My Wife and I Made an Indie Game and it Made Millions!

Summary

The speaker recounts the daring journey of quitting stable jobs to develop an indie game, 'Eastshade,' for five years. With life savings depleted and a move to the speaker's grandmother's house, the game eventually shipped, earning millions and changing their lives. The narrative details the game's evolution, from solo development to a full team effort, the innovative painting and inspiration mechanics, and the challenges of marketing and launch day. The story is a testament to the power of ideas, commitment, and the transformative impact of pursuing one's passion.

Takeaways

• 💡 The speaker and his wife quit their jobs to pursue an indie game development dream, investing all their savings and eventually achieving success after five years.
• 🎮 The game 'Eastshade' was inspired by the desire to create a strong sense of place and was developed with a focus on a cozy, safe environment for players.
• 🔥 A pivotal moment in the game's development was the 'painting mechanic', which was designed to reward players for exploring and experiencing the game world at a leisurely pace.
• 💡 Another innovative feature was the 'inspiration mechanic', tying player actions like reading, relaxing, and listening to music to the game's core gameplay loop.
• 👥 The development team grew over time, with significant contributions from the speaker's partner Jacine, a composer, a character artist, and additional contractors for specific tasks.
• 🏆 Despite facing financial challenges, the team managed to complete and launch the game, which has since made millions and changed their lives.
• 📈 The speaker emphasizes the importance of marketing, detailing various strategies such as creating polished assets, hiring a PR company, and being active on social media.
• 🏠 A memorable anecdote from the script is the team living with the speaker's grandmother during the final stages of development to save costs.
• ❄️ The launch day was fraught with challenges, including a massive snowstorm that threatened to disrupt the game's release, but was resolved just in time.
• 🍰 A touching moment was the 'Eastshade Pie' made by Jacine as a special gesture for the launch day, highlighting the personal investment in the project.
• 🚀 The success of 'Eastshade' has allowed the team to become a self-funded studio, with the freedom to pursue future projects without financial constraints.

Q & A

What was the motivation behind quitting jobs to create an indie game?

The motivation was the desire to create their own game, inspired by the success of other indie developers who managed to create impressive games solo or with minimal teams.

How did the initial development phase of Eastshade compare to later years?

The first year was filled with pure inspiration and a burning desire to create, which gradually turned into commitment as the project progressed and financial investments grew.

What role did Jacine play in the development of Eastshade?

Jacine started contributing significantly in the second year and by the fourth year was working full-time on the project, responsible for design, writing, UI art, in-game illustrations, and the conception and design of key game mechanics.

How did the team address the issue of survival mechanics conflicting with the intended feel of the game?

They introduced the painting mechanic, which rewarded players for taking their time and immersing in the game world, aligning with the game's theme of a strong sense of place.

What was the inspiration mechanic and how did it impact the game?

The inspiration mechanic involved creating paintings that cost inspiration, with new experiences in the game world replenishing it. This mechanic harmonized the game's theme and mechanics, encouraging players to engage in cozy activities that rewarded inspiration.

What promotional strategies did the team employ for Eastshade?

They created polished marketing assets, hired a PR company, carefully planned timing for releases and announcements, actively participated in social media, wrote articles on gaming sites, streamed development, attended conventions, and conducted interviews with various websites.

What challenges did the team face during the launch of Eastshade?

They faced financial challenges, requiring them to move in with family to save costs. Additionally, a major snowstorm during launch week caused power outages and threatened the timely release of the game.

How did the Russian localization issue affect the game's reception?

An issue with the Russian localization caused text fields to shrink with each repopulation, leading to illegible text. This was quickly fixed, but pirated versions without the update continued to circulate, making the bug more noticeable.

What emotions did the developer experience on the eve of the launch day?

The developer felt a mix of worry about the power outage and the inability to fully enjoy the momentous occasion due to the focus on ensuring a successful launch.

What was the significance of the Eastshade Pie made by Jacine?

The Eastshade Pie symbolized the special effort Jacine made to mark the launch day, despite the challenges they faced, and it brought emotional significance to the developer.

How does the developer view the success of Eastshade and its impact on their future projects?

