An Indie Developer’s “Biggest Mistake”

The 2009 Holiday Issue of PC Gamer magazine features an article by indie developer and Tripwire President John Gibson entitled “From Rags to Retail.” Gibson recounts the many trials associated with starting a new game development studio.  “We had sacrificed every second of spare time for almost two years” to create Red Orchestra, recalled Gibson.

After winning the contest, Gibson thought he had it made. Distributors would come knocking at the door to offer lucrative contracts. It was Gibson’s “biggest mistake.” Nobody wanted to distribute Red Orchestra. After numerous rejections, Gibson and his team were about to give up. Then they decided to try online distribution through the then newly launched Steam download service. “What did we have to lose?” he asked. The decision was fortuitous, as Red Orchestra was one of the first exclusive third party titles to appear on the popular online gaming service. “Our three-year-long dream was finally released.”

Gibson cites a number a factors in the success of Red Orchestra, such as timing, talent, and “a little luck.”

In fact, successfully distributing independent media products requires a lot more than luck. I recently published a case study about an independent film studio called Yves Productions. The case synopsis reads:

Alex Yves encountered many of the same roadblocks as Gibson. Like Gibson, he thought he had it made with strong Hollywood connections, a well-known international cast, an experienced director, and a considerable investment to make the film as professional as possible. Yet, distributors would not release the film unless he relinquished nearly all the rights (and potential profits). The film remains unreleased to this day.

During case research interviews, Yves admitted that one of his biggest mistakes was not securing distributor support prior to sinking considerable sums of time and money into his film studio.

The case has several parallels in the video game industry. The problem in both film and video games is that the sheer quantity of product on the market increases the risks for distributors that need to incur marketing and promotion expenses. In much the same way as the advent of new technologies like cheap HD camcorders allowed anyone to become a film producer, new easy-to-use development tools are transforming the video game industry.

One of the lessons Yves discovered was that no matter how good your product is, it is important to secure contracts early in the process. Media Molecule, for example, secured funding from Sony long before Little Big Planet was even in the early alpha development stage.  Media Molecule founder Mark Healey went to Sony, even though he was sure they were going to think “we were a bunch of mad men,” given how unusual the Little Big Planet concept was, and the fact that 2-D platformers had fallen out of favor.

The Sony partnership proved critical to Little Big Planet’s success. Not only did it provide the funding needed to ensure a quality product, it opened promotional opportunities that would be unavailable to indie developers who are without deep pocketed sponsors.

What lessons do these cases demonstrate?

Of course, even if you follow all of these lessons, success is far from guaranteed. As Gibson points out, the path to success is long and hard. However, large distributors, such as Sony, Microsoft, and Steam are realizing that most of the important innovations in the video game industry are coming from independent developers. Large game studios simply can’t afford to take the types of risks needed to bring products like Little Big Planet to market. That niche will always belong to indie studios.