Starting a Successfull Indie Game Development Company?

Anyone got any tip's on starting one? I consider myself an advance programming in many languages other then PHP, but I would like to establish a team and Artist's are very hard to find without pay. What do I do? The Gaming business is one of the largest market's around making over 50billion in sales last year. I have done a ton of research on what niche's the game should be as well as how to reach player's by the masses. I have previous game project's to showcase my skill's for artists to see that I am not waisting anybody's time.

 

Simple, don't. I've been in the Indie gaming industry before, and it didn't go well at all. As an artist at the time, I had examples of some of my work (digital work such as textures) and joined multiple teams throughout my high school life. No team was I ever a part of made it.

But, if you really want to do it, be warned. It's NOT EASY. It's NOT FUN. If you want to start, you need to get your feet wet. Figure out a game you want to make for the Iphone, write a game design document and code it. It will look hideous, but if you code it, many talented artists would be willing to create some art for a sales commision %.

also, check out gamedev.net/community/forums

You will find very valuable resources there if you are unaware of the site.

 

Ive been around the indie game scene for many years now. I would say at least 10yrs just learning, working on personal projects, and freelancing a little.

 

Just find some same minded artist/designer to venture into this project and profit is split by agreed ratio.

 

We are an indie game development studio from Germany. I can agree with the previous comments. The business is quite hard. With the iPhone market almost everyone seemed to start developing games. Steam is very interesting and produces a great volume. Alternatives are to go for the online-game market or iPhone market. But both of them are probably over-saturated. It's a bit like playing lottery. So I hope you know what you are doing.

 

I think there is still a good market for casual online flash games. I find a lot of niches with only a few games and fewer good games. Indie game developers may want to try to tap those instead of going for big ones and (unnecessarily) competing with big studios.

 

Do lots of social marketing and get games out there. They will sell if they are good

 

Social marketing multiplies your players by a certain factor when your game is good. But it doesn't create a start pulse. The number of products on the market are a divisor for the start pulse.

 

Well, I'm pretty sure you can find artists who are willing to help you. I know there's a lot who are willing to work for coders.
Especially in the virtual pets game world.

They're so many different artists out there - who just need a coder to back them up.