I keep seeing this, “we are working on a new update…” “we are almost finished with X” “please donate money for us to continue working” “our company is looking for more volunteers” when it’s obvious that it’s only one person doing everything. It’s really obvious.
What’s wrong with ‘I’?
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Is it obvious? I haven’t actually met many indie developers who are genuinely just a single person. They do exist, but most of the time I’m aware of if there’s a game in development it’s being worked on by more than one person.
Oh, sorry, no offense to them, I’m referring to the noob developers who don’t know how to program and whatnot
The royal we
It’s called the “Royal We”.
Of course, in the case of game developers it’s more likely to be “my cat and I”. I always just refer to myself in the third person preceded by a “the”.
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You! Beat me by a few seconds. narrows eyes
that’s the term I was looking for!
That is for self-deception so that i don’t feel i am a lonely hopeless helpless solo developer
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Yeah same with Asset Store devs. I think somehow people think that it makes them sound more professional.
Don’t worry, none taken. I was just wondering why you’re so sure it is indeed individuals.
I’m leaning more toward that thought: ‘I’ sounds selfish. A sense of pride comes with referring to your company or group as an entity and not just ‘me’. I would use ‘we’ because while it is only me doing anything my wife and kids are my strength and inspiration… and testers o.O
Yeah but to me it just seems deceptive - like I’m making people think I have a whole team of developers when it’s just me.
That’s the idea but I wouldn’t say maliciously deceptive. If you’re in the business of providing a service then you are giving the impression of a full work force and if your ‘company’ delivers the service as expected then why should the customer think any different about the size of your company.
Sure it’s not maliciously deceptive, but still, I just say “I”, because it’s just me.
Another point somebody made is that if you pretend to be a team of devs, people might expect more from you than you can deliver as a solo dev. When an update is coming slowly, people don’t understand why because they think you have a dozen people working on it, when really you are alone.
It’s also not just about size. “I” implies a single, consistent individual, and “individual” doesn’t just mean “one”, it also implies individuality. Even if a company is staffed by just one person it’s quite possible that they’ll change over time, especially if the company is a subsidiary business unit of another company, or a franchise, or something like that. “We” might only be one person at a time, but it could be a different person each time, and they’re probably acting in accordance with some system or policy rather than as an individual making their own choices.
Though… none of that is likely to be particularly relevant to a one-man “studio” which has never released a game, etc.
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That’s the main reason I use we (wait, we use we?) in stuff like that – I’m representing my company, Three Ring Ranch, and that’s a we. Even when there’s only one employee (me) it’s a we, because I’m speaking for the company.
On top of that, I don’t make decisions and build things in a vacuum – I may be the sole proprietor of my company, but there are smart people that I regularly brainstorm with so the policies and products I come up with usually have some sort of “we” behind them.
Jay
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On the other hand. If you say “We are working on an update” people would think more than one person is working on an update.
In other words they’ll have big expectations on your update. 
If that were true we’d expect Unity 5 yesterday, because don’t they have hundreds of engineers working on it? 
Jay
A lot of people do expect Unity Feature X, Unity X, and Unity 5 yesterday… Maybe it’s just one individual engineer, using the Royal We, and a few actors.
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yeah its because it seems to sound better to the player audience …
but also, when its just one guy people get impressed (if its a good game) like Unturned, some people have said “this game was just by one 16 yr old kid its pretty awesome!”
… I was wondering about this… Iam working on a game alone… and wondering if Id say we or me…
, when i get to the phase where I will really be producing alot of prop models or, just filling in all the item stats, i have a friend or 2 that are willing to help me… they arent totally into game making, but they have technical knowledge… and they know how to 3d model
… so… i was thinking of we… but they will do barely anything relatively … so im not sure… of course, im not even there yet…