Tag: expectations

What to do next

So, left the AAA industry what do I do next, I can get contracts but I need a company setup, what should I do, it should be easy right, right?

Registering a company is conceptually simple and practically exhausting.

Forming a limited company in the UK is, on paper, a 15-minute job. You file with Companies House, pick a name, and you’re done. What nobody mentions is the second, third, and fourth layers, the business bank account that requires a bunch of documentation, the accountant conversations about whether to be VAT registered from day one, the understanding of what you can and cannot run through the company. It’s not hard. It’s just relentless in a way that creative work is not.

It might not seem like it but all the admin work will need separate hours, you will need to make sure everything is up-to-date, send invoices, review and sign contracts, and anything involving government documents is always fun.

The thing I underestimated the most wasn’t the bureaucracy of going solo. It was the sales side. When working for a big studio, work arrives, someone puts a ticket in a system, it gets assigned, you do it. The idea that you’d have to reach out, talk with companies, understand their needs and then convince them, they need someone like you to do it, is much harder than it seems.

The creative outlet is the whole reason any of this is worth it.

I might seem weird going from AAA to indie in order to be creative, and now you need to do a bunch of admin work, plus contract work, but it is very much worth it, I had ideas I was never going to get to build. I knew the companies I worked for could not make them, either, they were the wrong size for a studio, too niche for the market they wanted, too weird to get green lit, or too personal to survive a team review. Solo development exists precisely for these things.

Right now I’m prototyping something small, it’s not going to be mind-blowing, it is not going to be the latest and greatest game ever, but I hope it will be fun for some people and that is enough for me. I’m using tools I’ve never used before, I’m learning new skills I never had to think about, I can make decisions that would have required a meeting in a big studio. I finally feel what I thought AAA has going to feel like, I feel like I can create.

Keeping expectations in check

I have heard many aspiring game devs say “I’m not going to make a game I wouldn’t play” and even though I agree that you should work on games you like to play you need to keep your expectations in check. If you only play major AAA games like Fifa, Zelda, Uncharted or Halo you are probably not going to make a game like that as your personal project.

Start small and simple

I have heard many experienced game devs talks where their number one advice to aspiring devs is to start by doing small simple games which don’t take a lot of time to finish. This is not only to lower devs expectations, but to also make them understand that by completing personal projects you are gaining precious experience. The first game you complete probably won’t match your expectations but you need to keep in mind that these personal projects are stepping stones and that once you finish one the next one you create will be bigger and better than the previous one. Now just because you are doing a smaller game that doesn’t mean it can’t be a fun game, finding what makes a game “FUN” is great skill to have, and it can make want to play games you never thought before.

Sonic Maze - one of my first games circa 2009
Sonic Maze – one of my first games circa 2009

Surpassing expectations over time

Like I mention in my previous post about lack of motivation I do believe personal projects are very useful to get into the gaming industry but like everything in life it takes time to make it right. I would like mention a game dev youtube channel I follow called Sebastian Lague, on the 1st of January 2020 he posted a video called My First 10 Years of Game Development. In the video you can see the progression of his projects over time and with each project they grow in size and quality, probably always surpassed his initial expectations.

Sebastian Lague Youtube video – My First 10 Years of Game Development

What I’m expecting from my game

I know its not going to win any awards but I’m making to game to understand how far have my game dev skills developed in the last 5 years, my expectations are that the game I create now is better than the one that came before it, to make something from start to finish that I can say I did it all and to display on my portfolio. While I wouldn’t say the original game has fun to play I think I found something this time, what I believe the “FUN” part of the original game should have been.