The developer is immensely proud of Eastshade's success and fulfillment from its completion. The financial security it provided allows East Shade Studios to self-fund future projects, giving them the freedom to pursue their creative whims without external funding pressures.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Indie Game Development Journey

The narrator recounts the bold decision to quit stable jobs and invest five years of time and life savings into developing an indie game. Despite financial struggles, they persevered, eventually releasing a successful game that generated millions in revenue. The journey began with a dream job at a game studio in 2010, which ignited the desire to create a personal project. Inspired by the success of other indie developers, the narrator left a comfortable job in 2013 to pursue 'East Shade' full-time. The development process was marked by intense inspiration, commitment, and the gradual involvement of a partner, Jacine, who contributed significantly to the game's design and mechanics. The team expanded to include a composer, character artist, and additional contractors, all working towards the game's successful launch.

05:01

🎨 Design Innovations and Marketing Strategies

This paragraph delves into the creative process behind 'East Shade,' highlighting the 'Eureka' moments that shaped its core mechanics. The initial idea of survival mechanics was replaced with a painting mechanic that rewarded exploration and immersion. Another key feature was the 'inspiration mechanic,' which tied auxiliary actions into the game's core loop. The narrator also discusses the game's marketing efforts, which included polished marketing assets, PR support, strategic timing, social media engagement, articles on game development sites, live streaming, and participation in industry events. Despite the challenges, including a major snowstorm during the launch week, the game successfully launched with a minor bug that was quickly fixed. The story underscores the power of innovative ideas and careful marketing in the success of an indie game.

10:02

🏆 Reflecting on Success and Looking Forward

The narrator reflects on the fulfillment and pride of completing 'East Shade,' a game that exceeded initial expectations. They express contentment with their achievement, even considering the hypothetical scenario of it being their life's work. However, they also share a sense of loss for the forward-looking excitement that came with the anticipation of the game's development and release. With the game now self-funded and successful, East Shade Studios is positioned to work on new projects without the pressure of financial backers or publishers. The studio is eager to create their next game, aiming to surpass 'East Shade' in every aspect, from scope to polish and personality.

Keywords

💡Indie Game

Indie Game refers to a video game that is developed and published independently of the large game studios and publishers. It is a key concept in this video as the speaker discusses the journey of creating an indie game, 'East Shade,' which was developed without the backing of a major publisher and became a financial success.

💡Life Savings

Life Savings is the total amount of money a person has saved over their lifetime, often set aside for emergencies or significant investments. In the context of the video, the speaker and his wife used their entire life savings to fund the development of their indie game, highlighting the high-risk venture they embarked on.

💡Game Studio Job

A Game Studio Job refers to employment within a company that develops video games. The speaker mentions landing his first game studio job in 2010, which was a foundational experience that fueled his desire to eventually create his own game.

💡AAA Games

AAA Games, or Triple-A Games, are high-budget video games produced by large studios with significant marketing and development resources. The speaker contrasts his experience working on AAA games with his decision to pursue the indie game development path, emphasizing the difference in scale and risk.

💡Inspiration

Inspiration in this context refers to the creative drive or motivation that fuels the creation of a work. The speaker describes the intense inspiration he felt daily during the first year of development, which later evolved into commitment as the project progressed.

💡Commitment

Commitment is the dedication and persistence to a course of action over a long period. The video's theme of commitment is evident as the speaker discusses the transition from initial inspiration to the sustained effort required to complete the game development over five years.

💡Mechanics

In game development, Mechanics refer to the systems and rules that govern how the game works. The speaker mentions several key mechanics in 'East Shade,' such as the painting and inspiration mechanics, which were central to the gameplay experience.

💡Eureka Moment

A Eureka Moment is a sudden realization or idea that provides a solution to a problem. The video describes two such moments in the game's design process, where the painting and inspiration mechanics were conceived, significantly influencing the game's direction.

💡Marketing Assets

Marketing Assets are promotional materials used to advertise a product, such as trailers, screenshots, and press kits. The speaker details the creation of polished marketing assets for 'East Shade,' which played a crucial role in promoting the game to potential players.

💡Localization

Localization is the process of adapting a product to a specific locale or language by adding regional or cultural characteristics. The video mentions the localization of 'East Shade,' particularly an issue with the Russian version of the game, which required a quick fix post-launch.

💡Self-funded

Self-funded refers to a project or business that is financed by its creators or owners without external investment. The speaker concludes by highlighting that East Shade Studios is now self-funded, allowing for independence and creative freedom in their future projects.

Highlights

Couple quit jobs to develop an indie game full-time for five years, investing all their life savings.

The game development journey lasted five years and resulted in millions in revenue.

