Pros & Cons of Being Solo Indie Developer

Well I wrote a new article and here is a link : Pros & Cons of Being Solo Indie Developer

Hope you find it useful

great stuff, and all of them are true, im in same situation as in the cons area, was cool at beginning but now i kinda lack motivation, and lets face it, need some more skilled people around me, that can cover, audio/graphic atleast that's a must ! great post man thanks for sharing!

Faster development is a strange one I think. When I work with other people I don't have to worry about making everythying myself. For example, one person mix the audio while I work on sprites while another person write the code for the character I'm drawing. Right now, I need to make the sprites, then make the audio, then write the code, it's incredbily slow. What's the thought behind that specific point?

Faster development is a strange one I think. When I work with other people I don't have to worry about making everythying myself. For example, one person mix the audio while I work on sprites while another person write the code for the character I'm drawing. Right now, I need to make the sprites, then make the audio, then write the code, it's incredbily slow. What's the thought behind that specific point?

Fast development means you don't have to wait for others to finish their part of the job thus you develop games faster , on the short term of course

I'd say that's a matter of bad communication rather than an issue with asset creation. Everyone on the team should know what they are to do in time for a deadline, if you finish your stuff early you polish your work further. I'm not sure I understand how it's faster to do everything yourself one thing after another when you can have a team work on everything simultaneously and possibly someone gets extra time to polish but I guess it's personal, I wouldn't call it a perk of solo development but a con. I mean, if it takes you longer to finish a project due to heavy workload on one person in constrast to a team sharing the burden, then it's not faster even if you start working on the next thing right after finishing the current thing, no?

I develop games alone and really this problem that you can't be good at everything is a big problem, but the worst indeed is that not as much fun as it is with a team (I already worked in a team and I know how it is fun)

As a solo developer, you will need great descipline to finish up on certain elements or aspects, or have enough insight/restraint to not get lost in nitpcking details of your creations.

Being able to step back and pick up another aspect of the current development project can be a massive time saver.

I have grown accustom to working max 2 hours on a single issue at a time. Often, having taken a step back and looking at the same issue a day later, does wonders for thinking up applicable sollutions.

This obviously can work well in collaboration too.

The thing I like with construct is that I am ABLE to do it alone, since I'm not much of a coder. I would like to have a team, but it's hard to get people involved and stay focused, and real life stuff gets in the way at times. But if i had the money, i wouldn't hesitate to hire talented and skilled staff to work with.

The thing I like with construct is that I am ABLE to do it alone, since I'm not much of a coder. I would like to have a team, but it's hard to get people involved and stay focused, and real life stuff gets in the way at times. But if i had the money, i wouldn't hesitate to hire talented and skilled staff to work with.

I agree, I don't think I could make my game solo in any other engine.

I think the biggest con when working alone is that... you're alone. It's tough to have good conversations or bounce ideas off people while you're working.

I would say all of these can be seen from different perspectives... the pros could easily be seen also as cons... for example, game studios might see it as a big warning sign that the person has created something alone (does it mean he can not get along in a team, he's only able to operate well alone?)

I used to work on medium sized game projects alone, and when founding my game company I surrounded myself with amazing individuals and took great care in selection of the right people for the team. I would argue that having a small indie team can easily outweigh any of the pros of being an indie developer. Sure, it takes time to manage a team but on the other hand, you can have 3 people working on separate tasks that otherwise would require you nearly three times longer development cycle.

It's interesting point considering that you have infinite time... actually we don't - time is the most limited resource what we have! Once you spend it, you never get it back. Money can always be made, but the time you spend you never get back... just food for thought. I would recommend solo indie developers at least try finding one like-minded person that could collaborate. I guarantee that the creative discussion, brainstorming and sometimes maybe even argumentation of game design choices ultimately leads to much better game than you could create alone (with the assumption you indeed find a great person to work with... just one wrong person in a team can completely trash the atmosphere, so also tread carefully and choose well who you collaborate with)..

[quote:2pj6kv8a]It's interesting point considering that you have infinite time... actually we don't - time is the most limited resource what we have! Once you spend it, you never get it back. Money can always be made, but the time you spend you never get back... just food for thought.

You summed up my previous thoughts quite elegantly, thanks.

eliasfrost it seems we've had pretty similar experiences =) I realized I didn't tell any tips how to find people, because maybe some people are not solo indie developers by choice but just can't find likeminded people who would enjoy working on the same project for long term... Anyways, it's definitely not easy... I had really good luck finding the right people in the network of friends. However, I've met great people also at local IGDA gatherings. I would definitely recommend those if you're feeling like meeting other people interested in games and game development.