Finding the lost gamedev tribe!

You probably noticed that last week ended with the Game Awards. If you didn’t, you might’ve seen all these new trailers that showed up on Friday.

The Game Awards is something fascinating, as we are all happy about game successes, especially those of indie games. Like Clair Obscur and such. But there are indies, and there are indies. And there are many shades of success when you’re an indie.

Gamers turned Gamedevs can dream about being featured during the Game Awards, or being awarded, or even being the guy who makes the witty comment (although hardly anyone can surpass Josef Fares). Nobody dreams about being the flute guy; he’s one of a kind, an unrepeatable persona!

But what we are actually missing are true indies. Struggling indies. Indies that desperately need a spotlight. You hear about viral indie hits like Balatro or Celeste at the Game Awards. But this is the peak. This is the party that Cinderella went to, but she went viral because of a fairy godmother. Damn, we all wish we had a fairy godmother...

But what about all the Cinderellas that didn’t make it? When did they fail? When did they stop climbing this celebrity deathmatch?

Allow me to share, the...

Gamedev Community Hierarchy

1. Game Awards attendee

People winning, even attending game awards, are basically the very peak of the entire gamedev community. They’re mostly AAA, or people who worked for it for ages (but not all hard-working people get to be seen), or just hobbyists that suddenly achieved viral success (what we all want, but no one knows how to achieve that).

Long story short. Probability you will join this group = less than 1%.

2. Ported to every possible platform

Some games don’t get to be mentioned at the Game Awards, but still, they get to be on every platform (and by platform, I mean PC and consoles, not just digital platforms). What’s the difference? Well, they probably have a publisher that is handling all the porting. Someone with money believed in them. Nevertheless, they achieved a big success!

Probability you will join the group = 10%.

3. Hit on Steam

Imagine being successful on one platform. Given the fact that most sales are achievable on Steam (debatable) will stick with that. Why not go further? Well, maybe they plan that, maybe they don’t. The fact is - they focused on one platform and kinda nailed it.

Probability you will join the group = 15%.

4. 100 fans

I believe every hardworking person can get here. It’s a personal success, unfortunately, hardly anything else. But still, it’s a reason to pop that champagne bottle!

Probability you will join the group = 50%.

5. YOU ARE HERE

Welcome to Limbo.

No one knows about your existence.

No one wants to buy your game. Everyone is hesitant. Some would give you a chance.

And yet, many people are here and are surviving. Or at least they’re coping.

Of course, many people in this group publish games that lack polish, are not accessible, have clear issues, and so on. Among many people who do the opposite.

Probability you will join the group = just make and publish a game.

The point I’m trying to make is not leading to the conclusion that you’re screwed (I mean, it’s obvious, right?).

Aiming straight at the top is a bit of an impossible mission. And your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to learn how to go from 5 to 4.

There are a few answers on how to achieve that.

One is marketing (like Twitter marketing), the other is communities.

You can create your own community (like a YouTube channel or a Substack newsletter) or join an existing one. By community, I also mean limiting your reach to a group of active passionates, like Playdate community or Pico-8 passionates, or maybe you can achieve that on Raylib’s Discord channel, Unity’s / Unreal’s forum.

Not only can they share their competencies with you, but they can also root for you.

Derek Yu, the creator of Spelunky, worked for his success while sharing his work on TIGForums.

Today, there are many courses surrounding popular courses, like Thomas Brush’s Full-time Gamedev, and perhaps even Tim Ruswick’s Gamedev.tv.

The community doesn’t have to be big. Who knows, maybe it should not even be big.

Some time ago, when the Ask Gamedev YouTube channel was still alive, they had quite an interesting pick of communities.

Sometimes, I look in the mirror and think: You will never become famous.

But that doesn’t lead me to cancel my dreams.

Surprisingly enough, I just want to have a game made. And then another one. Something of my own.

But I need to stop thinking of the red carpet. Maybe if I can lower my expectations, have fun, learn, find my tribe, my community, and show and tell, then one day, one day...