I'm 6 months into an independent game studio. Right now it's just me and some freelancers.
I'm in the process of finalizing all of the paperwork for the business and hope to have our game in testing by the end of the month. The bottom line is it's way more work than I anticipated. I'm not inexperienced either, this my third company.
I've been running a software business since the beginning of 2011. The amount of work in one game dwarfs the amount of work in a utility app. There's just no comparison. I'm confident we're making a unique and fun game (iOS first, later Android) and I am paying a lot of attention to promoting the company and our game, but I really don't expect to make much money this year on it.
Two years before the company is paying off seems about right. My first company (bricks and mortar) took around two years before we were out of crisis mode. I think the app stores give people a false impression of what it takes to build a business and see your hard work turn into something meaningful.
The upside is there is incredible upside potential in the video game market, especially if you're running a lean shop. Having said that, I'm not doing it for the money as much as I'm doing it to build something that I'll be happy working on 5 or even 10 years from now.
I don't think people should approach it (unless they are just hobbyists) because making games is fun. It's not really fun after the initial conceptualization is done. It's mostly just hard work. Dull, repetitive, never-ending work. I get through it by exercising religiously and paying attention to my diet. I also take off at least every other weekend to relax and hang out.
[promo] If you're interested in hearing about the game's progress, please follow us at twitter.com/rapidfirestudio [/promo]
Same here! I'm about 6 months in and working alone, but inexperienced on the biz end. It turns out that my simple project is way more work than I realized up front. Definitely more than the last ruby on rails web app I built, and that was moderately complex. Luckily with experience in code, art, animation, and music, I can avoid major costs up front.
But the black art of game design is a little new to me (other than from playing and observing other games), and really it is the trickiest part, it's the glue that binds everything together. This could end up a lifelong obsession, and one could easily spend a lifetime tinkering to master it.
I have a similar tactic for combatting the crazy amount of work: more vegetables and long walks. I think it works...
I'm in the process of finalizing all of the paperwork for the business and hope to have our game in testing by the end of the month. The bottom line is it's way more work than I anticipated. I'm not inexperienced either, this my third company.
I've been running a software business since the beginning of 2011. The amount of work in one game dwarfs the amount of work in a utility app. There's just no comparison. I'm confident we're making a unique and fun game (iOS first, later Android) and I am paying a lot of attention to promoting the company and our game, but I really don't expect to make much money this year on it.
Two years before the company is paying off seems about right. My first company (bricks and mortar) took around two years before we were out of crisis mode. I think the app stores give people a false impression of what it takes to build a business and see your hard work turn into something meaningful.
The upside is there is incredible upside potential in the video game market, especially if you're running a lean shop. Having said that, I'm not doing it for the money as much as I'm doing it to build something that I'll be happy working on 5 or even 10 years from now.
I don't think people should approach it (unless they are just hobbyists) because making games is fun. It's not really fun after the initial conceptualization is done. It's mostly just hard work. Dull, repetitive, never-ending work. I get through it by exercising religiously and paying attention to my diet. I also take off at least every other weekend to relax and hang out.
[promo] If you're interested in hearing about the game's progress, please follow us at twitter.com/rapidfirestudio [/promo]