that end, I decided to start keeping a journal detailing the progress of my current progress, tentatively titled TD Invasion. It's helped out a lot, so far, and i'd reccomend that anyone at least try and keep up something similar for their own projects. I've been using the Google page creator, if only just for ease and simplicities sake.

The journal is here if anyone cares to see an example of what i'm babbling about.

And the obligatory image:

Blog for Corey Martin at GarageGames.com

More than one way to make it as an indy..

The importance of reflection