Recently, I was listening to a podcast and one of the panelists had an interesting point on how often times Indie developers are introverts or don’t like to talk as much. They instead use their game to lead and communicate with other people. However, as a result of that, they tend to create great games, but no one knows who they are. This is a statement I could personally agree with because it was the same thought I had when I was a kid and even now. I often don’t know who the developer is behind the games that I come to love these days. Instead, I just buy the game at face value and don’t really care who made it. In some ways, that’s fine, but I think we could do better as developers if we want to bring people back to the games that we make in the future if they like the first one. How? Let’s get into it.
Becoming More Than Just That Guy
In large AAA games, I don’t recognize anybody in the credits except maybe the voice actors near the top of the credits. The large groups of people who put the time in to create the game, I never really know who they are. But for Indie developers and small creators, it doesn’t have to be that way I think. There aren’t as many people on the project and everyone has the opportunity to shine in their role when they’re working on the project. They can be a part of the face of their game, especially because they can’t compete with a budget of a AAA game, they have to come with an interesting idea at a lower budget.
There are a couple of examples of this that we can draw upon, not only in the AAA space but also in the indie developer space as well. For example, there is Yoko Taro, Kojima, Yoshi P, Toby Fox, Temmy, Nina_muffin, Phantom Arcade, Kawai Sprite, Derek Yu, and much more. Each of these people is some form of a public figure, now the question is how can we do this for our own games?
Visibility
these creators have visibility in some way. Either they’ve been on the air, podcasts, or even just post things on Twitter. These actions create a sense of you viewing them as a real person, because, they are. That’s definitely something I want to cultivate as well. I think it’s a valuable lesson that will allow us to garner a following around the brand, the company, myself, rather than just someone who is interested in that one game I made. Once the game is a success, the creators should come forward.
With that said, have a good one and good luck game-making!!