Indie: Fear, Failure or Freakout

Indie: Fear, Failure or Freakout

I went into solo indie dev after 18 years as a game designer. Probably 10 years too late. I kept pace with gaming news and articles. I've seen plenty of indie-pocalypse articles and was still somehow convinced if you make a fun game, players will come to it. There's an audience for everything under the sun.

You see, the indie-pocalypse, insulated as I was within the industry proper, wasn't something I really understood. Not being an indie at the time, I only paid attention to the indie successes, which obviously meant the indie game dev scene was nice and healthy. I didn't realize the actual indie-pocalypse was more akin to a zombie apocalypse, hordes of indie games everywhere, so many a consumer cant possibly track them all. Indie didn't die, it exploded and spread like the plague. Can you imagine every film lover in the world has the ability to make high quality feature length films, while also being able to put them in theaters for whatever price they feel like? We're drowning in a sea of ourselves.

But what's the big deal? If you make the next Stardew, Among Us, Fall Guys, you're fine and rich. This is like when one of your non-gaming literate friends tells you to make something like Fortnite. You should earn points for not stabbing them repeatedly. 

So the path to success is what? Well, there are boutique publishers everywhere just waiting to sign you up and pour money down your gob. Gaming media want to write about your indie story and give you all the press you could possibly want. Everyone will be climbing over each other to help you succeed. All you have to do is; get on steam, get on the epic store, get a discord with a big community, get on all the marketplaces, get 100k wishlists, do a kickstarter, go early access, put it on consoles, get some youtubers, get some twitch streamers to play your game. Simple. 

Okay, a little snark there of course but those are things people tell you when advising you on how to succeed as an indie. Which everyone is an expert on, despite only a handful of indies really smashing every year. Some of those things aren't true, and the ones that are true require as much luck and skill as developing a game in the first place. Alright, indie is hard, so what are we talking about here?

I set out to create a game with simple mechanics, good depth, good variety and something I can iterate on quickly so I can continue to support it and give the audience more and more. I'm not making the next Minecraft, just simple arcadey fun that feeds your eyeballs. Earth: 9000 started on the ugly side in early access and became prettier and prettier. Screenshots of it aren't mistaken for other games, it has developed a look so I got a little win there. The gameplay is fun, feels connected to other genres but is its own thing and the moment to moment is strong. But it won't sell.

That's the failure, actually it’s not the lack of sales but lack of players. The fear is talking about it. Admitting failure is hard and scary and demoralizing. So this blog post is an attempt to lean into it. Take it on the chin and try to learn, better human, designer, developer all that. Exposing the soft underbelly, admitting failure if not defeat, sharing it all out in the open, that's the freakout. It's like eating razor blades.

So why did Earth: 9000 seemingly fail? Not being the game the market wants, aesthetic quality, lack of marketing, and price. That's where I'm leaning, for sake of argument just roll with me here.

More on Earth: 9000 not being what the market wanted later, on to the others. Aesthetic quality really fell down on the title splash screen art. As a game designer I hadn't developed traditional art skills in my career, so as a solo indie the title art for Earth: 9000 looked uhm...novice to be kind. That's a fixable issue of course, but like so many of the indie falsehoods, easier said than done. I'm making strides on that front and it's improving. Meanwhile the in game aesthetics are in a great place now. As for awareness, that's tough, you're at the mercy of a lot you can't control. I don't know how to solve this problem without marketing dollars. So, blog, tweet, post, email, cajole and update the game. That's the current one man marketing plan. So what about price?

Earth: 9000 launched at 11.99USD, which I thought was reasonable, yes I know, I was batshit crazae. It came from various easy to find articles about how you should price as high as you can. Market will bear, presumed value etc...However, if you don't have the marketing and awareness it really doesn't matter. Don't forget, when someone does an interview of a bunch of devs on these subjects, look at their games. More often than not, they're talking about their own hits, with massive pedigree. Would they only have made a mill instead of 2? Next, the amount of indie games being released is astronomical, compared to even a few years ago. Remember, these zombies are everywhere. So, supply is high and demand is low. And don't forget, it's not just competing with other indies but you're competing with free to play juggernauts, and lifestyle games with everyone trying to keep the mind share of the gaming audience. I was wrong. 11.99 Was well overpriced for what I was offering, ten years ago perfect, now...not so much. In hindsight it seems like an obvious blunder, as most things do. Just a few simple searches show average indie game prices much lower. The research you do leading up to your dev can be as important as the dev itself. Be wary of using the best case scenarios of other products to make decisions on your own product.

With all that in mind, Earth: 9000 hasn't sold well, making a couple hundos doesn't let me continue to develop the game and certainly can't even entertain another title. Which I’m afraid to even say in public. You must appear to be successful at all times in order to be successful. By and large, the gaming community, media and especially online stores back the winners. If you're not making sales, you're not getting promoted to make more sales. No salt there, it's business, that's our capitalism and you have to roll with it. So, is it too late? Is it over for my undiscovered indie darling? Well, the saying goes, you only get one launch, Earth: 9000 had it's launch, but if it didn't make a sound, did it really fall down? Abandoning it doesn't seem right, and frankly, I like the game and it's fun so I won't give up quite yet...So what then?

I'd rather have 1k people play my game for pennies than dozens play it for 10 bucks. Yes, I need to make money, but Earth: 9000 wasn't made for that alone. Remember, I actually set out with the goal of small, simple, good gameplay I can be proud of. That's really what it was about, purely to make something I was legit proud of. And I am. So that feels like a legit win. If I’m not giving up and abandoning it then what?

So the plan is this. Continue to one man market as best I can. Push updates as I knock the price down, improve the title art to get more impressions which ideally lead to more conversions. Maybe with just the right notice here or there it can pick up a review or an article that stretches those legs. That's all in development now. Will it make a difference? 

I won’t bet the farm on it, but the alternative is to just throw in the towel. Which, as a child raised on 80s and 90s media I just can't do. Never quit, never surrender, don't give up on dreams, fight to the last breath. That's all well and good, but with fam and real world problems, it's a huge risk and I can't ignore that. Despite my dreamer approach to life and career, creating my operating philosophy on, questionable quality movies seems silly. So the job hunt is on too. Which I don't feel bad about, I've worked with some of the best talent in the industry and going back to a team like that really has no down sides.

As for Earth: 9000, at this point, I just want 1k players, what must my price be to reach that? I'm afraid of the answer, but the alternative of doing nothing, will yield exactly that.

I'll edit and link to the next blog in a couple weeks, once I have some results from my price slashing, quality title, update experiment. Wish me luck!