In the age we live in, anyone can be an artist. Anyone could write the next best selling book, film the next festival award winning flick, or make the next big indie game. With the tools available, it’s no longer about who you know or making connections, it’s just about making art. Despite that, just because you can make a video game by yourself, does that mean you should?
Efficiency
Right off the bat, you have to realize that making videogames takes time. A full time Triple-A game studio filled with hundreds of people take on average about two years to make large scale videogames, often times even longer. The amount of total man hours put into a videogame is absolutely colossal.
While most people realize this, I feel that most don’t translate what it means to indie games. Indie games might seem easier and quicker to make, but if you’re an indie, there’s a good chance that it might not be your full time job. Think about everything you do in a week- think about how many hours a week you would actually be able to spend on making your videogame. If you are making a game on your own and have other commitments, or even if you don’t, you will need to sacrifice many things to fit in the hours your game development requires.
Because of this, even the simplest of game projects can end up stalling and taking up years of your life. One person doing art, programming, and design is an absurd workload. By teaming up with others who have the required skills, the workload can be split and your game can actually be made on an efficient timeline. Our lives are only so long, make the most of it.
Marketing
The skillsets behind making a game are often different from selling one. While the heart of indie studios lie with self-publishing and self-marketing, it can be intimidating for a single person. Your game will not get famous overnight, and you will need to put in effort to get it noticed. Without marketing experience or business knowledge, it can be daunting and frustrating.
As such, it is useful to either have a marketing specialist on your team, or to seek third party consultation. If you manage to reach out and make friends with other developers, there is always the option of cross-promotion. Even if you made your game by yourself, having other people to help with publicity is vital to getting noticed.
Games Need an Audience
This brings us to the absolute most important part of making a game- it cannot be done alone. Stay with me here for a second. Think about the reasons why marketing is important. At the end of the day you want people to play your game, and marketing is one of the ways to facilitate that. Marketing isn’t the full picture however, and the other side of it is your audience.
Every successful game out there has a passionate and dedicated fan base. Games do well because your audience makes them such. If you make a videogame without your audience in mind, expecting no-one to play it, then what is the purpose of the game?
Only when people play a game does it have worth, and people are required to play your game. You can make, publish, and sell a game by yourself, but you cannot make it successful on your own. Acknowledge, reach out, and get to know your audience. Learn what they like, what they dislike, and build up a good rapport with them. Especially in indie games, your audience are your stockholders. You never burn your stockholders.
Conclusion
While it might seem promising to cash into the “self-made” craze, take a look at the reality. Most individual project fail. You need other people in some form. Don’t let this discourage you though, use it to your advantage. The barrier to entry is still more accessible than ever, just don’t go it alone. Make friends. Talk to people. Learn to be able to rely on others. Keep this in mind and your game can make a real difference.
Special thanks to our team for authoring this article.
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I disagree with most parts of this post. Have fun going at it alone if that’s what you like =) That’s what I love to do and it’s possible to succeed as long as you don’t try to make games that do require teams or huge amount of effort or time. Doing it all by yourself requires a wide range of skills though so it’s not for everyone. It also depends on what drives you to make games – whether you are in it to make a living out of it or just to have fun.
Thank you for the comment Stefan!
We by no means want to dissuade people from making games on their own.
Instead, we hoped to remind people to think about their audience. One might be able to make a good game, but it’s your audience which makes it a successful game.
Make a game by yourself, but remember to reach out to your community and keep them involved!
“In the age we live in, anyone can be an artist. Anyone could write the next best selling book, film the next festival award winning flick, or make the next big indie game.”
I agree, talk to ANYONE you know. Get them to help you even a little bit and your chances to succeeded will increase. All it takes is a good learner with a drive to win to help your game gain some traction. It’s hard alone, take any help you can get. It might not be much but it’s something after all.
But the solo man can get it done too. He just has to become a John Carmack or Markus Persson I suppose. The super leetz will always be the leetzorz amirite, sounds decent at least.
Bad bad bad post. Next time, try using data to back up your defeatist assertions.
Hey there Shudda! There’s nothing defeatist about our message- you can make a game by yourself, but even without a team, you still need people to play it!
The title is a bit misleading but we don’t hope to discourage solo developers. Too often many developers strive to make a game “by themselves.” In order to make a good game, sometimes you have to talk to people.
You need to ask questions, have a friendly conversation, or listen to player feedback. Basically- don’t be afraid to ask others for help.
Don’t give up on making a game by yourself, but don’t forget to make connections within the industry and within your consumer base!