Just surfing about, and I stumbled upon this blog post :
http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/?p=884
Now don’t worry – I’m not gonna start charging for SpaceOreMiner tomorrow. In fact I can’t really see that happening at all, for SpaceOreMiner or the game it will evolve into. It is far from ready for that anyway 🙂 However, I did find it a very interesting read. Having spent many hours playing Gratuitous Space Battles I totally appreciate the authors experience in this matter 🙂 I know quite a few other devs read this blog, so I thought maybe this little linkie might help other indie folks who are thinking about selling their games.
I must say, I would love to be coding SpaceOreMiner full time. To make a living from it, no matter how much of a pipe-dream that is, would be, well mega-awesome-uber-cool. The small amount of time I have set aside per day for coding it, as well as going through feedback, coming up with ideas and just talking about the game – is damn enjoyable time. It is almost like an obsession with me. I find myself thinking about the game all the time – I have a pad next to the bed which I scribble ideas down late at night. When I wash up, I draw little moles and asteroids in the condensation on the window. Often, while watching something on T.V. a new inspiration will hit me, and I will go running upstairs write on the pad next to my bed ( maybe time to invest in another pad ). Now, re-reading that makes me sound like a bit of a nutcase, but I am going to leave it up there 🙂
The advantage, in my mind, to indie gaming is this sort of obsession. A single person ( or small team with a shared vision ) with a real passion for what they are doing can produce something more beautiful than any giant games company could. No need to worry about publishers, you have an idea, and you NEED to get this idea out for the world to see and play. I’ll cite the example of Dwarf Fortress. Horrible GUI, no graphics, extreme gore (albeit reading and ASCII gore). There is no way that it would have come into existence in a conventional games publishing sense. It has taken Toady’s drive and obsession to create something quite beautiful. The level of simulation is, well, ridiculous. The game-play is pretty damn perfect, the addiction levels pretty much on par with the best drugs known to man. And all of this and it is an open sandbox environment. This is what is right about indie. Individuals with drive and passion that can and will experiment and come out with original ideas – rather than the repetitive cloning of game-play elements with ever increasing shiny graphics that you find in the current mainstream gaming market.
Hmm, this was a much longer post than the ‘Hey read this link it is pretty interesting’ post I had originally planned 🙂
tl:dr; Hey read this link it is pretty interesting
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He really, really writes some good stuff. I’ll give it a further glance when I’m done fixing up level 3 😉
Still waiting to try your game 🙂 And some real instresting stuff on his blog 🙂