do indie gamedev's that have waisted time and resources on making a game get upset when there game is just not good enough to be sold ?

Do you really need to ask that question? Seriously?

I think a better way to phrase that question is: If you're an indie and your game doesn't sell or doesn't sell as well as you hoped, then what do you to improve sales?

• Improve the game? (incremental enhancements)
  
• Advertise game on forums and/or youtube (or other sites like it)?
  
• Reduce the price?
  
• Keep the same theme but radically take the game (graphics, AI, gameplay) in a completely different directions?

Quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
I think a better way to phrase that question is: If you're an indie and your game doesn't sell or doesn't sell as well as you hoped, then what do you to improve sales?

• Improve the game? (incremental enhancements)
  
• Advertise game on forums and/or youtube (or other sites like it)?
  
• Reduce the price?
  
• Keep the same theme but radically take the game (graphics, AI, gameplay) in a completely different directions?

Yeah I'm curious about that too. One of my biggest hangups is that I'll spend money and time on a game that nobody will play.

One, I've never made a full game. Two, I've never sold a game (in any form). With that being said, if it was me, any game that I made would have to be something that I would play over and over again. Also, whatever I put out there would be more of a "poll" than me trying to sell anything. If I make lots of money, great. If I don't then, obviously, I'm missing something and I need to investigate.

Quote: Original post by mikeman

Quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
I think a better way to phrase that question is: If you're an indie and your game doesn't sell or doesn't sell as well as you hoped, then what do you to improve sales?

• Improve the game? (incremental enhancements)
  
• Advertise game on forums and/or youtube (or other sites like it)?
  
• Reduce the price?
  
• Keep the same theme but radically take the game (graphics, AI, gameplay) in a completely different directions?

Yeah I'm curious about that too. One of my biggest hangups is that I'll spend money and time on a game that nobody will play.

I think if you look at games like books, then the time and money spent are trivial. Whatever you produce is something that you can stand behind. It shows that you've actually done something. Books seems to get these second winds. They get published, fox example, in 1980. Then randomly in 2005, someone picks it up, loves it, and now it's a international best-seller, with a trilogy being scripted for Hollywood. Games work the same way, but normally the games are cult-following and then find life again some time down the road.

Also, as an indie developer there are so many avenues to distribute your game:

• Mac App Store,
• iPhone app store,
• WM 6.x app store,
• WM7 app store,
• Android app store,
• Steam,
• XBox Live,
• PS3...Live,
• Wii...Live,
• Flash game playable on the Internet
• or on the Wii,
• OnLive (completely different than what's before it).

I think the effort, time, and money spent are the least to worry about when all of these options are before you.

In reality (working with budgets and timeframes), you can't be quite as idealistic as many think. I'm a "hardcore" gamer at heart, but have found myself designing several casual games over the last few months.

Don't get me wrong; in my opinion, these are great games (as far as casual games go), but I, myself, would rather play something else if given the chance.

When game development becomes your job, you stop asking "what kind of awesome game do we wanna make?" and start asking, "what's the best game we CAN make, given our team's abilities, our budget and our time limit?"

Hopefully, a day will come soon, when we won't be quite as restricted, and we can really dig into the games we love.

Back to the original question; I think it hurts indie developers even more than it hurts the big publishers. We have so much invested into every single game, that most of them can make-or-break the company.