I am not successful because ExcusesGenerator.GetRandomExcuse ();

[ADNCG]

Hi,
I don’t want to make a big game, because it’s too much work and I don’t have millions to outsource.
I don’t want to make a small mobile game like everyone else on the mobile market.
I don’t want to use ads to monetize my game, that is stupid and bad practice.
I don’t want to use IAPs, users should feel like they truly own the game.
I don’t want to give my game a voxel feel because that’s overused and I’m original™.
I don’t want to create a generic type of game because I’m original™.
I don’t want to spend time iterating on new innovative mechanics because I have no idea if it will work in the long run.
Maybe I should just build a generic type of game.
Wait, no I won’t, because I want to be original™.
Let me just think about it for a couple of weeks, get my focus straight.
Ok, few weeks of me doing nothing have passed, I decided to build a new type of game with original mechanics.
God, this is taking longer than I thought, maybe I should just use mechanics that are already battle-tested.
I think I’ll stop, do nothing and think about it some more. It’s all about planning carefully!
Possibly if I go waste some time on the forums for a bit, I’ll get a good idea eventually.
Well that didn’t work, but I believe in my strategy which consists of doing absolutely nothing until a moment of clarity strikes me. That happens, I’m pretty sure.
Oh, here’s a successful person, I should go tell him how lucky he is.

Friendly reminder that you are mostly responsible for your own success and that the moment you start blaming your failures on external factors, rather than focusing on what you can change, you deserve to sink.

Game dev is hard. There are thousands of things to consider, to master and there are devs out there committing 16 hours a day to turning their dreams into a reality. If they become successful, it’s because they bet on themselves and they put in the time and effort, not because of your magic voodoo lottery.

It struck me how many people here think success is mostly luck driven. I know I won’t be making friends with such a post, but many new developers browse these forums daily and are influenced by the ideologies spread through them. Therefore, I felt the need to say that some of us still believe that you are the factor #1 in your success, and that if you haven’t reached your goals yet, you need to deploy time and efforts, not make excuses.

That is all. Please stick to rotten tomatoes, avoid throwing sharp objects my way.

[system]

I’d like to read this, but the TV caught my attention…

Not trying to be discourteous but what does it matter to you? Is it helping you make your dream game? If so, rant away… Not everyone wants to be “successful”, some people do this for fun and it is fun messing around… Some times there are external influences that cause roadblocks…

Not everyone has time to spend 16 hours a day honing their craft, not many people actually want to or do so and they are very successful. What is successful to someone? Point being there is no formula, there’s no right or wrong way to do it…

IMO if there’s one thing you take away from this, there will be roadblocks and it will somewhat shape your development. Especially if you’re aiming for something adventurous, but that’s fine because those external road blocks / influences help you decipher exactly what to do next.

Game dev is hard, so enjoy it in whatever capacity suits you… Also I doubt dictating to people is going to change anything…

[ADNCG]

I’d like to read this, but the TV caught my attention…
Not trying to be discourteous but bla bla bla.

Consistent as hell, dude.

Not trying to be discourteous but what does it matter to you?

I’m fighting a school of thought in which I don’t believe in because I feel like it will negatively impact the future of many talented newcomers.

Not everyone has time to spend 16 hours a day honing their craft, not many people actually want to or do so and they are very successful.

Exceptions don’t make rules.

If it’s there’s one and only thing you learn, it should be there will be roadblocks and it will somewhat shape your development. Especially if you’re aiming for something adventurous, but that’s fine because those external road blocks / influences help you decipher exactly what to do next.

100%. You are using them to recalibrate, as opposed to using them as excuses.

Also I doubt dictating to people is going to change anything…

lolplz.

[system]

@ADNCG

Consistent as hell, dude.

I’m fighting a school of thought in which I don’t believe in because I feel like it will negatively impact the future of many talented newcomers.

I love consistency, or maybe not?

In reality everyone will do what they want to do, nothing else. I must of been told ad nauseam I bite off more than I can chew but I find that fun so I shall continue to do so…

Best of luck…

[ADNCG]

I must of been told ad nauseam I bite off more than I can chew but I find that fun so I shall continue to do so…

As one should!

All in all, thanks for sharing your opinion.

[Billy4184]

Not trying to be mean, because I basically agree with you, but these kind of posts go down a lot better if you show by example, otherwise it comes off as “those who can’t, teach”. There’s way too much textbook advice doing the rounds here from people with a distinct lack of examples to show for it - don’t be one of them! Sometimes I’ve been tempted, but I usually just expend the energy into a post about Unity’s lighting or something, and go back to working on my game …

The most inspiring people I can think of are those who have posted in the How much money are you making from your games thread with examples, basically showing that even on mobile a sophisticated and well-built premium game can still make a lot of money. That should be noted down by all the naysayers who think you have to make some lucky flappy bird game to do any decent business.

[Kiwasi]

Do you have the credentials to back this up?

Otherwise any opinion is as good as yours.

(I’m not being mean, just genuinely curious. We get a lot of people coming on here posting recipes for success. But most of them aren’t actually successful, making their advice mostly invalid. I briefly poked around and found a single app and a broken website. Am I missing something, or is your advice as unfounded as the guys posting about how its all luck?)

[Aiursrage2k]

Well some of us are just very opinionated about everything, especially in the peanut gallery

[ADNCG]

I read my post in while being in a different mood and I can see how it doesn’t invite to discussion at all. That being said, I’ll preserve it the way it is so the people that read it can understand the reactions of others.

