Hello, I was just wondering. This may be a bit of a stupid question, but in the indie gamers world, does it get lonely at the top, if your game gets like, super popular or something?

I'm asking this because I am worried and afraid of completing my game, and releasing it, because of the chance it might become, well, you know, popular. Kinda like Five Nights At Freddy's.

And yes... I know, I know :P, it only has like a less than .1% chance of happening :p, lol, but for the sake of argument, what if it does happen?

I mean, how would I know who my real friends are, if people only seem to like me for making a game, and only want to hang out with me for being "that cool indie dev guy"? Is there any way?

I'm thinking that the only solution to this is to just release the game anonymously. I mean the guy who made Five Nights At Freddy's isn't really vocal, and i'm guessing there is a good reason for that :p.

Anyways, I couldn't find any information about this on google. All I could find was a bunch of search results for some stupid cheesy song lyrics... ugh.

So, is it possible to make friends while at the top? Or at least, some REAL friends?

O_o

It is not like Notch or Mike Bithell or people like that are exactly rock stars in Reallife.

Outside of the Indie Gaming scene, which is still a small, quite vocal, but still small subscene of the whole gamer world, not many people will know them...

There might be the odd article about Notch in a magazine... people might remember "That guy that made millions with a weird blocky game... what was his name again?"... and the next day they will have forgotten that they ever read about the person, because their mind has been flooded with o so important and interesting facts like the small finger mutation of Megan Fox, why Pharrell Williams seems to be glued to his hats and other things that shake the world (not).

Chances are, you make it "to the top", are amongst a very narrow group of indies that can pay the bills with the income generated by their games, maybe even get a good income at that (though most probably the average stock broker income will still be out of reach by far... getting rich as an indie is just as hard as getting rich as a rock star).

Still most of your friends will only know what you for a living when you tell them. Chances are most of them have only played your game because you sent them the link, and maybe even then just because they wanted to be polite, you being their friend and all.

You might get a small die hard fan group. Maybe even a big one. That is vital for success. Don't expect them to be your friends though, they are not. A lot of stars will tell you that.How you deal with stalkers, groupies (are there even "game creator groupies"? Should I be afraid to ask for a pic? ), and fame in general is something you could turn to music and movie stars, they have their share of it. Still 99,9999% of the people working as musicians or actors try to get more of them... or rather, more of the fans... because without them, you are no one in the showbiz. If you are no-one, nobody is interested in your products. Sad but true.

It might work a little bit different in the game industry... still, EA sells truckloads of their latest games even if they are bad (granted, they will have sunken multiple millions even into the 15th copy of the original FIFA Game ), yet loads of indie games that are extremly good still leave their creator with a day job to pay the bills.

Its the higher budget, its the marketing, but it is also the name of the creator that sells games.

I wouldn't worry to much in your case. If you expose your person during the marketing campaign, or find another way to make people relate to your game in a positive way matters little. Making sure your game is not the 1000th combat-puzzle-strategy-shooter released on platform X on the same day can be achieved by relating it to your person and making sure you present your person as something people are interested is just one way of achieving that goal.

Also be aware that a lot of the "stars" of this world use fake names, Nick names, fake personalities, masks, whatever to somehow separate their public and private personaes (with mixed success)... doing something like that seems to be a sensible approach for multiple reasons.

That is what you always do in a professional environment: You never reveal all of your private opinions and... ehr... quirks because it might offend someone, it would not fit the professional environment and you might not want to tell it someone other than your closest friends.

is it possible to make friends while at the top? Or at least, some REAL friends?

I'm certainly not "at the top." However, money won't buy you love, but it puts you in a good bargaining position.

You can test friendship: "Friends will help you move furniture. Real friends will help you move bodies."

You can test friendship: "Friends will help you move furniture. Real friends will help you move bodies."

Is there a way to test that that will not get you in jail should the friend in question fail the test? ;)

You can test friendship: "Friends will help you move furniture. Real friends will help you move bodies."

I am not a lawyer, but I would advise against killing people to see if you've got real friends to help dispose of the bodies.

You can test friendship: "Friends will help you move furniture. Real friends will help you move bodies."

I am not a lawyer, but I would advise against killing people to see if you've got real friends to help dispose of the bodies.

Only in a gamedev community does a statement about body disposal get a response starting with "I am not a lawyer, but..."

Anyway, there *can* be some pressure once you've made something popular, or at least that's how some people make it look. I seriously doubt it's going to impact your day-to-day friendships though.

Anyway, there *can* be some pressure once you've made something popular, or at least that's how some people make it look. I seriously doubt it's going to impact your day-to-day friendships though.

"If you cannot stand the heat, stay away from the oven!"

