Ten Lessons from an Indie Dev

Last year, C.Y. Reid created a game called Hug Marine. It’s a reasonably simple platformer with some great music, in which you’re a marine travelling through a series of levels in order to find aliens that need a hug. You can play Hug Marine here.

Reid has been a game developer for just over a year now and has published a post covering the lessons he’s learned over the past twelve months. There are some great gems among them, and definitely some good advice that applies to any creative work.

I’ll see faults that aren’t there. Now, I did wonder if this was the OCD, but it’s not – it’s just general worry that the levels are boring, that the puzzles are too simple, and so on. But again, this simply isn’t something you can judge yourself. I’ve seen people smile and laugh as they’re surprised by the level layout of Hug Marine despite me seeing it as the most boring thing ever. Why do I see it that way? Because I made it. It holds no secrets for me.

And later:

I am my games. I once said that Hug Marine wasn’t really representative of me. One day, someone questioned that, and I thought about it and realised that in a lot of ways, it was a game I made about my love of hugging and physical intimacy during a period of my life where that was psychologically difficult. My games aren’t always about my personal thoughts and problems, but when I look at them they’re definitely my view of the world, and I like that.

It’s definitely worth a read. Check out the full post – Year One of Failnaut: Ten Things I’ve Learned.