I didn’t mean to come off as a great saviour who is here to enlighten the community to the ways of success. Let me come again with more humility this time.

I’m everything but successful, I don’t have a crazy track record and I certainly don’t want to be that guy that replies with a wall of text in an attempt to win an argument.

Despite not being successful, I have beliefs and I’m attempting to forge a moral framework in which I operate in my quest to success. I understand why you would think my opinion is invalid, and as unfortunate as it may be, I respect that. I will come back when I have a more credible record.

@Kiwasi

Do you have the credentials to back this up?

Otherwise any opinion is as good as yours.

(I’m not being mean, just genuinely curious. We get a lot of people coming on here posting recipes for success. But most of them aren’t actually successful, making their advice mostly invalid. I briefly poked around and found a single app and a broken website. Am I missing something, or is your advice as unfounded as the guys posting about how its all luck?)

This feels more personal than it should?

[mysticfall]

@ADNCG

That is all. Please stick to rotten tomatoes, avoid throwing sharp objects my way.

No, rotten tomatoes are overused and I’m original™.

[SteveJ]

So, what is considered “successful” exactly? What’s the definition of that in the domain of game developers?

[ADNCG]

@SteveJ

So, what is considered “successful” exactly? What’s the definition of that in the domain of game developers?

Yeah, while that’s all relative, I think it could be agreed on that financially viable is a good start?

[drewradley]

@SteveJ

So, what is considered “successful” exactly? What’s the definition of that in the domain of game developers?

I sold enough games that it paid me back for Unity and then a year subscription on top of that (nowhere near even for all my game dev costs!) and consider that a success.

[Kiwasi]

@ADNCG

This feels more personal than it should?

Yeah, I tried to write it in a way that wasn’t personal, but don’t think I did a good job. I was trying to figure out if this is a recipe based on your past successes, or if this is a belief for future successes. It helps to frame the discussion. Either way you answered the question, thanks.

@SteveJ

So, what is considered “successful” exactly? What’s the definition of that in the domain of game developers?

I’m a hobbyist. So I got enough stress relief to pretend to be a functioning member of society this week?

[ADNCG]

@Kiwasi

Yeah, I tried to write it in a way that wasn’t personal, but don’t think I did a good job. I was trying to figure out if this is a recipe based on your past successes, or if this is a belief for future successes. It helps to frame the discussion.

Well even if it had been personal, I guess I kind of asked for it. The closer I get to going to bed, the more I realize that my post had full-douche/no humility modes activated. On the bright side I guess I’ll wake up tomorrow a wiser man.

[Billy4184]

@SteveJ

So, what is considered “successful” exactly? What’s the definition of that in the domain of game developers?

Unless the objective is something warm and fuzzy, I think the only real metric is a minimum wage. Here in Australia that’s around $600 - $700 per week. Because of my current circumstances, I could happily live on half that though.

[N1warhead_1]

@Billy4184

Unless the objective is something warm and fuzzy, I think the only real metric is a minimum wage. Here in Australia that’s around $600 - $700 per week. Because of my current circumstances, I could happily live on half that though.

Jeez Minimum wage in the USA might be 200 dollars a week (IF YOUR LUCKY). Most people get stuck with Part Time jobs in the USA, so you get lucky to get 100 a week.

[Kiwasi]

@Billy4184

Unless the objective is something warm and fuzzy, I think the only real metric is a minimum wage. Here in Australia that’s around $600 - $700 per week. Because of my current circumstances, I could happily live on half that though.

If you are going to go with financials, I would suggest going with an opportunity cost instead of minimum wage. Set your base level at what a competent programmer/artist could make if they weren’t doing games. According to google that’s about 70K in Australia. If you are running your own business as an indie I would add a significant risk premium. Which means I would set the financial success threshold at 100-150K.

[Billy4184]

@N1warhead_1

Jeez Minimum wage in the USA might be 200 dollars a week (IF YOUR LUCKY). Most people get stuck with Part Time jobs in the USA, so you get lucky to get 100 a week.

Yeah it’s a bit higher than I expected, just looking at it now.

@Kiwasi

If you are going to go with financials, I would suggest going with an opportunity cost instead of minimum wage. Set your base level at what a competent programmer/artist could make if they weren’t doing games. According to google that’s about 70K in Australia. If you are running your own business as an indie I would add a significant risk premium. Which means I would set the financial success threshold at 100-150K.

Well opportunity cost can mean a lot of things. I think it’s probably more useful to look at the minimum cost to live reasonably. Minimum wage to me seems to be the best metric for that imo. Personally I would put real success threshold at around $1000 a week, but minimum wage would be more than enough for me to continue what I’m doing and have fun doing it. At least at the beginning I think that’s the first milestone to cross.

Then again I’m single, and used to making the most of what I’ve got.

[Farelle]

One interesting thing I noticed, not only in this community but in general in dev communities, that if you try to give advice or share your opinion about something like success…if you are/were not successful beforehand or have anything to show, people tend to focus on that as a reason why your advice is nothing that should be listened to. If you are actually having success or have made a few games or something similar as a back-up of your opinion, people might come and write it to luck, also as a reason to not have to take your advice as better as their opinion I’m sure there will be some people reached with this post and therefore i think it was already worth it, but I don’t think you will convince those who are already on a path of self-destruction to think otherwise…or well…maybe just unlikely. And it’s also just my personal opinion.