I spent a long time mentally preparing to become an indie. I read and soaked up as much literature about it as possible. And I didn’t just focus on the stories of fast cars, hot women, and global adulation (you know, the usual staples of indie life). No, I also paid attention to the many warnings of long arduous hours of work, financial challenges, and headache-inducing business issues.
I knew what I was in for, and was smart enough to know that I couldn’t magically sidestep these issues, that I would have to face them head-on, and because of this, I felt prepared. Balancing business, administrative and all the other development responsibilities is a challenge. Hell, balancing just the coding concerns between the short-term and long-term needs, the tools, the game play design, the code architecture, and performance is already a challenge. But trying to keep all these things going at the same time is nearly impossible.
A few weeks ago I was worrying about whether I could get some of the fundamental tech in my project working. Now I’m worrying about how and where to register a company, what taxes and insurances I will have to pay, and whether I need a lawyer and an accountant when I don’t even have a product, let alone revenue. I don’t know if I should be happy or concerned.
This post doesn’t end with some sage advice or a revelation. Today, I’m just using it for therapeutic reasons. Part of the effort I make each week is to try to find that balance. Perhaps the best of advice came from a good friend today: there is no sense of putting the cart before the horse. I don’t need to worry about the details of a company formation, when I don’t even have a prototype to pitch yet. And that does bring a bit of comfort to my over-worried, paranoid brain, even if it doesn’t solve my problem.
Work Done Last Week
The sandbox environment came along very nicely. I’ve got a little in-game editor now, complete with custom made programmer art, and some basic tools working, which allow me to rapidly add and remove objects, and customize my levels. It’s real-time, so the feedback is immediate, which is very cool. A couple features didn’t get finished, which have become top priority for this upcoming week (such as save and loading of levels).
Work Planned This Week
I am focusing most of my energy this week on furthering the sandbox environment, and on experimenting with game play ideas. It’s time to turn this tech demo into a game.
The rest of my week will be dedicated on shoring up the administrative side of the business. This includes doing a pass over my business and project plans, and making some headway on the issues of incorporation, tax and insurances. I’m not going to solve these issues, but just get some queries out. Information gathering and the likes.
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