The developer's first game studio job in 2010 inspired the dream to create his own game.

Observation of successful indie games in 2013 motivated the developer to pursue his own project.

The developer struggled with a single-project focus and decided to go indie with years of savings.

East Shade development began solo but evolved with partner Jacine's contributions in design and other areas.

Jacine's involvement grew to full-time, significantly influencing the game's mechanics and design.

The game's composer and additional contractors played crucial roles in the game's development.

The painting mechanic was a breakthrough, aligning with the game's theme of exploration and immersion.

The inspiration mechanic solved existing problems, creating harmony between theme and gameplay.

Marketing efforts included polished assets, PR, careful timing, and active social media presence.

The developer participated in industry events and received valuable coverage, impacting the game's success.

A significant snowstorm during launch week threatened the game's release but was overcome.

The emotional impact of the game's launch was profound, with personal sacrifices and efforts culminating.

Post-launch, the developer felt a mix of fulfillment and the loss of a long-term dream focus.

East Shade Studios is now self-funded, with the financial freedom to pursue new projects.

The studio aims to create a new game that surpasses East Shade in every aspect.

Transcripts

it's true my now wife and I quit our

jobs like crazy people and went fulltime

on an indie game for five years spending

both our entire life savings and then

some ran out of money moved in with my

grandma bet the entire farm and

eventually shipped a game it changed our

lives forever it's been 5 years and it's

made Millions this is the

story I landed my first game Studio job

in 2010 and ever since then I knew that

one day I'd want to make my own game I

always assumed it would take a lot of

money and that no publisher was likely

to hand it to me to try so I saved

religiously assuming I'd have to hire a

team to build something substantial I

thought it was going to take a very long

time to build up the funds but my

Outlook changed in 2013 when I saw a

number of Indies creating impressive

products Solo or near solo I'd been

working on what would become eade at

home in the Wei hours for months and was

making good progress my inspiration

burned so hot I was finding it hard to

get to bed which resulted in severe lack

of sleep some people can manage to work

on their indie project while holding a

regular job but I've always had a very

single project mind and struggle with

multiple projects I knew I could only

keep doing one I had to choose between

continuing with my cushy job in AAA

games or going

Indie with years of savings stockpiled

in December of 2013 I quit my job at

Sucker Punch Productions as an

environment artist to go full-time on

East Shade I knew I could pinch pennies

to make the savings last and with no

children or mortgage my tolerance for

risky Financial moves was high the first

year of East Shay development was a very

special time in my life imagine a moment

of pure inspiration the feverish kind

that burns so hot it gives you

Goosebumps or maybe that only happens to

me I felt that burning inspiration every

day the inspiration wanes slightly each

year and eventually gave gave way to

Commitment which as it turns out becomes

easy to hold when you're 3 years in and

have invested your life

savings in the last year when I had

sight of the finish line neither

commitment nor inspiration seemed

required as the thrill of finishing and

releasing the moment I'd been

fantasizing about for so long was all I

needed to keep

swimming I started e shade alone but

fortunately I didn't have to finish

Alone by the second year my partner

jacine was making major contributions in

design writing UI art and in-game

illustrations by the fourth year she was

working on the project full-time and

doing Quest markup mapping and testing

most of the game's Hallmark mechanics

were of her conception and design

including the painting mechanic itself

as well as the inspiration mechanic in

addition to her high level art chops she

has grown into the best game designer I

know and it's safe to say the game would

have been wholly unrecognizable without

her Beyond Myself and Jacqueline our

composer the amazing Phoenix Glen

dinning had been working closely with us

from the start we also had a character

artist Daniel meru who is an army unto

himself and single-handedly modeled all

the outfits and characters toward the

end of production we hired two Quest

scriptors and a programmer to help us

Implement quests and get the game across

the Finish Line finally we worked with a

number of additional contractors

including voice actors translators do

games who handled our console ports as

well as our publicist extraordinaire

Charlene LeBron of player 2

[Music]

