Having worked out of our homes, and always in a way that made our development feel like a hobby project, we have decided to turn the main floor of my home into a professional workspace.
Many months of full-time work have been invested in the development of our first commercial title (yet unannounced) and we are finally putting together a professional office space within which to incubate our creative ideas.
I spent considerable time looking into renting office space which we could use any time in a common manner but have not been able to find anything our budget can support. Actually, our budget can only support the rental space of a single student's room .. so that doesn't leave us much of a choice. I recently purchased my first home, having capitalized on the low interest rates and lowered real estate prices as the result of the recession, and particularly chose it with the first floor being used for our office space. As I have a family room upstairs, the upstrairs turns into an almost self-contained living space for off-hours. Since we're working long hours, it doesn't really make a difference to me whether I'm disconnecting work and play.
We did, however institute core working hours during which everyone is present and can work around. This helps us all stay focused and get that motivational push that comes with seeing others work hard, it's definitely something I'd recommend to other small loosely-located indie game companies, find a way to work in person as much as possible. We generally push for 9 hour days but we keep tight deadlines so we're finding them stretching much longer. It hasn't really bothered anyone on the team as we all really love what we're making and are excited like kids are for Christmas :)
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