Beachfront Games (Went Indie)
polycounter lvl 17
Hey guys and gals. So been kinda quiet lately and have been keeping busy in secret for some time now.
But today me and my team officially went live on our project! I went down the indie trail and so far Im enjoying it...though honestly it is VERY difficult I hope that the rewards pay off in the long run.
Anyway Its VERY early level guys but please check it out and follow us. I will be updating this every week as our project progresses
http://twitter.com/#!/BeachfrontGames
http://www.beachfrontgames.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beachfront-Games/309429019079751
PS- to all the guys here who went indie...how did you survive when you initially started off. I know a few guys on Pcount have been down this road and I would love to hear about what you went through and some of your challenges /struggles and rewards.
But today me and my team officially went live on our project! I went down the indie trail and so far Im enjoying it...though honestly it is VERY difficult I hope that the rewards pay off in the long run.
Anyway Its VERY early level guys but please check it out and follow us. I will be updating this every week as our project progresses
http://twitter.com/#!/BeachfrontGames
http://www.beachfrontgames.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beachfront-Games/309429019079751
PS- to all the guys here who went indie...how did you survive when you initially started off. I know a few guys on Pcount have been down this road and I would love to hear about what you went through and some of your challenges /struggles and rewards.
Replies
"Dungeon Drop is a throwback to the old days of Double Dragon and Streets of Rage."
This sounds exciting.
"Our innovative game combines elements of both the hack and slash and puzzle genres"
This sounds vague and potentially misleading.
Livin the dream.
As for how us indie guys are doing, I'm still "surviving" as it were. Working on yet another project i believe to be bullet proof, but I've thought that about the prior 2 projects. Failure is the best learning experience, success is just the culmination of all those learning experiences. Keep that in mind when things don't always work out as best as you'd hoped they would. The best advice i can give is make sure the ball is in your corner. The world doesn't owe you shit and it will bone you if given half a chance. Develop a solid as hell game that stands on its own without putting too much trust in any single publisher or distribution service. Most importantly work with people you trust.
How competent are your programmers? Do you guys have a track record of releasing solid product? I ask because as the artist you have the most to lose in this early phase of development. Programmers and game designers can hack away and learn, grow as a professional in this phase and if the product tanks they get something tangible out of it, "Whoa I sure boned that up, well i can carry these experiences over to the next project, sorry guys". As the artist you're more likely to just get burned out producing working product and left penniless should the project fail. There's something to be said for proving your worth and making good connections if your team has talent though.
I'm in this same boat. Me and my buddy are still prototyping our game and we don't have the art pipeline nailed because we're working in 2.5D in Unity and until the game comes together a bit more we don't know if certain assets will be 2d or 3d, what scale they'll be, what style, etc. etc. So much is in the air that making professional grade art isn't practical right now.
How much of a hand do you have or want to have in the brainstorming and gameplay side of things? Have you ever thought of being a game designer or programmer? Now's the PERFECT time to start buggin' your buddies to get you in on this stuff if you think you'd be able to add to the project as an artist/ programmer/ designer. I was up to 12 last night doing another program session with my buddy where he's been showing me the ropes of C# object based programming and if you put the time in, you can start prototyping your own gameplay ideas in about a couple months give or take if you have a good mind for logic and someone to give you pointers.
The start of a new game with other competent programmers is THE BEST possible time to start learning how to program, you're not only in an open field where you can start making anything, but you're surrounded by others who are just starting to make the nuts and bolts. Ask 'em if they can do a skype call, share their screen and talk about what they're doing. Go back and forth if you start coding and start showing off what you're doing and ask for pointers. By learning other skills you avoid the trap of getting nothing out of a project that could tank at any time, even the best teams and ideas can go under, that's life. But if you've developed new disciplines and skills it makes the whole thing worth it. From personal experience i find programming rewarding and empowering in ways that art just isn't.
The more the team is invested in the project the more solid the team is. The more hats various people can wear, the more stable the project will be if people jump on board or jump ship. It's also great to code or model for hours on end, feel like you need a break and just switch over to the other discipline.
Anyway, I may have thrown a bit too much personal insight into that since i'm just so jazzed on programming at the moment, if you live for art and wake up every day ready to jam some out, more power to you Sef.
The biggest challenge is the not being payed. It's not just, "Oh i'm going to eat ramen for 5 months again, luls". It's going out to dinner with friends and them getting the tab... again, your girl leaving you because you still live at home, a nagging feeling that your friends and relatives all think you're a lazy good for nothing because "indie dev" isn't exactly a household name. But despite all this, and this is why we go down this shitty path, indie dev is incredibly rewarding on a personal level if you know deep down you're working on something special. Just gotta hold on to that idea that all the long hours could make all the sacrifice worth it.
Good luck guys!
Keep us posted.
www.beachfrontgames.com
http://screenshotsaturday.com/