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    No funding, remote work, part-time indie project ? Few advices to survive

    March 25, 2018

    No funding, remote work, part-time indie project ? Few advices to survive

    No funding, remote work, part-time indie project ? Few advices to survive

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 04:20 AM PDT

    Hello reddit !

    I follow a lot of indie game projects, and most of those starting without money & part-time work, fail in the end. I believe they're a few important traps, during the project, but mainly before the project even starts.

    Here is the key learnings I got from finishing my first videogame ever, at 27 yo, after 2 years of work with zero funding, and an (amazing) team working remotely & part-time. We're currently delivering the game for a release in April (Golem Rage).

    I was the game/level designer on it, but more generally in charge of the final result of the game, motivating everyone, organizing workflows, etc.

    A) Get legal help & a legit structure:

    "hey guys, let's start working on this, we'll finalize the details later"

    No.

    You absolutely need to find a secure & professional legal environment for your project. Find a friend, friend of a friend, uncle, work buddy, etc., to get advice or counsel.

    That mainly means:

    1) What type of company you want to create. It's specific for each country. For my project, in France, I chose a structure that gave me very few obligations, the possibility to do freelance contracts on the side, and a lot of freedom to organize my activity (SASU).

    2) Research the type of contract you'll make with all the members in your team. Intellectual property, duration, expected hours of work for each member, etc. You need to cover everything. A contract is about people trusting each other, but making sure no one can abuse his/her position.

    Most projects I see, people wait way too long to finalize this side of the deal. The main consequences are that your team members won't feel bound to the project, won't feel secure, won't know precisely for what they're working, if they're indeed gonna be paid, etc. They also can leave more easily.

    By starting your project with a secure legal environment, everyone will feel way more invested, ready to sacrifice some time, and more generally part of a real team.

    For Golem Rage, we went for a revenue share. Every member started its own "company" (individualized, in French "auto-entrepreneur"), then signed a contract establishing how many hours of weekly work for a % of revenue share.

    B) Quantification. Organization. Planning.

    "hey guys, don't worry, we'll get a more precise view of the project once we start working on it"

    No.

    You may dislike to organize stuff too precisely. I did. Change, now. People loose around 40% of their productivity when there is no roadmap. The planning is going to change, sometimes it won't feel precise at all. Do your best to update it accurately. From time to time, reset everything and start with a new clean one.

    To do that, you'll need to do the most important thing: finalize your goddamn game design document. That means listing EVERYTHING in your game. You may focus on your core game, that's a mistake. You need to quantify how many menus, UI elements, animations, dialogs, cinematics, story events, etc. EVERYTHING.

    You need to start your project with the most precise, complete roadmap possible. And an "End date". It won't be accurate during all the project. Damn, it won't be accurate from the start. Doesn't matter. It's here for anyone in the project to know there is a final goal to their work & sacrifices.

    C) Don't hire friends. Don't be too nice. Don't apologize.

    "hey, sorry to disturb you, but I needed that asset last week, any chance you worked on it ?"

    No.

    The project is going to be hard. First 3 months are fun. Then everybody is tired. Everybody has always something better to do than working on an unpaid project. I found it way harder to work with people you know. Because when things get tough, you need to remain professional, confront people to their obligations to the project, have hard talks sometimes. Not all friends can understand that. Don't let emotions get in the way: they're beautiful, and seem like a good way to motivate people, but too dangerous to use. In the end, people don't really care, unless they feel responsible. And that's way easier to achieve through a professional relationship.

    You're going to ask people, repeatedly, to sacrifice time to work on an unsure thing. Try not to feel guilty, keep your dream in mind. Remember everybody said yes to work on this, and that it's your job to remind them.

    D) Divide the pie. Keep a margin of adjustment.

    "I don't care about money, everyone should get the same"

    No.

    Being a part of the Y-generation BS, I know that we all want equality & fair share. We're wrong. The truth is: during the project, you'll observe how some people take charge, and other not doing anything if you didn't pave the way for them. You'll also observe that certain tasks are taking longer, are more difficult, or need more rework than others.

    You should distribute revenue shares based on time spent on the project only. For example: Code takes longer than art (from what I observed): attribute more revenue share to the devs. You cannot afford to reward skill, or anything else. In an unpaid project, the biggest sacrifice people need to make is their time. Reward this only. And, because you never know who's going to leave you, loose motivation, become a parent (happened to me 3 times), or move to other things: put in contract the lowest % of revenue share possible, and add the option to increase it (like +0.5%) for every month spent on the project.

