"You come out and talk about some shit. It's fun." - Jorge Rodriguez on his indie meetup group.
Camera bag and notebook in hand, I glanced around the restaurant for the indie group that would be meeting tonight. It wasn't so hard: the table closest to a power outlet seated a guy with a "hacker" hat, another wearing something akin to a fedora, and several attendees with laptop bags, all seated around a central sprawling mass of greasy, heartburn inducing fries. Having attended these meetings a few times now, I already knew Jorge Rodriguez from PAX, also the developer of Digitanks. I wasn't too surprised to be greeted by an over-my-head discussion about the discrepancies between JavaScript, Action Script, and the variants of C. No need to feel intimidated, though, right?
"I'm a neuroscientist."
Damn. A man with a most respectable beard introduced himself to me, Vincent Toups, as a scientist and programmer. I introduce myself as a writer.
Indie developers have attained a status of some reverence lately; often buzzed about for their non-corporate, more design-oriented process, indies have won over our undying respect on a number of occasions. Identity is key in the games industry, and indie developers often rise to popularity via identification with unconventional marketing or gameplay strategies (Humble Indie Bundle, VVVVVV). Viewed as underdogs, indies have to design, develop, bug test, and publicize their creations with limited-to-no outside help; it's a long struggle, but in the case of games like Super Meat Boy, ingenuity pays off. The guys I met with had an unstructured round-table/musical chairs-style discussion that yielded plenty of useful information for upcoming indies.
When asked about what drove his development and design of games, Jorge ardently explained that it's not always about sensationalism (shocker!): "If I want to play it, chances are there are others who want to play it, and that's enough for me," one of the other group members, Bryan Taylor, expressed a similar standpoint: "If they believe in a game the way I believe in it, they'll stick around." The discussion honed in on small developers accepting the fact that they can't please everyone; it seemed unanimous that in small design, it's best to build with yourself in mind first. Keeping early concepts small and manageable is the key to success (proven by the 48 hour game-making challenge) -- and anything too large in scope or overly ambitious risks developer burn-out early in the process. Keep it simple and fun, neither of these is fundamentally easy, but it doesn't have to be a painstaking process either. You should be excited about your game, even if it's something as simple as Hubert's Safari Adventure.
Development will (hopefully) produce a game, and as an indie, it's hard to get the word out that you've even made one. Jorge recommended that new developers promote their games by "engaging media outlets," he told me that "word of mouth is important. Don't be afraid to email anyone you can. It's not ten easy steps. There's a little bit of magic to it." Coming from the media angle, I know that - for our site at least - we respond to any developer irrespective of size. The press websites and magazines love new ideas, and if indies can make the press feel like there might be a success story behind the game, it won't be long before news posts and features start going live.
All the press in the world won't fix rudimentary problems, though. Everything comes back around to the initial comments from Jorge and Bryan: it has to be fun. When talking to me about Digitanks a few months back, the man behind Lunar Workshop explained a phrase he had coined: "It has to have buckets of fun. You need to figure out where your buckets of fun are, and that's the hard part." The indies that meet locally every month often turn to one another for bug testing or gameplay discussion; it's sort of enthralling to watch how conversations between indies unfold. Mechanical, conceptual, and development techniques are all game for critique. The meetup group provides a system of like-minded developers to those who cannot afford (or do not want) an entire team, and the more casual environment incubates ideas that are shared with the group. Beer helps, too.
The industry has recently exploded with people who want to develop new apps and games with the intent of getting rich, especially with the ludicrous overnight success that is Minecraft. It'll be a long, long time before we see the 'next Minecraft,' so best listen to the experienced devs and keep what's important close to the heart: fun, creativity, and a touch of the real person element that larger development houses lack.