The Independent View by Dan MacDonald
Passion before Profitability (June 24,
2005)
The Independent game development sector is growing rapidly and attracting new developers. Repeatedly the question gets asked "should I make something I like, or something more casual?" This is a revealing question for a number of reasons, for one it reveals that the developer is not really interested in making casual games. Secondly it alludes to the source of renewed interest in independent game development: developers want to create games that interest them but they also want to make some money in the process.
The scenario is common: a tired developer from the industry who is looking to put his passion into a game he loves, or a college student who isn’t going to wait for the industry to give him a job before he starts making games, discovers independent game development. Being resourceful and motivated, they do a lot of research looking over the downloadable games space and find that it is dominated by huge sites selling games to mass market audiences. So they sit back and ponder the multiplayer shooter or adventure game they had planned and their earning potential. They think to themselves “should I make something I like, or something more casual?”
There are many ways to address this question: from a commercial standpoint, a marketing standpoint, or, as in this column, from a practical standpoint. Making a game is a long and arduous affair. Generally the most exciting and enjoyable code to write is at the beginning, all the architecting and designing, all the core technology is written up front. The rest is pretty mindless tweaking of elements, special cases, polishing UI and weird quirks exposed by level design. This is one of the main reasons why so few projects that are started get finished. When the project starts to drag and there isn’t the excitement there once was, the only thing that will motivate the unpaid independent is some unshakeable reason to continue working.
As a rule of thumb if a developer measures the time it takes them to get a functional level of the game implemented, just the core gameplay, it will take them triple that amount of time to produce something that resembles a complete game. If they want to polish and refine it into a good seller it can take four to five times as long as it took to get the core gameplay mechanics implemented. In all honesty after the core systems are in place much of the “exciting” programming has been completed and the rest is tedium.
The downloadable games industry has become incredibly competitive in recent years, especially the casual games space that has gained a lot of visibility. Large publicly traded companies and startups with venture capital now target the space. To the lone developer there is still a chance to be competitive but it is very slim. Most face the prospect of not braking even on their game if by some miracle they manage to complete it. For a talented developer there are so many other options for making money that are less challenging than independent game development. If making a quick buck off casual games is their only motivation to complete the game then new independent developers will find they quickly loose motivation to work on their game when weeks stretch into months and the prospect of breaking even seems to be accelerating away into the distance.
In short the answer to the question “should I make something I like, or something more casual” is, “make something you care about first and foremost.” When push comes to shove and the end seems so far away, you need a game that you are passionate about beyond potential monetary rewards. With no paycheck and no manager leaning over your shoulder, getting things done needs to come from within instead of from without. For first time independents, picking a game they are passionate about is paramount. There are so many hard lessons to learn, trying to maintain motivation should not be one of them.
Take the lessons learned from casual games, an accessible, polished user interface, a shallow learning curve, and high replayability. These are assets to any application and adhering to them will increase the probability of making a game that sells. The point is, pick a game you are passionate about and then find a way to sell it. Do not make the mistake of picking a game you think you can sell and then trying to be passionate about it. The latter is a recipe for burnout and abandoned projects. Do what you love and you will find that you will be more successful than if you do what you think will make you money. This is true in virtually all areas of life.