    If you divide the pie with only raw fairness in mind, here's what will happen : - people who're not autonomous won't change, and won't produce more. They'll be overpaid & happy. - people naturally taking things in charge will be frustrated, disappointed they're not rewarded for their extra commitment. Loose - loose.

    E) Get personal with strangers.

    "Hey man, how've you been ? How's the family ?"

    Yes.

    You're going to gather a team of people who don't know you, don't know each other. Human beings don't like that. If you're an introvert, shy, or a bit autistic (I have been all 3), work on yourself and get out there. Your team will need to talk. They'll need to hear story & updates about what other members are doing. They won't necessarily communicate between each other, a lot of info is going through you only. Because you're the "boss", even if unpaid. Try to abolish this barrier.

    You need to embody the spirit of your team. Talk about you, talk with them, talk about personal stuff. If the only time they see a message from you, it's about work, you won't create a solid team spirit.

    In my case, I ended up making .. friends :) After working all this time together, we know & respect each other.

    And that's it!

    There'd be a lot of other stuff to share, but these points are more about having the good mindset, from the start. I didn't have it when I began this project, I learned it on the spot. The worst mistake possible is to think that creating a video game is only cool. It's not, at all :) But it can be way cooler if you build the good spirit around it.

    Hope that'll be useful to someone, sometimes!

    submitted by /u/WhiskyGolem
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    A 6 part video series was just released about different indie game studios, hosted by the guy who made Hidden Folks

    Posted: 24 Mar 2018 10:31 PM PDT

    Unreal Engine Tutorial - Soft Shadows In Dynamic Lighting

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 05:26 AM PDT

    I really need your help more experienced Unity developers :/

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 08:46 AM PDT

    Hello. I would like to share a problem with you that might kill my project and I have no idea what to do. I have checked quality/graphics/player settings and compared them to empty new projects and even if everything is the same the problem still persists.

    The problem is detail meshes. If I add my own custom detail mesh to my existing project it will be invisible/transparent. if I add it inside the fresh project it shows up fine and everything is good. I will ofcourse add pictures.

    https://imgur.com/a/VGSmo

    There must be something wrong with the project not the terrain because I created a new terrain inside the existing project and I could not draw details on it either.

    I am ready to transfer everything to a new fresh project but it would be better if I just fixed this problem. Basically none of the detail meshes I import work inside the current project except the 2d ones. I will be forever gratefull to the person who can help :)

    submitted by /u/SnorlaxFromSpace
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    Daily Doodles: free to use (CC0) pixel art minipack

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 10:02 AM PDT

    CC0 Licensed game music.

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 06:48 AM PDT

    Unity for beginner then Unreal after mastering Unity?

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 07:54 AM PDT

    I've heard over and over again that Unity is way more beginner friendly and is alot simpler than UE4. In which, it's recommended for new game devs that simply wana learn for the time being. Anyone knows if it's a good strategy to start with Unity then migrate to UE4 later for more intense graphics and such. or am i gona have to relearn the engine all over again with no background carried over from Unity?

    submitted by /u/bader871
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    Evolving Unity - GDC Talk

    Posted: 24 Mar 2018 11:41 PM PDT

    VR Developers of reddit. What have you released and how has it done?

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 09:58 AM PDT

    VR Developers of reddit. What games have you released and how has it said game done? On what platform did you release? How much time was spent on said game? Intrested in how VR is doing from a software side.

    It feels like I see so many VR games come out and intrested in seing how they do. You don't hear about any of them except the bigger ones. I'd love to see a link to the game as well if you'd like to share your work! :)

    I'd love to here how Playstation VR holds up agaist the PC side of VR aswell. Thanks! :)

    submitted by /u/BestZorro
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    Sharing the experience of meeting with companies interested in Godot Engine during GDC 2018

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 10:33 AM PDT

    How to build a portfolio for a gameplay programming job in AAA

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 08:40 AM PDT

    Hi! I hve released a couple of simple games for mobile so far and I would like to land a job as gameplay programmer in the AAA game industry. I'm already learning Unreal Engine 4 but I would love to have some ideas and suggestions to build myself a nice portfolio to show to recruiters. Can you please help?

    submitted by /u/oxfordanalytica2
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    Any tips for an indie game patreon?

