Finally, I have actually researched what life is like for an indie dev. It appears that most, if not all, indie developers must also have a knowledge of the legal system when it comes to contracts, a firm knowledge of business and it's particular quirks, and, of course, knowledge of the market. It seems to me like being an indie dev is more than just making games.
That is what I understood of it. Its 20% making games, 30% business topics, and 50% marketing. Unless you manage to outsource marketing (which can be a good or bad idea, the trash some dev studios got when outsourcing marketing is staggering. I remember some ads for games I knew pretty well that made me wonder if the marketing agency even knew what the game they advertised was about.
And of course, its always a big gamble to release a new game.
Somnion is a far-future project; when I posted it here, it was only as a hypothetical. The team I have when I work on it is already going to be skilled when it comes to making games by that point.
That is fine, it is always good to have some long term goals... just a few points:
a) when you mention a project like that, you should also mention that you are not planning to do it now, and you are not talking about if it feasible or even a good idea from a indie dev business point of view.
b) Don't waste too much time on projects that have a 90% chance to not come to be... you might be in a position to execute on the idea in 10 years. How many better ideas will you have had until then? Will a project like this still be feasible by then, or will gaming have moved on?
Write down the idea in rough form, shelf it and forget about it for now. Its good to have old ideas to work from when you need them... it is pointless to waste too much time on this (its called daydreaming).
That being said, Pretty much the only reason that I mentioned Frite Fuzerz as being targeted towards 12-14 year-olds has to do with the fact that all the protagonist characters are that age.
Okay... doesn't mean that this has to be the players target age group though. While playing kids in games can be annoying to some adults, it might refreshing to others. Not everyone wants to see his "Avatar" in a game or movie. A lot of people can relate to a character even if he/she is of the opposite sex, different age, different ethnicity, different faith or believes.
