Slumps... We all get in them. For good reasons too, especially in the game development world. It's so easy to get discouraged.
The excitement you feel when your game hits the store is unlike anything else. A few days go by and the sales are minimal, if nothing at all. Sure, we all get into a slump after a discouraging hit like that. Who wouldn't? Let me tell you, I was in a slump not too long ago. I had been working on my latest title SpaceRoads since my wife and I got married, 2 years ago. I put a lot of effort into it. I released trailers, gameplay videos, and screenshots to get hype for the game. I even paid to advertise my trailers. However, I didn't get the kind of response I was looking for. I got discouraged and halted development on the game.
I lost my job shortly after this happened, which left me even more discouraged. One day, feeling all doom and gloom, I turned on my Apple TV, loaded up some Netflix, and I started looking for a good laugh. Under the new releases section, I saw a documentary I had never seen before—Indie Game: The Movie.
By the time I finished watching that documentary, I was in tears. I felt everything the developers went through.
The movie follows the development of two of the biggest indie titles ever released: FEZ and Super Meat Boy.
Let's start with Phil Fish, the Canadian developer of FEZ. No doubt you have heard his story.
Phil Fish had been developing FEZ for three years. Every one was hyping about it. The mechanics of the game were unseen and totally amazing! A 2D game in a manipulative 3D world. Because there was so much hype over the game, people got impatient to the point that people were getting very angry with Phil. They started to hate him. After four years of incognito (from the time he showed the prototype), Phil planned to show FEZ at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) in Boston, a show that sees over 60,000 people in the weekend of the event. This was the first time anyone would be able to play FEZ. The pressure was on. Not only for Phil to finish a playable demo for the expo, but his former partner left the project and became involved in a huge legal battle.
Phil and his former partner had a matter of days to settle up; if they didn't, Phil wouldn't be able to show FEZ at PAX.
One signature, that's all that was needed. Everything was ready for PAX; the game was ready to go and his booth was printed and ready, but he needed that one signature to sign off on the project.
Imagine the frustration and stress one would feel in that situation. Who wouldn't freak out? You spent all that money, traveled from Montreal to Boston, and there's a risk of everything falling apart. One signature, one day left!
FEZ went on to PAX. Phil's partner agreed to release the project, and in the first day, FEZ sold 20,000 units. To compare, Braid, one of the biggest selling indie games before FEZ, sold 55,000 units in the first week.
All that frustration, all the errors and debugging and humongous headaches, but Phil Fish did it. That breath of fresh air when he saw the first sales figures!
To see what he went through, for me, was certainly an inspiration.
A screenshot from FEZ
The next game is what brought me to tears, because there were real tears that were shed in the movie.
Super Meat Boy, developed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, was released on Xbox Live Arcade in 2010, with PC, OS X, and Linux releases to follow soon after.
Development started in January 2009, and the game was noticed immediately. Dubbed the most anticipated game of the year in 2010, it was certainly a big hit. Imagine again the excitement on release day as you go to turn on your Xbox to see your game on the front page... it's not there. A year of development, a highly anticipated game, killing themselves to get the game out, all for nothing. The stress the two went through. Tommy was almost a train wreck, and I understood.
The two devs were promised a front spot on Xbox Live Arcade; they rushed and pushed as hard as they could to reach the deadline from Microsoft, and they weren't there. Release day is the biggest sale date of any game; the majority of your sales will happen that day, and being promised a front spot on one of the biggest gaming outlets is a big deal! Eight hours into release day, the game was finally released. 10,000 units at 2:00 PM that day. Edmund said that in those ten hours, Super Meat Boy made more money than he did in the last six years put together.
Elation... Tears.
A screenshot from Super Meat Boy
The sacrifices these two guys made to make the game were all of a sudden worth it. Here's what got me. As Edmund and his girlfriend were watching the reviews, his girlfriend started crying, and felt that the sacrifices finally seemed worth it. It gets even better. Tommy, whose family made huge sacrifices for him, including remortgaging their house, paid off his parents' debt.
Edmund and his girlfriend bought a house, and a hairless cat.
Soon after that, Tommy and Edmund started working on their next game. Who wouldn't, after such a success?
Granted, these stories don't happen to everyone, but to know that the biggest indie developers to make it huge went through tribulation, and spent their blood sweat and tears, never giving up and going from having absolutely nothing to being able to pay off their parents' debts, for me is encouragement enough.
Watch the documentary. It's amazing. (There is a lot of language in it, so beware!)