PR throughout e shade's history there

were few moments of Eureka design I'd

always known I'd wanted to make a game

that was a place a strong sense of place

is my favorite thing a video game can

give and it is and will always be the

main design pillar of any game I have

authority in designing and I knew I

wanted it to be a nice place where you

could feel cozy and safe in the

beginning the idea was to make the

game's core Loop through survival

mechanics we had hunger coldness energy

and the idea was to build progression

with finding things to help these

depleting bars we had come to our first

major design dilemma the constantly

depleting Bars were entirely at odds

with how we wanted the game to feel they

penalized the player for doing the very

thing we wanted the game to be about

which is going slow and feeling that

sense of place we needed a new core Loop

the painting mechanic was born from

trying to think of a way to reward the

kind of thing we wanted the player to do

in E shade which is to go slow and smell

the roses one fateful day about a year

into develop

jacn came up with the idea that the

player could be a painter and create

quests around the player capturing

certain objects places colors times of

day or a combination of those this would

work in perfect harmony with wandering

and smelling the Roses because the

slower the player went and the more they

let the sense of place wash over them

the better they would do at these quests

it was genius that was the first Eureka

moment in our design Journey the next

Eureka moment came about 4 years into

development and although it's a less

prominent feature to me was even more

momentous it was the type of idea that

doesn't make new work but rather solves

existing problems it was the inspiration

mechanic the idea was that creating

paintings would cost inspiration and new

experiences in the game world would give

you inspiration so drinking tea reading

a new book discovering a new location

relaxing in a hot spring hearing a tale

from a Storyteller listening to Street

Music basically exactly the Cozy stuff

we wanted the player to be enjoying

would all reward your player character

with inspiration this totally closed the

game Loop created a Harmony between

theme and mechanics and gave us an easy

way to tie all the auxiliary actions

into the core Loop it was again Jaclyn's

genius it was amazing that such a tiny

and easy to implement feature could have

such a profound impact on the game and

that it came so late in development yet

fit like a glove it made me realize the

true power of a good idea ideas that

come in the form of more content where

the cost of production resources are a

dime a dozen I have hundreds of ideas of

that nature lying around but an idea

that solves problems is

[Music]

precious for as long as we've been

working on eade itself we've also been

working on its promotion I don't think

there's any one or two things that are

the Magic Bullets because every game has

different avenues that work for it and

indeed the marketing effort is the sum

of its parts I'll try to give a rough

outline of the things we did for shade

number one we created very polished

marketing assets so that's two trailers

over 20 gifts and over 50 screenshots

two we hired a PR Company uh called

player 2 PR who handled press releases

journalist Outreach strategizing on

release timing and planning and key

distribution during big moments in our

campaign number three we picked our

timing for our trailer releases our

release date announcement and our actual

release the most important one very

carefully trying to stay clear of other

news and releases okay number four I was

very active on Twitter and I kind of

still am I participated in screenshots

Saturday and I interact a lot of course

I think Twitter's relevance is sort of

dying just seems like the level of

interactions and Views um at least I've

been getting have just been plummeting

ever since Elon Musk took over

everything just has sort of changed on

that website it's part of the reason why

I'm trying to focus more on YouTube now

as our main marketing channel okay

number five I've written a number of

articles that have done well on

gamasutra and 80.lv and other Game Dev

ites six I often stream development on

Twitch and still do I was doing that

pretty religiously during the eade

development and I always did like a

pitch call to action of like you know

hey check out our game on Steam go wish

list it and I still do number seven we

got into the Indie Mega booth at Pax

West and we also showed at GDC in a

special Unity Booth we managed to get

into which uh the impact is kind of

overestimated I think of going to

conventions but in our case we did end

up getting some pretty important

coverage particularly from GDC we ended

up getting a Kotaku preview from that

which was really big for us and and

bumped our wish lists quite a bit and

number eight I did a number of

interviews with small and medium

websites and a few large ones and a lot

of those were lined up by our PR

[Music]

