Home Archive Writer for ‘Unrest’ on Kickstarter developers – “you are not Valve”

Writer for ‘Unrest’ on Kickstarter developers – “you are not Valve”

by GH Staff
Unrest

The last few years have taken an interesting turn for the video game industry. Beginning arguably with games such as Minecraft and its enormous success, the indie scene received a massive boom, cultivating in projects such as Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter. It’s not really until now that an indie developer has come out and provided a completely honest postmortem of their title, containing the good, the bad, the ugly, and a refreshingly transparent critique of the Kickstarter system.

Pyrodactyl Games’ Unrest is a story-driven RPG available on PC. Releasing to respectable reviews, the title soared past its Kickstarter goal of $3,000, gaining a funding of $36,251 in June last year. Now, after 13 months of development, lead writer Adam DeCamp has come out and written an incredibly detailed postmortem on Unrest. He covers topics such as what happens to the money, the pros and cons of using Kickstarter or a publisher, the team’s schedule, realistic expectations of the project, and general misconceptions of indie development as a whole.

He addresses the fact that “…the major assumption [among press and public] is that small indie teams are free-wheeling democracies that get by on goodwill and mutual trust,” detailing the ‘true-not-true’ stereotype that indie studios have far greater freedom than their AAA counterparts. He instead clarifies that they had all the same contracts deadlines, lawyers, and chains of command that any large studio would; “just cheap versions, where applicable.”

One of the main points he made about indie gaming, aside from the public misconstruing the facts around developers and their projects, was actually directed at other developers. He stated a weakness in the indie scene is that everyone wants to work in an office like that of Valve, where personal projects are pursued free of infrastructure, deadlines, and executive meddling. The main pitfall is:

You are not ValveYou don’t have an endless stream of cash, endless leisure, a huge team that can cover any sudden holes, and all the chances in the world to get something right. You have nothing but your small team and other people’s’ money, and before you write one line of code, you need to cover your back.”

The rest of the expose, which you can read here, is full of interesting tidbits of information that largely discuss the need, and lack of, money. Not just from Kickstarter, but from having to work separate jobs to sustain a living and rent while they sink countless hours of their spare time into the project they want to publish.

His final point is quite clear: “Money makes games better.” To that end, he commends Kickstarter and its ability to provide an easy source of funding from backer to developer, but also warns of developers who would just run off with the funds and no work to show for it.

So the next time you scoff at indie developers discussing their lack of money, and state that they should just be happy making games because they enjoy it, remember that point. Working on something you love full-time is far better than “chipping away at a project between shifts,” wouldn’t you say?

 

To disagree, drop a line to, or just have a chat with the author, follow him on Twitter ‘@alexconnellan‘.