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Indie RPGs - Different Words of Advice

In a blog on Gamasutra Folmer Kelly has a different take on the several articles with the list of things Indie Devs should be aware of that have popped up in the past and which he thinks are false.

Quote:

I know, I know; you're getting this a lot right now.

"10 tips for aspiring indies!"

"15 hard truths about being an indie dev!"

"8 things they don't tell you in video game school!"

I guess maybe it comes with the time of the year. Best Of lists show up all over the place, the IGF nominations are in, we start looking back and I guess that means we also start looking forward.

Before I released my first game, I used to eat that shit up. I read all of them and I believed every word simply because they were written by people who had done the thing I wanted to do but hadn't. These people were better than me by virtue of having done what to me seemed to be the impossible: They had made a video game. They were gods.

I wasn't going to question gods.

It wasn't just that though. The second part of it is, pretty much all of these articles list the same fucking things. And every time I read them, they became a little more true in my head. The facts cemented, then hardened, then they were stuck. Universal truths.

And that messed me up for a long time. Which brings us to the reason I'm writing this, and I'm hoping that anyone who is looking for "ASPIRING INDIE ADVICE" reads this because I refuse to believe I was the only one who ever fell into this poison mind state, or the only one who ever will.

It messed me up because after I released my first game, and then my second, and then my third, most of the shit I had "learned" turned out to be false. BUT: Because it was all written by people with experience, and because so many of those bullet points and snappy one-liners had been on a constant loop in my mind, I thought the problem was me, the problem was my games. Oh shit, I was making games wrong!

But then after I made my fourth, fifth… I started getting suspicious. And eventually I smashed the shit out of those cemented facts.

More information.

It is the same with almost any 'advice' for creative endeavors. Take it with a huge quantity of salt.

Especially be wary of any advice that gives you definitives - i.e. "you MUST do this" or "this is how long it will take before…"

Be it writing, painting, composing music, making a movie… even creating a video game. There are things that worked for other people, but eventually you will learn what works for you.

I've dabbled in professional writing a bit. I have a novel and short story published on Amazon, B & N, and Smashwords.
In non-fiction, the list article is a standard to grab attention. You see it all over the place. It sends a subtle message to the potential reader that if they follow a series of simple steps, they can easily achieve their goal. Numbers and lists grab attention; 6 this, 10 that, and you're home free. It's largely bullshit to pull in readers and get the writer a payday.

Well, I think there is truth to all of these (well, okay, some might be pure nonsense) lists, but whoever takes them literally, trying to live by them, is doing it very wrong.

I saw the article earlier. The thing is - most of that is still sound advice, just not 100% applicable. I mean, who takes, "Your first 10 games will suck" at literal, face value? The point is - you keep getting better (hopefully), and you can't expect or depend on your first title setting the world on fire.

I pretty much figure every game prior to the one I'm currently working on "sucked" anyway, even if I'm proud of 'em.

I think the main problem in "pursuing your dream" is that you can't see the competitive market and the toughness of the business-until you try it yourself.
you just go about it full throttle ahead, investing very good moeny, energy, skills, learning, and time of course.

and then, only if you truly have competitive skills to match it you can afford to risk your career for it. with a grain of salt.

otherwise, you simply commit suicide on your money and the precious time we have on earth.

I see more the problem that every new article on sites or in magazines seems to be '10 Things Every X Needs to Know!', 'The 5 Things You Should be Doing RIGHT NOW', and so on. These are all just rehash articles tweaked for SEO and hits / cover pull. I have let two magazine subscriptions lapse in the last few months because I am tired of funding the same rotation of the same half-dozen articles just regurgitated and tweaked over and over.

I'd have to agree with txa here.

Everyone is an expert and (almost) no one really knows what they're talking about.

I tend to believe that "true" artists or visionaries follow their hearts - as romantic as that may sound - and they don't give two shits about "guides to success".

If you have talent and you believe in what you're doing - things will work out if you have the stamina to finish your work.