You're Not a Solo Dev and You Can't Make a Game on Your Own
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ธ.ค. 2022
- Hey Everybody,
Today I am making a little bit of a different video than I normally do. Throughout my involvement with game development I have gotten to know the indie dev community pretty well. Almost every developer I’ve met that’s working on an indie game has been a solo developer. But there seems to be a common sentiment from a vocal minority that’s within this community. What's this idea you’re probably wondering, well it’s the belief that “You must make every aspect of your game by yourself”. And if you don’t make everything on your own, your game is somehow not worthy.
So today I’m going to be discussing this topic and revealing indie development’s biggest lie.
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References:
Stardew Valley developer is an Auburn native - KING 5 Evening
• Stardew Valley develop...
Why nobody knows how to make a pencil
ddcolrs.wordpress.com/2015/09...
I, Pencil: My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read
www.econlib.org/library/Essay...
I, Pencil the movie
• I, Pencil: The Movie
Thomas Paine Quote
/ he-who-dares-not-offen...
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Spire on Steam
store.steampowered.com/app/22...
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This is really good advice to manage scope, why are the dislikes so salty?? Do some devs have a weird complex about being self made 100% solo talent or something?
I agree with the premise of the video, but saying that making anything with any tool (Engine/IDE/Computer/Transistors/Hammer) means that you didn't "make it on your own" is quite the stretch.
Seriously. People who cry over asset flipping, or even simple outsourcing for code or artwork are just sad. They might as well say, "You didn't mine the gold, copper, lithium, iron, or silicon that goes into your pc and its batteries", so you didn't make your indie game solo since someone else had to do all that and you used a pc to make it. Hur hur. pwned.
The problem with using (aesthetic) paid assets isn't that the developer is being "lazy" or anything like that, it's that the identity of your game could be cheapened by anyone else using those same assets in their games. Many developers will deem this a worthwhile trade-off, but it's a trade-off nonetheless.
If everything done specifically for a game was done by yourself, then you are the solo dev of that game. Bought assets? Solo dev. Hired someone? Not solo dev. Unless of course it involves things the dev simply can't ever do. Like voice acting for multiple voices.
I think people who are disliking you are people not understanding what you're saying or gamers/new indie devs who think they know what you're talking about
Ok, then. Who should go into the credits then? Do play testers qualify? Does a friend that gives you 5% of the ideas count? etc ?
no matter what you say, minecraft is childs play next to chris's sawyer roller coaster tycoon, made this game alone, with assembly !
The feeling of "I must make every single little asset for my game or I'm a fraud" is definitely not a healthy mindset for a solo dev. Assets are your friend and can really speed things up. I tend to make original assets for things I feel are important to the identity of the game or a specific area, such as background art, tile sets, music, and character sprites. However, I rely on assets for more generic things that I feel don't feel really affect the game as much but are still a necessity. Some examples would be certain sound effects (explosions, gun shots, foot steps) and visual effects (particle bursts, impact animations, elemental animations like fire/water/lightning). I'm not saying those elements can't be made to really stand out, but for me it makes more sense to save time by using assets for things that just need serve a specific function.
I think this obsession with making everything yourself has been very unhealthy for the gamedev community and has done way more harm than good. It's important to choose things that you want to be your own and focus on those. Compromise everything else because I'd rather play a good game than a "unique" game.
Couldn't agree more. Seems like every dev posting their first game on reddit gets downvoted to he11 or gets called out for being an asset flipper.
I don't care what tools you used, how many paid or free assets you have, or the amount of copypasta in your code. If you're the only person on your team, you're doing it by yourself.
I get comments about using assets for my project from time to time. They are saying stuff like your game should be called War of assets which sounds like my efforts are worthless. They have no idea that I almost have been working 3-4 hours everyday after my day job for the past 3 years, stay home for the weekend so that I can have a full day to work on the project. Thank you so much for sharing videos like this. It really helps.
Nothing is self made. So this whole debate that always happens with solo projects is stupid ego-sheltering behavior. Solo just means nobody worked with you on the project, for music, games, whatever.
Theres absolutely nothing wrong with trying to do as much of the game by yourself as you can.
barone's success is actually very easy to replicate: get a large wraparound desk and box yourself into the corner of your office so you can't walk away from your computer
To be fair, just cause you didn't get all the rescources yourself, doesn't mean you didn't make the game yourself. You bought the pencil and paper, doesn't mean you didn't make the drawing on your own. The engine nor the pencil doesn't use itself, so the labor is still there.
This just makes me more positive and less regretful of the decision of asking my friend who has basic experience in Blender to do the assets for me after learning it himself and together, focus more on making a game which people want to spend hours on without anything forcing them other than the fact that the game is simply good.
This reminds me of when I was like 19 working at Burger King and the assistant manager brought a guitar and played More Than Words by Extreme. I asked him, "Don't you know anything else?" and he responded "How many songs do you know?" I'm not saying we all have to be better before we criticize. Let's just appreciate what these people are making and offer constructive criticism that encourages them to be better.
"When people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they're almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong"