Hello Indies,

I want to make an item about the indie gaming community. How is the current situation? Are you also working from home? Can you release new titles? Are you facing challenges with for example publishers, or publising your own game?

I have every sunday a podcast. I would like your experiences in a phone interview that can be broadcasted during the episode. Are you interested, write me; reinouttebrake@gmail.com. If you know people, share this. Love to you all.

ps; I did interview Oscar Clark, Dean Takanashi, Teddy/Jacob of NordicGame last week. We did talk about this too. You can listen here; https://anchor.fm/gameconsultant

If anything this situation is a boon to the industry, much like drive-through restaurants are thriving right now. People are stuck at home looking for something to do that's affordable, professionals have extra time off / away from the office to work on pet projects.

@WGS_Stillwater yes, but for some people, indies for example, that were working with other people that are maybe in other parts of the world, the development can continue. Defenite since we have to be inside. But is that the case? Are indies working on their game projects or are there show stoppers?

The only situation that it might affect indies is a total lockdown where some local developers are now having to meet remotely instead of in person… which applies more to AAA studios than it does indies. The idea that indies would throw their work out the window because they cannot have local meetings is sightly absurd, though if source control were based off physically possessed drives it is somewhat plausible, though still a minority.

WGS_Stillwater said:

The only situation that it might affect indies is a total lockdown where some local developers are now having to meet remotely instead of in person… which applies more to AAA studios than it does indies. The idea that indies would throw their work out the window because they cannot have local meetings is sightly absurd, though if source control were based off physically possessed drives it is somewhat plausible, though still a minority.

There is a total lockdown is many countries. I dont say indies are throwing work out of the window. It is more that I am looking to hear what is maybe not working out for them. Maybe they work with publishers that are now not in the office and certain descionmaking is slower then normal. just to give an example.

Speaking as a simple hobbyist: COVID-19 has been amazing. Between social distancing and reduction of work hours, I have sooooo much more time to work on my game. It's beautiful. Let's just hope nobody dies.

organicpencil said:

Speaking as a simple hobbyist: COVID-19 has been amazing. Between social distancing and reduction of work hours, I have sooooo much more time to work on my game. It's beautiful. Let's just hope nobody dies.

I agree but already many people have died.

ChubbyLizard said:

organicpencil said:

Speaking as a simple hobbyist: COVID-19 has been amazing. Between social distancing and reduction of work hours, I have sooooo much more time to work on my game. It's beautiful. Let's just hope nobody dies.

I agree but already many people have died.

Yes, lots have died. Realy a bad virus and we have to be alert and keep in mind social distancing.

I am happy for you that you have all the time to work on your game. Can you tell us more about your game?

reinout said:

ChubbyLizard said:

organicpencil said:

Speaking as a simple hobbyist: COVID-19 has been amazing. Between social distancing and reduction of work hours, I have sooooo much more time to work on my game. It's beautiful. Let's just hope nobody dies.

I agree but already many people have died.

Yes, lots have died. Realy a bad virus and we have to be alert and keep in mind social distancing.

I am happy for you that you have all the time to work on your game. Can you tell us more about your game?

Aye, I've been fortunate enough that nobody in my life has been hit (yet). But if my dad so much as thinks about a virus he'll probably drop dead on the spot. To be safe, I'm maintaining a distance of at least 5 miles.

@reinout Thanks for asking! It's a very silly 3D zombie survival sandbox. Designed for singleplayer but has splitscreen + online coop shoehorned in. 100% solo dev. Doing it for fun / experience / bragging rights. Haven't really made a devlog yet but the game is coming along nicely.

Got anything special you're working on?

In light of recent events, people are telling me to do something special with the zombie plague. Everything would randomly get an “infected” tag, and everything you touch afterwards gets infected, up to the point where you infect your own food and consequently yourself. The zombies would be found in high density around supermarkets and drop large quantities of toilet paper.

I dunno xD