Test your game, but test with the right people Endlessly changing key features and not progressing forward.įor people who are thinking about starting their indie project, I have an advice: Start a project that you are passionate about. Of course I got freedom to change my game to different directions, but afterwards it also looks like I was wandering around the same game idea. Ironically, I didn't have none of them.Īnd that is one thing, why I think my project got too long and "messy". All those things should be clear and well thought, before starting to make a game. Was the game competitive or was it narrative driven adventure. I didn't know for which audience I was making this game: was it casual or was it an artistic indie game.
I didn't have any clear idea what the theme would be, I changed it about 4 times. But while I was making this game, I didn't have any goals that I wanted to achieve with the game. That is ironic, because I usually have tons of game ideas I passionately want to do. My only goal was to make something on the mobile marketplace.
But when I started this project, I didn't have any clear idea what I wanted to do. I don't know if it is the ironic nature of life or what. Make your dreams reality, with clear goals Just because I always thought the game was missing something, I kept adding and changing stuff. They all are made from the same project, which I have been developing further on and kept making changes on the way. Or actually understand, that the game will never be done, there will be always something to be changed or added. That is why it's good to participate in competitions or have clear deadlines or other restrictions, which will push you to stick with the plan.Ĭurrently when I look at my phone, I see 8 different prototypes there. The hardest part for independent developer is to decide, when the game is done. One a very dangerous thing is when you have power to make decisions and tools to make changes: You might end up in a neverending loop of changing and modifying things. But being an indie can give a lot of flexibility, that can makes prototyping a lot of fun. That happened to me a few times, but at the same time, some features just need to be tested to know if they work or not. When you concentrate too much on one detail, you lose the big picture. But sometimes building one feature a whole month blindly, backfired. That way I managed to make huge features and changes. Sometimes I made small design documents and timetables for the whole month, and I stuck to them. When that feature was done, I played the game and analysed it, then I decided ether to make a new feature, modify the old one or even delete something. I had an idea of a new feature, and depending on the scale of the feature, it was done next day or two weeks later. One of the most enjoyable things in this project of making these prototypes was the flexibility and agile way to make them.