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 07:36 AM PDT

    Hi Everybody! I am a game programmer that always worked in somebody else projects and a year ago i started my own game in my spare times (that luckily its enough to see progress weekly). First the game started as a proc gen learning project but it started to scalate quickly and became a full game project. It is in very early stages but started to show potential, so i decided to create a patreon for it. The problem is i have no idea of community managment in this kind of media, somebody have tips? Know where to publish the patreon?

    Heres the patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/nicolasborromeo

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/borro56
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    250,000 subscribers! (and subreddit stats)

    Posted: 24 Mar 2018 06:55 PM PDT

    Hi everyone,

    Looks like we hit a quarter million subscribers right as GDC was coming to a close!

    And so uh, woo! Big numbers! Yay!

    In case anyone cares about these things, here are the subreddit traffic stats as of 2018/03/24.

    On another note, our official Discord recently passed 1,000 concurrent users! If you haven't already, be sure to check it out. It's a great place to show off your work, share feedback, ask technical questions and discuss gamedev life!

    submitted by /u/kiwibonga
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    Production Empire - Delivery System test 1

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 11:46 AM PDT

    Looking for a way to creating quality GUI in Java.

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 11:43 AM PDT

    I wrote a text based Rogue Lite in Java and want to implement a GUI. I tried making one in JavaFX but it's hard to manage popup windows and has some frustrating build in functions.

    I was wondering if there's another way that doesn't include Swing/JavaFX? Anyone has suggestions, how do Java developers go about developing GUI?

    Here is a preview of what I'm trying to make: https://imgur.com/a/IiZx3

    submitted by /u/Ratchetar
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    Implementing ECS architecture in UE4. Giant space battle.

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 11:34 AM PDT

    Do you celebrate when you launch?

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 11:18 AM PDT

    We (3 people team) launched a game on friday(nothing big, a mobile infinite runner game). And we had some kind of a launch party - some booze, some awesome food made by us with a Firebase map on the TV - even tho it never really reached more than 5 people. We even 3d printed a launch button http://prntscr.com/iw74zn Overall we had an amazing time, even tho downloads were just a few.

    So wondering, do you celebrate launch days? What are some of your traditions to do on them? How do you - solo game makers celebrate a game launch? Or do you celebrate launches at all? Share some pictures and experiences!

    submitted by /u/Huseens
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    Help with level system

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 11:10 AM PDT

    So I have been developing a game that involves defending a planet from asteroids. It will have 11 ships. Right now it's just an arcade game. Screenshots: https://twitter.com/IvanLudvigDev/status/977287258402426881?s=20 The problem is that I don't know how to do the level and upgrade system. I have come up with an idea of creating your own solar system and defending it (maybe even multiplayer). But on the other hand it'll be difficult and I don't really know about the upgrade system. For example how should the player earn ingame currency? Do I need to limit the ammo? What characteristics can be upgraded in a planet?

    submitted by /u/IvanLudvig
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    Searching for resources for UI Game Programmers

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 10:57 AM PDT

    Hey game devs!

    As our game studio is quite young, we are still improving by experience. I am an experienced programmer, but not in game dev field. I was assigned to be UI programmer in our studio.

    For now I only found some general books regarding entire Game Development process - which were indeed nice reads. I shuold mention that they indeed also mention UI part inbetween those chapters.

    However, I am seeking some resouces which really are only about UI/UX in game development from PROGRAMMING perspective. There are different approaches, I assume, that is why I would like to do some theory reading to see which would suit us best.

    Stuff like how to connect code with UI elements, what are best practices, how to improve performance, how to reduce VRAM stress with good Resource Management,... can some of mobile architectures be applied in game dev, like MVP ?

    I appreciate direct answers from your experience. However, I would love to get hands on some good book to read it through at my own pace.

    NOTE: We are using C++ proprietary game engine.

    submitted by /u/-MarkOfCain-
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    /r/gamedesign discussion crosspost: How do you Solo-Devs about finding or conceiving an Art Style for Concepts that you come up with? Any resources to learn more about "Art Styles" in general?.

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 04:52 AM PDT

    what KPI's should i measure in mobile game,do i need implement simple solution?

    Posted: 25 Mar 2018 02:28 AM PDT

    Hello
    i want to measure KPI's in simple casual mobile game both in Android and Ios .
    First Question :
    what should i measure?
    Second question :
    do i need to implement my own simple http server that will get requests from my game from different points ? or there is already SaaS free solution out there that do it in easy why ?

    Thanks !

    submitted by /u/umen
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