Being famous brings with it the perils of being a public person... being rich the perils of being a target for criminals, or the target of the angry mob should civilazation fail (or the bolsheviks being successfull in the country you live in ). Learn to live with it.

Some "stars" have a habit of complaining about things that are just a part of being famous. Its like a gardener complaining his line of work being dirty, a programmer complaining about having to sit all day, or a surgeon about his job involving too much blood. Or a soldier that he might die doing his job.

If you are famous, you attract fans. And you will attract envy. Some of your fans will be nutjobs or just too obsessed about you. Some of the people that do not like might be rightdown toxic in their ways to express their hate for your perosn.

You knew that when you signed the contract. If you didn't, you were just naive. Complaining about it will not bring you much good. Some people will pity you, most will see it as another snobbish attempt at getting some more attention. In the end, the true professional will have his ways to deal with the fallout of fame: bodyguards, fake personalities, making sure private things stay private.

You can be 100% sure a lot of the breaches of privacy involving famous persons are no reason to pity the person whose naked pictures just became a viral internet thing. Chances are good the person will benefit from the incident (as they say, "there is no bad press..."), and there is also a chance the whole incident was staged by the person who got exposed.

Showbiz is showbiz. Even the "public private life" of most stars is just show, IMO.

No matter how popular you get, the vast majority of the world still won't recognize you or know your name. So make friends with those people - and don't bother mentioning your success, and don't live hyper-extravagantly. If you don't want to attract attention, don't do things that people normally do to attract attention (nice cars, uber-sized houses, hyper-expensive clothes, etc...).

If someone met Warren Buffett in real life, will they recognize his face or that he's wealthy? Buffet is one of the richest people in the world (Currently, I think, 3rd wealthiest), but lives in a three-bedroom house he bought in the `60s, and drives a not-super-expensive practical car.

On the flip side, Donald Trump's net worth is estimated to be over-exaggerated and not that much, but he does everything he can to promote his face, his name, his appearance - even going so far as to put 60 foot letters spelling his name on some of his buildings, and creating a reality TV show about himself. If you meet him, you'll instantly know that he thinks he's someone successful, because you can bet he'll repeatedly mention his own name and accomplishments, and probably has yes-men around him who placate him by repeatedly mentioning his name for him.

If you want to be wealthy but live a more normal life with real relationships with people, be a Buffet, not a Trump. Make the people around you feel good about themselves, don't use them to make you feel good about yourself.

And if you start dating someone, don't let her know about your wealth until after she accepts your marriage proposal. Pick her up for dates in a rusty pickup truck, and take her to someplace normal like Apple Bee's rather than some fancy restaurant.

No matter how popular you get, the vast majority of the world still won't recognize you or know your name. So make friends with those people - and don't bother mentioning your success, and don't live hyper-extravagantly. If you don't want to attract attention, don't do things that people normally do to attract attention (nice cars, uber-sized houses, hyper-expensive clothes, etc...).

If someone met Warren Buffett in real life, will they recognize his face or that he's wealthy? Buffet is one of the richest people in the world (Currently, I think, 3rd wealthiest), but lives in a three-bedroom house he bought in the `60s, and drives a not-super-expensive practical car.

On the flip side, Donald Trump's net worth is estimated to be over-exaggerated and not that much, but he does everything he can to promote his face, his name, his appearance - even going so far as to put 60 foot letters spelling his name on some of his buildings, and creating a reality TV show about himself. If you meet him, you'll instantly know that he thinks he's someone successful, because you can bet he'll repeatedly mention his own name and accomplishments, and probably has yes-men around him who placate him by repeatedly mentioning his name for him.

If you want to be wealthy but live a more normal life with real relationships with people, be a Buffet, not a Trump. Make the people around you feel good about themselves, don't use them to make you feel good about yourself.

And if you start dating someone, don't let her know about your wealth until after she accepts your marriage proposal. Pick her up for dates in a rusty pickup truck, and take her to someplace normal like Apple Bee's rather than some fancy restaurant.

Couldn't have said it better. For example, take John Carmack. Amongst programmers, he could be considered a God. However, almost all of the average joes walking down the street wouldn't have the slightest idea who he is. This is despite the fact that he pioneered many aspects of the FPS genre and coded most of the run times for many of the worlds best games.

Couldn't have said it better. For example, take John Carmack. Amongst programmers, he could be considered a God. However, almost all of the average joes walking down the street wouldn't have the slightest idea who he is. This is despite the fact that he pioneered many aspects of the FPS genre and coded most of the run times for many of the worlds best games.

If you're referring to Doom, John Romero had a lot to do with that game, including design and programming. I suggest you watch this:
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014627/Classic-Game-Postmortem