The first talk was great. Solo developers can get caught up following professional project management methods but forget the factor of individual motivation. E.g., it might be faster to first deal with the most complex problem, but making small wins working on art or marketing along the way helps you to stay motivated.

Was amazing to be involved in this! Hopefully you all can get some good nuggets out of it, along with being more prepared for the hidden pitfalls!

46:24 This is actually insanely important and probably underrated advice. There was a time in my life where I ended up stifling all of my random ideas in the name of "higher priorities", and it unwittingly spiraled me into 2-3 years of burnout and depression. This is all in retrospect, because at the time I thought I was doing the right thing, but it's extremely clear to me now that you *need* to give yourself the freedom to create and explore; eventually you'll find the balance of how much time you should set aside for those tangents, and sometimes those tangents turn out to be a core part of your final work! (Sometimes they turn out to be nothing too, but don't be discouraged, just have fun!) Overall I loved all of these speakers, really excellent session!

The talks were good. But their personal reflections were amazing. We really put these guys on a pedestal but we tend to ignore the emotional impact of solo development. The gratification when the project is finished is amazing but the journey there definitely seems like a rollercoaster.

The common refrain is to use temp assets to prototype gameplay and systems, so that you don't waste time remaking assets if systems demand it. It sounds like for solo devs accepting that risk is worth the boost in confidence that having art first grants.

I had my second project planned before releasing the first game, which helped me skip that depressing stage after releasing. There's really no happiness at the end of the road no matter how many sales you make, so gotta enjoy the adventure and hop on the next one right away.

Independent developers should bookmark this + "Cursed Problems in Game Design" also hosted by GDC. 2 of the best imo

Moving on is a great tip. I eventually came to realize how important it is to move on. Not only is it important to move on, but it's important to move on before it's too late. For me my cape was hair. I knew I should have just moved on but, I ended up ruminating on it for so long it knocked all of the wind out of my sails and demotivated me so much I stopped working on my project for months. As a solo dev moving on is a great way to give yourself small victories in other areas and to keep you motivated while you build momentum till you're ready loop back around and work on the more challenging areas.

I love how they all highlight different spectrum of solo development!

"That makes you want to do another game..." "It doesn't" Cuts deep

This is so great knowing the things I’ve felt are normal, ok and able to produce a game at the end of it. I hate planning which is why I love solo dev. No one to tell me different. And I’m super focused on what I want to do!

Everything about this was amazing, and couldn't be more relevant to what I'm doing. Thank you so much!

Great timing for this - been struggling the past few weeks with burn out on a long time project.

Such a great and relevant session! Each of the panelists had a ton of valuable insights to offer. Thank you!

Thank you for such great content for free.

That's the dream. Being able to create 3D art, code game mechanics and market it. I'll never have to work for someone else again. Working on my own terms at anytime, anywhere.

I'm absolutely stunned how much emotional i got with this speeches. Kind of like in the last public question I'm also doing a board game and I'm happy to hear that games take extremely long to port and that it is a rollercoaster of emotions and full of pitfalls to watch out for. But as long as I keep looking back at my younger self who started my "Streamers Ace Project" I can't make him sad and quit. Thanks for that amazing talk and all your effort you all put into it.

Needed this today. Thanks for the truthful & practical insight.

Damn, the part with Tomas Sala got real. Mad respect.

glab all this information is noe easily available compared to having to learn everything by yourself years ago

Another day, another indie experience. Love it.

Great format and great speakers. I saw bits of myself in all of them. Especially on the mental health side.

Yes, all of this I have already faced before. thanks for the super cool videos that are so helpful

i totally agree with art from the start. it really does help get you grounded a developer having your own identity and whatnot

Thanks for the information all, was very helpful!

Oof. Some big, good advice here that I was not prepared to hear. Don't risk my own money. That's going to be tough. Great, great discussion, thank you to all the speakers.

Bravo. Been saying similar things for a few years too. Haven't published yet but I've been on a journey lol eventually it'll be completed, but yes a lot of great tips/recommendations here. Ive kept a lot of the early stuff to myself so as not to confuse the game's "target audience ", while legalities are quite barbaric for small indies whom are worried about IP, still yet I know about expectations of buyers and having been a "gamer" for my whole lifetime and a mod maker for a long while too, it's important to me that prospectively players of my game(s) will be satisfied that they got what they expected it to be. The fact that im also trying to make a game that feels very different from existing games, pretty much means I can't really show much of anything until a demo is ready. No backers or employees so I could unfortunately still punk out before its complete lol but I just keep myself enjoying the process by taking breaks when needed while generally making something daily towards the goal. It's a lot to do though haha. I actually spent so much time in pre production trimming the scope down and making sure I could personally figure out how to implement each thing that would "make the cut" for first game... But yes, definitely consider keeping some of those good ideas for a "game 2" and that's fine, but also if you feel like learning what works by just doing it that you still should congratulate yourself in that regard, as yes some devs like me will spend more time in pre production trying to find bugs or inconsistent game promises to the player and etc when I probably could have eventually gotten it to work by now if I had brute forced a few of those ideas (at the cost of later having to redo a lot of things). Haha best of luck to other independent developers and prospective developers. ~ Keep at it if you are passionate about it. Take breaks. Watch a lot of GCD but remember that it's your game and your choices.

Tomas Sala is such a cool dude

Thanks for sharing this

So many great tips and amazing personal stories here in this session.. Thanks to everybody for sharing your experience! This really gave me the boost I needed right now! - Love & Gratitude -

I thought everyone had something valuable to say. Great talk!

Awesome talk, needed this video

Enjoyed listening to this. Was burning out a bit today on working on my project now can keep coding :D

I missed the talks being hosted in physical place *.*

Work on something every day... Even if it's small. Some days you'll get caught up in it and six hours magically passes... other days you may finish that one little project in an hour and check the box, "Okay, I worked on it today." But the biggest challenge is always initially sitting down to work.. If you can just open blender, gimp, ue4, whatever, you've accomplished half of the battle for that day. But the thing that gets me the most in my depressed stage with solo development is that nothing gets done if you don't do it. So, yeah, try to work at least once a day no matter how much time that involves.

Great talk!

It is very helpful

I must be a weirdo. I've just released my first game and all I want is to start working on the next.

Im the dev of REMOTE LIFE...im solo dev...it was really hard...but i was lucky.Thanks GOD it was succesfull...

Summary of platform talk: "know somebody. If you don’t know somebody who can vouch for you, good luck." 😂

@22:20 yeah I was thinking of making a game that when critics talk about they simply say "Genre killer".

I can only agree with everything said :)

the guy who asked about tabletop games might want to know about The Game Crafter, which is a print-on-demand storefront (like Red Bubble for example) for board games.

10/10

Moonpath to elsewhere is such a good mod didn't know he made falconeer too

Do I have to worry about these AI stuff while pursuing game dev?

OUTPUT VOLUME 100

"How to get a deal: know someone already or I dunno I guess try to secure your career in under 5 minutes? haha good luck..." what a cool industry

I wanna make a game with my girlfriend :D

Why didn't they just allow the presenters to do their own slides? This was a good talk but it was distracting hearing "next slide" over and over.

Everything that isn't side scroller :D

Give Presenters their Slide Buttons "Next Next Back Back Next one Next One" Very Obnoxious

"Megan Fox" lmao okay bro.

I'm not listening to anything Megan Fox has to say about game dev lmao. She panders to the woke, she's no developer.