firm the tale of East shad's launch day

is an odd one the tale begins as many

epic Tales do with some backstory in the

final year of our 5-year development we

were beginning to run out of money with

both Jaclyn and I working full-time on

the game we managed to stretch our

savings quite far but eventually the

well was running dry my mother and

grandmother who lived together very

graciously offered that we come and live

with them bless their hearts this helped

us tremendously and ensured we had

enough reserves for the final launch

costs like localization my grandmother's

house is a bit rural but the internet is

fast and continuing development there

was never a problem but on launch week

something truly rare happened it's it

snowed a lot in fact it was the third

biggest snowstorm in the Seattle area in

the last 100 years the day before launch

we lost power no problem right just pack

up the computer and drive as far as you

need to to find power and internet the

problem was there was about 1 mile of

private road to leave my grandmother's

house with over a foot of snow just

about any car was hopeless and no snow

plow was coming we considered our

options the first thing we tried was

driving over the snow we made it about

20 ft before losing traction and

starting to drift sideways toward a

ravine fortunately this was still in the

driveway so we could just leave it there

next we started shoveling a path now

anyone who has shoveled snow probably is

finding that notion quite laughable

because shoveling a mile of snow by hand

is really not feasible it only took a

few feet of shoveled road to understand

that running out of ideas we considered

Gathering our things and Hiking out to

the main road and summoning a family

member to pick us up but among other

logistical issues that are too tedious

for this story the roads were in no

state for anyone to be driving on snow

isn't a huge problem in places that are

prepared for it but in the Seattle area

even a little snow is basically the

apocalypse and we had a foot of it in

the end we decided we'd wait and pray

for the power to return before 7:00 a.m.

the next day our scheduled launch time

we did have a build I had uploaded a

week prior that was in somewhat of a

launchable state over the phone I was

able to get my brother in a neighboring

City with power logged into steam and

the partner site ready to hit the launch

button if power didn't return to us in

time it was a dark moment for me it

wasn't so much that I was worried things

would go badly without the most

up-to-date build though I was worried

about that or that people wouldn't be

understanding of the slightly delayed

updates due to our snowstorm situation

but just that I had been dreaming about

launch day for 5 years I'd always

envisioned being able to watch it all

unfold from my own workstation with my

own internet I found myself on the eve

of our launch not even excited excited

about the big day but rather just

praying through gritted teeth that the

power would return at 4:30 a.m. just 2

and half hours before our launch time

the power returned I uploaded the latest

build with the force of a thousand

well-lit rooms and by The Guiding Light

of electricity I went into the kitchen

for a pre-launch snack there on the

counter I found this while I was trying

to jump start cars and shovel snow the

night before jacine had secretly made an

eastshade Pie by candle

of uncooked oats peanut butter and honey

she had made the only thing she could

come up with without an oven or burner I

cried like a baby in all the madness I

hadn't thought to do anything to make

the day special or memorable I was too

worried about the power to savor the

momentousness of the occasion when I saw

the eade pie she had thought to make it

finally felt like a special day even now

if I think about that pie I tear

[Music]

up as far as as the launch day itself it

went pretty smoothly All Things

Considered we did have one absurd bug

with the Russian localization which we

fixed within a few hours a few days

earlier we caught that some of the text

Fields were overflowing in Russian so I

scaled the Russian font down globally to

90% on my ultra quick verification test

everything looked Dandy but if I had

kept playing for another minute I would

have seen a ridiculous problem I was

doing 90% of the current font size the

result was that the font shrank a tiny

bit each time the textt field was

repopulated until you get something like

this for months I was getting bug

reports of that because all the torrent

sites instantly uploaded the 1.0 version

of the game and many of them didn't

bother to update even though the fix

came within hours it made it very easy

to spot the

[Music]

Pirates I'm hugely proud of East Shade

it's a bigger and better game than

anything I envisioned when I first

started it in 2013 I'm so fulfilled by

its completion

that if I died tomorrow I would be

content with what I did with my years to

be clear I'd very much like to keep

living but that is the level of impetus

I felt to complete it in the months

following its release amidst the joy of

finally achieving some security as an

indie and the warmth of its reception a

small part of me did feel off it was the

forward-looking part of dreaming about

what eade would become it may sound a

bit one-dimensional but for 5 years I

saw many things in life through the lens

of being excited for E shade if I saw a

beautiful building I'd think oh we could

do something like that in E shade or if

I heard a street performer I would think

wow wouldn't it be cool if we had street

performers in East Shade all forms of

inspiration were impulsively funneled

into dreaming about the game when it was

finally released I was a little

unprepared for the quickness with which

that habit had to die oh that would be

cool and easy oh right it's shipped and

done and whatever it is will always be I

thought as I found myself unexpectedly

wistful about things that never came to

be in the game but you can't keep

working on something forever and please

don't advise me to keep working on

content updates for our fully released

single player barely replayable game

with a regular decaying sales curve East

Shade Studios is now a fully self-funded

game Studio free to work on our own

projects we're a game ahead of our

Capital instead of a game behind meaning

our revenue is stockpiling for our next

game instead of going to pay back a

publisher or investor for our last which

means we can go wherever our whims Blow

instead of needing to seek more funding

it's an exciting place to be and we have

every intention of our next game blowing

e shade away in scope polish variety

coziness wonder and

personality