Should i risk making a Indie Game?

Eqashaln

Hello,

I want to work as an Environment Artist in the future in AAA Studios so I would need a great Portfolio. Well, I also would like to try to make a Game because I have Programming experience and I would like to know how people like my Game Ideas and I just want to make them real.
There's just 1 thing that stops me from creating a Game.. My Portfolio and my Time lets say I spend 8 Months for a Game and publish it and people don't like my Game so I just wasted 8 months and I didn't do anything for my Portfolio. What do you think because as I know AAA Studios search for people which are very good at 1 thing (for Example Character Modeling, Environment Modeling, Concept Art and so on) not at everything.

I hope you could understand my thread and help me further.

Alex_J

whatever route you choose it won't pay you return unless you go at it 100%. you should never take a risk you don't have to if the consequence is dire, but if you have to then it's fight to the death so don't fuck around.

it's hard to get into AAA jobs and there isn't lot of security there anyway as far as I can tell. Just read that Naughty Dog lost around 70% of its staff during development of their next big blockbuster. And that's big well established studio. I keep hearing lots of stories like this and it makes me feel glad I didn't try to go that route. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Making games is insecure but at least you are the boss so failure is only on yourself.  I'd recommend scope your project to something you can complete yourself working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in a few months. Should be able to make enough money to earn minimum wage just to survive starting out.

I think the allure of making games is your total creative freedom, but realize that isn't the case. If you need money you have to make games that sell, and what the audience wants isn't same as what you want to make.

defragger

Where is the risk if you have nothing to lose because in all the time you invest you learn something useful that you wouldn't have learned otherwise? Even if no one ever plays your game, time wouldn't be wasted, would it?

Time is usually wasted not doing things. I've never seen it the other way around.

You can always make a prototype or vertical slice of some sort to test things in a manageable time frame.