The 6 Indie Mistakes

By: Derek Yu

On: November 8th, 2006

Kuro5hin has an article detailing the 6 most common mistakes (that can’t be all) that new indie developers make. Read up! Imagine if all the energy spent going into huge vaporware projects went into manageable, fun little games.

We’d… have a lot of fun little games to play all the time!

From my experience, finishing a game is it’s own separate “thing” to learn, aside from programming, graphics, sound, design, etc. Because inevitably with any project you get better and by the end, the work you’ve already done you could do better. Fight that urge to start over… bite your tongue and finish it up – touch up earlier work if you have to. But FINISH. Because even if it’s not perfect to you, a full release will inevitably win you some fans and give you confidence to complete your next project (and possibly offers of help). Just my two bits!

Posted in Developers

Jimbob

I want someone to make that game in the comments where you play a bull in a china shop. That would be awesome.
Max

It can be yours… for twenty American dollars!

I can definitely say that this guy’s advice is right on, even though I’ve only built/am building a few pathetic games in school right now. But a lot of what we get taught is very much along these lines: the best way to learn making games is by making games, keep it focused, be flexible, & etc. And to be honest, nothing really hammers the point home quite like pulling all nighters twice a week to save your project.

Did I mention I can see time now?
negative zero

heheh, i know the feeling all too well.
i may not have seen time, but i did see the frame rate my eyes were refreshing at.

the whole process is an arduous task, though i reckon he left the part about developers tending to get attached to their work. unfortunately, i do that quite often. sucks how the public doesn’t give shit about the weeks you’ve spent programming this and programming that.

still, i say, bring it on!!
http://www.TScreative.net BMcC

This is a good article. THOSE WHO HAVE EARS, LET THEM HEAR.

Finishing is definitely an art in and of itself. (A lesson learnt the hard way.)