Building a studio from scratch: Week 7

Week 7

I’ve really started to embrace the indie development scene and am starting to meet a lot of people through Twitter and LinkedIn.

I’m really starting to enjoy the freedom of working when I like – don’t get me wrong, I’m working harder than ever before, but it just doesn’t seem like it. I love meeting people for lunch to talk business and not have to watch the clock, it helps that it’s been really sunny recently too so it’s beer gardens all the way, and then maybe work the evening to balance everything out.

This has got me thinking (the indie games scene, not the lunches!). I wonder how many indie developers there are. Has anyone compiled a list?

I found a couple of hundred on Wikipedia, but that can’t be all of them. I also found a few hundred on www.squidoo.com/indie-games, but there are at least 30 developers in my area that aren’t listed, so there must be more.

So, I’d like to throw down a challenge – if you’re an indie developer get in touch, if you send me a logo and a 1 line description, I’ll see if I can pull the list together – I’ll at least add you to the links page on my website!

Anyway, back on to the development.

So having discussed the underwater game after getting a very basic test working on the iPhone we set about defining the style, I sketched a few ideas down and tried a few things out to help us decide which style to choose.

We were torn between the look of the realistic looking enemies and the illustrative ones – I think we’re going to have to see them moving on a background to really decide.

Total money spent so far: £292.63

Negatives
– No cash in the business at the moment, but this may be a short term problem
– We haven’t nailed down the art style, so we are trying a few options

Positives
– Things are progressing, the personal relationships are good and we are working well together

The Pixel Bullies
andy@thepixelbullies.com
www.thepixelbullies.com
Twitter – @AndyGahan