If We're Going To Get The Games We Want We Will Have To Make Them Ourselves

[Something Amyss]

Not really, my point is that consumers can support the Indie market even if they're not developers themselves, which gives their voice strength in an economic climate. This sort of mentality, the "if I want it done I need to do it myself" mentality tends to be a sign of creative health. Heck, Tolkien talked quite a lot about how his favorite genre, fantasy, was a non entity at his time, which is what prompted him to write LotR. He couldn't read the kinds of stories he wanted to read, so he had to write them. Not literally everyone has to be a content creator, and I don't think the OP is saying we should all quit our day jobs to develop video games. What he's saying is that the gaming community as a whole needs to take charge, not just sit around and moan, which a lot of us are good at. And he's right.

Supporting the indie market isn't really any different than supporting the mainstream market. Any agency there is an illusion. There's still no real guarantee of any sort of representation of what you want unless you do it yourself. And that still bumps into the original problem.

As for Tolkien, I'd note he still represented the mainstream, writing has a lower barrier to entry, and individual success stories are overall meaningless.

If your point is that people can support the market, they can do that with any company. Doesn't seem like a point worth making unless you think the indie market is a special snowflake.

 

[Tallim]

Did you learn coding by taking a class or are there decent online resources to learn this?

There are much better resources now online than when I started learning but I did it via online resources and a couple of books. To be honest if I was to do it again I would probably have done a course to get the fundamentals done quicker. To start it can sometimes feel like you are fumbling about in the dark.

I was also lucky enough to have several friends who are A) Professional coders and B) Extremely patient with a lot of questions about basic stuff.

 

[Tallim]

Soooo .... when can I expect to see your game winning the IGF?

Heh probably never! I'm just making the game that I want to play and I don't have the resources to work on it all the time so it is strictly a "spare time" endeavour. I don't have any allusions to making money from it or anything either. It's merely a personal project that I'll release once complete regardless of quality.

 

[ThriKreen]

Heh probably never! I'm just making the game that I want to play and I don't have the resources to work on it all the time so it is strictly a "spare time" endeavour. I don't have any allusions to making money from it or anything either. It's merely a personal project that I'll release once complete regardless of quality.

You'll never know!

I never thought the NWN mod work I did would have ended up being added as official content.

Just do your best, and since there's no one else overseeing it, don't be afraid to go outside the box as it were.

 

[Skops]

Yes, yes, I have had this thought process too. Took a course in Game Design, 2 years, internship at Ubisoft and even took part in many ''Game Jam's''. Designed, coded, demo'd, and presented and pitched a number of my own games, and where'd that get me? A Q.A job for EA Montreal for a game that never got released, and work 14hrs a day, 6 days a week, for the wages of basically your average call centre job. It didn't take me long to find that after experiencing the industry, I don't want to be in the industry anymore than spending a few bucks to get some cheap thrills on a TV screen.

I'm not going to sit here and say "I know better than you" cause everyone that tries their hand at the industry will have a different experience. But my story is a common one.