Escaping The Garage: GarageGames' Jay Moore Speaks Out About The Plight Of Indies

Quote: Like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or Duke Nukem Forever, the idea of the successful, truly independent game developer -- one that bypasses the major game publishers on the way to making a profit and a good living -- seems, well, a little far fetched. You can't really sequester yourself off from the normal grind of milestone-based developer/publisher relationships, go out there with a small team, and hope to produce full-scale videogames that will turn a profit. Or can you?

You can, but it's hard (but also more rewarding).
If/when we will make a single player game, the strategy will be this:
Make a COMPLETE, FREE game.
Make it available for download.
Advertise.
Wait.
If enough people download it (and we get positive feedback) make an expansion, with a lot of cool, new stuff.
Offer that expansion for money.

Of course it's hard, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. Personally, I think Jay's view of things is a little tilted by the whole mindset of Garage Games and their emergence from the ashes of Dynamix. There certainly are developers that make it on their own, and make good money doing it. Can you support a team of 15 selling solely through your site? Probably not. Can you support yourself and one or two other people? Sure. Easy? No. It takes what lots of people don't have - dedication, perserverence, a willingness to make mistakes and the ability to turn them into successes.