Although I am extremely new to the world of Indie development; in regard to actually being a developer. I feel as though I’m at least well equipped enough to state one simple fact that perhaps developers of all kind and not just of the indie persuasion will agree with. The hardest job we face in this world isn’t the workload, the deadlines, the PR, or the internet bridge trolls. Our hardest boss battle in game making is the wait.
I’ve learned over the past seven months that the wait game is impossibly difficult. You can set a goal for yourself and get this pixel done or this amount of coding completed, but nothing you do will make the clock tick faster. It doesn’t matter how hard you work your greatest enemy is waiting to become something more then someone sitting in their bedroom, office, or on the toilet pressing the refresh button like an attention-starved zombie. It’s not that we are necessarily ‘seeking’ attention but we are in this circle to become more then ourselves. We are looking to make something that will change people’s perspectives and maybe even their hearts. So when you spend an hour or two refreshing page and view one goes to view three hundred you find a almost euphoric feeling wash over you.
Even the bad comments are good. It’s recognition, at least for me. I feel like even if it’s just someone making a stink, they still took the time to type their poison out in the box. That took them effort, even if it was just to be a horrible person. It is always best not to get discouraged either because at the end of the day there will be at least one person who says ‘I like it." or "Hey this art is pretty cool’; that’s really all I need. I might not be a veteran in this game of indie development and I’m not even very old, but I do know one thing. We are always waiting; all our lives to have some kind of impact on the world. The waiting game of having people approve, disagree or fall in love with what you create is a long one.
