Summary: 1. Having a launch date 2. Lock scope 3. Not being lonely 4. Be yourself 5. Not Crunching 6. Making your own decisions 7. Hater management 8. Accepting the game as it is 9. Launching on a single platform 10. Not obsessing over Numbers 11. Setting a realistic goal before hand
Hi Tim, I just stumbled upon your channel a week ago and watched a lot of your videos - really inspiring! We are a team of two students and will actually launch our first game in a few days. It's been two years of work and is a great coincidence that I found your videos just in time. Last weekend, I set up a google ads campaign. We have no experience with marketing but your videos helped me understand it better and now we're trying to get as much information out of the release as we can. It's a VR game, so I guess the situation is pretty different than for PC games and I'm so excited how it will turn out for us! Anyways, I will keep watching your videos and can relate deeply to your situation :) Best wishes, Timo from ViSP
I am so grateful that I came across your videos, man. I have been going through so much "imposter syndrome" lately, and it feels to good to know that all of us creatives are not alone. I'm a sound designer and composer and working on SFX/Music for a VR game, and this really pumped me up not ONLY for keep going with my audio stuff.... but watching all your vids also got me thinking.... I REALLY want to learn some basic coding. Thanks, Tim! I love your positivity and encouraging personality. Looking forward to purchasing Philophobia soon! Take care.
Thanks for those advices. Most of them hit home for me. I've been developing my first indie game for 2 years on the side, and haven't been successful in marketing. I stumbled upon your video while searching how to market an indie game, and this video brings my mindset back to balance :)
Yo I just discovered this channel after a few years of studying and developing games and I've gotta say this is probably one of the most inspirational and informative channels about gamedev on RU-vid. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us!
"I don't believe in killing yourself to create art." Tim... so true. You found the exact right words which are SO important for every artist. I know myself that it can be pretty difficult to follow this mantra, especially if you are on a creative high. But seriously, everyone will break down after while without breaks, even if you love what you do. And what is it worth if you kill your creativity or the ability to give form to the creative ideas that you have? Take care everyone and go on creating great games.
It's truly wonderful seeing the real Tim Ruswick come out! I've always loved your channel but this is on a whole new level of engaging! There's some really great tips in there I will be sure to learn from and some that can definitely apply to my game development. I wish you well going into the future with your channel!
I think it's important to see a game in the context of your life/career. Sometimes even if a game doesn't sell well it can still help you meet people, find work, etc. If nothing else you're always gaining experience.
Wooo bout time you uploaded a vid! Was starting to think you were going through something and was gonna message you on Discord to see how you were doing. Loving Philophobia bro :D
Tim, this was awesome! I could really feel your confidence and personality shine through on this one. You also gave some invaluable advice that extends to all artists, not only game developers! Well done
You look a lot healthier here than on your old videos! Good job man, I wish you get even healthier, cause health means a longer life and a longer life means more games from you!
Ok you soft launched on Itch.Io, you can use that to find the major bugs, then it's time to put it in steam and every platform you can. Putting it on the other platforms is the easy part compared with all the work you've put in. It's like running a race for 4 years and getting to the finish line for a $10,000 prize and then people saying if you run for one more week you can at least double that and going nope 4 years is enough for me thankyou. You have until the end of next January to get it onto every platform you can do they can get organized into the valentines sales and bundles. (maybe earlier, this kind of thing is always organized long in advance)
I'll tell you something Tim: I was avoiding your videos for long long time - I really didn't like to watch your staff and I almost hated to watch you talking - for ages! And today I finally became your subscriber, man :) I can see finally the man who is really himself and who finally really know what he is talking about. I'm truly surprised, but real "new" Tim is awesome man. That's the change! :D Keep the good job and all the best with your games buddy ;)
What would be the "bare-bones" assets or bullet points you would create by yourself before bringing in additional help for your project? Would starting a channel be the first step, to document and start an interest? Great video. Thanks.
