I have been developing games for more than 16 months now and i am sick of my job. I want to start my career as an indie developer, I am looking for some good advice/guidance. I am confused about platform selection as well, i have experience in mobile development but i have craze for PC games.
My best advice on that is based on my experience and other advice from others. Many people strongly recommend keeping your job and develop your product on the side. It's certainly hard to do that because it's very demanding. If you're sick of your job, I understand. The problem is mainly the money. If you're okay with not making profits for a couple of years when starting, that is a scenario you can consider. For most developers, the first game (or few games) they launch doesn't make money. The hard reality of the indie game developer is that it's really a tough business. Concerning the PC/mobile, I would suggest PC. Apple receives over 500 hundred (maybe more today) applications every day. That market is really hard to get noticed. PC is easier. It's not to discourage you, but I hope my comments can be useful to take a decision based on how comfortable you are developing an indie game business with everything that involves. Furthermore, try to hang out with different indie communities. There's so mush to learn from everyone's story.
Keep you day job unless you already have 2 years worth of money stashed in the bank. It's really really tough to succeed making your own games as an indie dev (can't stress that enough). There's just so many people that want to do that. Don't make zombie shooter games or other "popular" genres, it's hopeless. Try to find an unfulfilled niche in an unfulfilled market. Work on really small project to start with and build a portfolio.
I would hate to sound like a broken record here, but keeping your day job for the time being is your safest bet. While I know you want to pursue your passion full-time, you don't want to put yourself in a financial bind by being hasty. Keep your full-time job, and as previously stated, pursue game development part-time. This way you are continuing to have income and will still be making progress towards your independent goals. You can put a set amount of money aside into savings so that you've built up a substantial cushion that will allow you to completely pull away from your job without causing you financial strain. Additionally and ideally, by the time you've saved up and are ready to break ties completely, you will be in a position where you are closer to being able to actually make a profit with the game development, because those first couple of years are pretty profitless. With regards to which route to go, PC seems like a bit of a less competitive route and you may see faster progress in a shorter time.
go to Spain. it's cheap. not much for heating in winter. no lang way to the beach in summer. Also lot's of nice friendly UK people here in the south. Internet is accessible. ok the Spanish are somehow a bit crazy, especialy about animals/cars/church/singing/fire.. ahm ok anything.
For some advice on the other side of the coin, I think it is very hard to do this business part-time (as I've been trying [and failing] to do for over 10 years now). You just can't work fast enough to make a living that way. It will take you over a year to make a game and you may only make a quarter of your salary from it. I also agree that you can't quit your day job if you don't have a way to support yourself, so best bet is to work your day job (and maybe even another side job) and scrimp and save until you have at least a year's salary (probably two as said above), then you can take the plunge. I kind of wish I took this approach back in the day because it is much harder to do once you have a family/mortgage to support.
It's very difficult being an indie game developer so don't quit your job yet. You need something to help you financialy while you create games on the side. Also start off with small games as they take a few days to do then you can get quick feedback from your fans.
Assuming you aren't independently wealthy I'd suggest you start with a budget of what you would need to earn. Figure out a business plan that sustainably earns that amount at least. Figure out the fastest route to test whether your business model would actually work and then decide if you want to try and do that with or without your fall back job. Indie. game dev. is challenging.
I am also like you beginner but i prefer go for phones specially android because now a days how wants to play small game in PC every one prefer phone and android is the most popular OS out there and there is my first game called Tappy Mellow. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lzygyz.tappyMellow Try once you will get some ideas.
My two pence says: Make a long term plan and work the plan. Bitsize chunks and try and be in a better position each week.
Hello imraan, First off, practice makes perfect. Although support and advice from other indie game developers might be even better! Your choice problem regarding platform choice depends on what you want. Mobile games are accessible for a bigger audience, but a PC has more performance to run bigger games on, but of course the final choice is up to you. I hope I helped you a bit with this! Never give up! DefiniteGoose
i suggest you to start from creating mobile games. Create casual games because that types of games are played by people of all age and that type of games are addicting too.
You'll never finish a game if the goal is to just "Make a game". Think of what kind of game interests you, then let that determine PC/Mobile, genre, etc.
This is great advice. Look for costs in your life that you can reduce. I sold my house and currently live in a motorhome. My living costs went way down.
Hey there! Like everyone else said, you definitely want to keep your job while you're at least getting your foot through the door. While the game you make could be quite fantastic and astounding, there's no guarantee that it will be able to sustain you, at least not right away. I made the mistake once of quitting a job to work on a 2-d online game, that only brought in a total of 15 players after a week, so I didn't get anything out of it at all since I had a lot more to pay than I got out of it. I was really young at the time, so that type of mistake didn't really "affect" me life-wise however, so I ended up being alright. This can't be said however for anybody who has responsibilities to worry about...so definitely be careful with your time investments in your job and in the game making industry. As for PC or mobile, here's the thing. Everyone owns a phone, but many gamers that I know of "Despise" mobile games, simply because they don't qualify as "games" in most senses of the word, and rather as "donation simulators". PC however, doesn't seem to have this issue nearly as much. Start small...lilke maybe a cheap platformer for example, for mobile and PC to see how it turns out on both ends, and possibly base your future decisions from there.