Striking out as an indie developer can be an overwhelmingly bewildering experience.
The world seems to share the opinion that you knock up a game in a couple of days, sling it on an app store, then go for a swim in your giant pool of gold coins.
Alas, the reality is that it’s really bloody hard work, and the monetary rewards are often far lower than you’d expect.
The average indie developer makes less than $12,000 US a year. At the current exchange rate, that’s less than £8,000/€11,000. That barista you just got a coffee from earns far more than your average indie developer. Hell, that barista probably was an indie developer, working a second job to make ends meet while they fund their passion.
In an effort to make things a little less bewildering for indie developers, particularly those who may just be starting out and have no experience of this strange and convoluted world, some nice folks with plenty of experience in games PR have put together a new online resource called the IndieDevKit.
Here’s what they had to say about it:
“We created IndieDevKit because we passionately believe no one should have to rely on anecdotal information to make critical decisions for their studio or game launch. After watching people make the same mistakes over and over again because they could not afford help, we wanted to make our experience accessible to all studios, even those who are bootstrapping.” – Leonie Manshanden, CEO, IndieDevKit.
And here’s their description of what it covers:
Topics covered by the site range from operational guides on Legal Basics to specific marketing and communication documents such as Anatomy of a Modern Press Release. Alongside this are a set of interactive tools, for example a Budget Wizard designed to help studios get started, as well as resources such as a vendor directory for commonly needed support services. More material and iterations on the existing offerings will be added over time. All IndieDevKit’s materials have been carefully crafted by the founders and vetted by other experts, developers and official data sources.
Which is a far better explanation than we could manage.
Search for indie game development books and guides on Amazon.
