I Am the Cheapest Bastard in Indie Games
Previous discussion (Δt ≈ 12 hrs):
For years I have heard that being a game developer is a miserable job, with long hours not matched by an adequate pay.
Does somebody have an explanation for such cut-throat industry? Software development generally offers good jobs, so why isn’t that true for game development?
The possible explanation is the race to the bottom to offer games for cheap or free, as the article mentions. But then, why does that happen in games? There is plenty of software orders of magnitude simpler than games that gets sold for much higher prices.
What am I missing?
I've been a full-time indie developer for four years now, and it is tough. I don't know if it's that much tougher than most other small businesses, I have friends who are dairy farmers, structural engineering contractors, graphics designers, an itinerant preacher or two... they've all got tough aspects to their respective professions, in some ways they're easier than mine, and in others way, way harder (I don't have to maintain the health of three to four hundred cows, for example.)
What I appreciate about Jeff's blogging over the years is his focus on sticking to a secret sauce, his is clearly an ability to put together classical RPG's with lovely writing. The reason I've been able to be a full-time indie is that I do both all the programming and all the art (painting/animating/modelling/etc) (As an example, I'm currently working on: https://store.steampowered.com/app/654960/The_Eldritch_Zooke...). The fact that I need to sell half the copies than a team or two is, it turns out, a massive advantage. That, and the specific voice I bring to the writing/design of the games, helps keep me going, and selling copies in a competitive environment that's shifted a lot since I started in 2015.
Finding that secret sauce, that niche, I think that's pretty important.
Discussion last night on the same post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20804998
He already claims to hire freelancers from places where the USD is more expensive, so I don't see why he hasn't considered just allocating his art budget into hiring one person from these places? Personally I can tell you that there are many places where 40k is more than enough to live very comfortably for way over 20 months.
I'm guessing the logistics of hiring someone internationally make that unfeasible? Maybe some sort of partnership could work? I'm not familiar enough with the legal caveats there
How many times is this person going to repeat that his games look bad because he can’t afford to make them look good? We know! We know!!