My thoughts on point 10 - Not Obsessing over the Numbers Ignoring the stats seems extreme. Maybe we can take the drop of numbers constructively and take actions to improve? Anyway, key phrase is "not obsessing". As you've said on your other videos - everything in moderation. Thanks for these tips.
Sage advice for any an Indie Game Developer to consider. I respect your advice and stance on how to handle the world of crap that comes your way in this field. Good knowledge and understanding how to apply is a great way to succeed. Good Job Tim😁👍
Wow! That was a great video. I myself make games next to my full time job with the dream of doing it full time some day. But at the moment I'm too scared to make the step. And I think I first have to build an audience before I can really go into it. I would like to see more videos like this!
Haven't really been following you (sry :( ) but I can feel the change! And while it was harder to get the 11 different points (idk add a little banner), I really enjoyed the tone and say to convey your message! Keep it up
This video was so good that I went to click the subscribe button, only to remember I had done that ages ago xD. Thanks for sharing all this knowledge. Something interesting you said was that 10k was a success, yet not worth the 4 year dev cycle. Would that mean there are successes that aren't all that worth it on one level, but solid on another? I hope that makes sense.
Just remembered something about "negative" reviews. Some people will give negative reviews (even dislikes on videos like this) because they feel that the current/future rating will otherwise not be accurate. I've seen people give negative opinions on games that they actually like.
Nice lighting in the video, also great video, have seen most of yours, but haven’t checked your game at all, but it would be cool to see someone else play/review it. Did you get any unbiased reviews yet, if the game is released?
There will always be negative people around that try to dismiss hard work. I always like to scroll through Steam reviews and read the negative ones that are basically 'This game is terrible (600 hours played)'.
6h a day is crunch? I don't get it. I'm from Brazil, and I don't know how things work there, but if a person doens't work at least 8h a day (the standard here), he's a intern or "working less then it should". I try to work at least 8h a day the whole project, varying from 4h (while I'm little down) to 14h (really excited or behind schedule)
It's the same in the US. 8 hrs 5 days per week is a normal schedule. He stated at 7:58 that he thinks 6 hrs a day is NOT crunch. I'm not sure who would. I would agree, 6 hrs per day is on the safe side, definitely not crunch.
I'd guess people who are working 40 to 50 or more hours per week at a job and / or are married and / or have children. A lot of people aren't doing this stuff full-time and 6 hours every day in these scenarios is huge.
I do between 10 h/week on average on my game project, mainly at evening or at night, the rest of my time is dedicated to my full time dev job 40h/w and my two daugters. That's not a crazy amounth of time but it's a lot when you have to take it on your sleep time trust me!
More authenticity yields more and better fans. I follow that. But are those fans buyers? I would think that the kind of people who would watch another person developing would be fellow programmers. I would think that fellow programmers MIGHT also be game buyers. But I'd think (in this case) it might work better to try to reach a bunch of fans who like platformer etc. style games than fans of programming. Looking forward to more details of what you did that you feel worked or didn't. Note: I can understand all kinds of positives from streaming the development - from accountability to getting fans. However I don't see that people who enjoy watching someone else program are necessarily platform game buyers. Then again, as you suggested in some other video - you might be able to come out with any product and have a useful percentage of your fans buy it.
I stopped watching your channel a while back since I didn't like the style of content you did. I believe I put a comment on the last video I saw telling you what problems I saw with the style. Recently I saw your video on the numbers of philophobia, and I really liked that style. Now I see you have changed your style completely, and I must say, I like it a lot. However you are a bit too close to the camera for me, but I can deal with that.
No offense but I think that it was a mistake not to launch it on steam, I heard about your game some time ago and I tried to look it up on steam and since I couldn't find it I did not buy it. I'm not saying that you should have done like a big game launch on steam and to work on promoting your game on that platform, just put it there if you can.
Damn, maybe i am drunk, but i don't like cocky Tim. Those quick edit cuts and superstar persona just irritate me. I've stopped movie at 3mins something and i dont want to watch rest of this. Where the hell is old Tim!!!!!
