Inspiration for Indie Devs
Written by Jeremy Rhoades - Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 12:44pm
I’m sure many of us indie devs feel like our games aren’t good enough at some point in time. When I get down about my current projects, I like to look at where successful games started, and compare that to where they are now. For example, there has been some early footage released of Ori and the Blind Forest with nothing but programmer art. And then there’s Hungry Knight, the fairly different game jam version of Shovel Knight. However, my favorite comparison has to be the Legend of Zelda series. Looking at the first Zelda for NES, it’s amazing to me that something like that could eventually turn into Breath of the Wild.
I recently went to see the Zelda Symphony (amazing show!), and there were videos in between songs of Mr. Miyamoto talking about BOTW. When referring to development time, he said something along the lines of “I’ve been working on this game for over 25 years.” I’m not sure if he meant it that way, or if it was merely a difference in translation. But, either way, it really gave me a new perspective on game development all together. It’s almost as if every title since the first Zelda game can be viewed as a finely polished Early Access game.
It just goes to show that your first release doesn’t have to define you as a developer, or even your IP as a game series. This is especially encouraging to me, as I am a few months away from releasing a game in Early Access. I came up with the IP as a kid in the early 2000’s, and even attempted to make games out of it back then. Though the new version is much better than my original attempt over a decade ago, it’s still not quite where I want it to be. But I plan on continuing to remake this game, improving as much as I can after each iteration. Even if I’m not 100% happy with it, I can still release the game and try again. All while continuing to learn how to do it better next time during development.
So don’t feel bad if your current project isn’t where you’d like it to be. You have most likely improved just by making it, and can do it better next time. I know it’s cliche, but we all have to start somewhere!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
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