Chris Watts has written up his seven rules for those heading into the foray of independent game development. Having been in the neck of indie development with Mole and other projects this year, Chris is certain to have some valuable advice and tips worth adhering to, considering he's likely to have learnt them all the hard way.
Hi everyone,
I wanted to take the time to write out my experiences and lessons learned with the projects I've been working on for the better part of this year as an aspiring designer and indie developer.
Most of these rules have come from lessons that either I've had to learn through my own errors or by the nature of the projects I was running. Some of these rules come from practices that I've found to work as well.
These aren't expertly proven methods, and I'm not a senior in any regard. But I think that perhaps if I explain why these works for me as opposed to the opposite then you might skip making the same mistakes I did.
Check out the entire article at Chris's blog from the link at the end there.
Good list
Agree with all these points. But regarding working in local teams, I think this is great if you can find the talent, but in the interest of finding the right sort of talent I don't think it's entirely necessary. If your communication is good, and you've worked with, or have examples of their work, then working with someone interstate or O/S can work just as well as someone local. Of course when you start going O/S you do get the time delay, but there can be benefits from that such as them working while you're asleep and vice versa. As long as you have a few hours window when you're able to IM you should be able to make it work.
Just my 2c.
Additions
Definitely a list that holds true in reality. I have found that, in my experience, there are a number of additions that I would place in the list. Regrettably I must depart shortly, but I feel the most important lesson I learned was as follows:
Build Team Structure
Set in place strong guidelines for management structure, creative input, work requirements/termination and product ownership before you commence development. If possible devise contracts and a team charter. The larger the team the more important this becomes and the greater protection you may need on legal grounds. I have found that when working in groups larger than four people, you are almost certain to come across a major disagreement about how the project should proceed. Having guidelines ahead of time means that people will be happier with the outcome and the project may more easily continue.
Contracts and Aggrements
This is a good point and I tend to agree.
If your really serious about indie game development then writing up a set of contracts for each team member is necessary as well. It may sound harsh but it's more so to protect the stability of the project. If there is no contract in place outlining each team members responsibility and entitlements then nothing stops a person vanishing for a month or two and then returning when a game is completed to claim a chunk of the profits.
These agreements should also clearly define the percentage of profits for each team member who hasn't been contracted for work and basically be as clear as possible to outline everyone's responsibilities and entitlements.