Indie Developer

I feel as though I should not use such a sacred title as 'Indie Developer'. I'm not Notch. I have no huge successes in games. I have created games only slightly more complex than text based rpgs or basic arcade games. Recently I learned how to make OpenGL applications and combined it with SDL to allow cross-platform development. It feels like too bold a claim, and yet 'Indie Developer' is just under the title of my blog.

I've been a problem solver for ages. I love the way programming grows the toolset for problem solving. Specific languages can be great at certain tasks, and exploring the methods and design goals of various languages is a great way to tap into that knowledge of fellow problem solvers. Not just at a surface level, as in how a language performs a certain routine programming idea, but at the much deeper why the designer chose to implement the feature in that way. Give me pointers or give me death. Well, that is development, but being independent is something else entirely.

All that 'independent video game development' means is creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. I meet this description just fine. I'm aiming at computer platforms only, specifically looking at Linux, Max OS, and Windows.

The game I want to play doesn't exist yet. That game will never exist unless I make it. But I can't start making that game yet. After a few hours of iteration planning I have it down to five main components. Four of these components can be found in current games but I've only ever seen them done independently. It's the fifth component that would solidify the game as something that other developers would not be able to simply recreate. The fifth component is a very specific type of artificial intelligence that I have been personally researching for quite some time.

So what is this game? Well, I am a part of the first generation of gamers that grew up with games during the rise of commercial gaming. The key point being that generation is old enough to have their own gaming children. Who is bridging this gap? I played co-op Halo with my wife and we both loved it; she still bugs me to play it on occasion. But where are those games that both my kids and I are looking forward to playing together? I don't mean a simple concept here, I'm talking about nothing short of 'transgaming' aimed at an audience that is simply not being served yet.

None of the toy games I've made are games that I want to be known for making. But every developer knows that you “must” create small games before you start on the dream project. And personally I want far more experience creating games before I delve into my masterpiece. Therefore, the initial plan is to start by making a prototype based on one component of the five that make up the dream project. Each component should stand as a complete game experience by itself. This will serve two purposes: first, it gets me more experience developing games from start to finish; second, knowing the amount of time that it will take to implement each component will give me a better estimate of how long the rest of project will take. If I get into a situation where my budget cannot hold and I must look for monetary support, this will help give me an idea of how much I may need to finish the rest of the project. Or, how much I need to cut from the project.  Estimation is hard, but every little bit of recorded progress can help make it more accurate.