I think you should all read the articles on personal productivity on www.dexterity.com..

They are very funny (they are not meant to be funny though). Especially "Do it now".

This guy is a robot He does not go to the bathroom if it''s not in his daily todo list.

(no offense...I just smiled alot when reading them and I think you should all read them).

Yeah, funny but you have to admire the focus and determination. Reminds me of one of John Carmack''s .plan updates where he talked about going to a state where he doesn''t know anybody for two weeks of hardcore research in a hotel room with a laptop. I don''t remember if it was the same update but I also remember something about an experiment to determine how much of his break time during the day was necessary rest and how much was just wasted time. Sometimes this kind of stuff sounds extreme but you can''t argue with the results. Doesn''t even sound like Steve could be called a workaholic - just insanely organized.

In talking to people about the articles I’ve noticed that there are two distinct responses. One response is to say, "Wow, i never thought that kind of efficiency was possible" and strive to achieve it. The other response is "What a nut, no way I’m going to do that, but I liked the idea of techno music" or some such response. I''m not trying to be judgmental (or at least I’m trying to disguise it) but it''s interesting to note which category you fall into.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
Are you saying that it''s possible to make a living from puzzle games, like the quality of dweeps and fitznik.

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It''s not just possible -- it''s a reality. Many people are not only making a living this way, but they''re becoming quite wealthy. It''s definitely possible to make six figures annually this way.

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By the way are you supported by an investment company to build out your company, with new staff.
Or are you paying the staff from the generated sales of Dweeps etc.

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We''re fully self-funded from our own cashflow from sales and licensing of our games. There are no outside investors, and there never have been. Dexterity is profitable and debt-free, and I intend to keep it that way.

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It''s very interesting. I would like to hear more from you.
I or we could learn from it, because it''s unique nowadays that people could make a living from shareware.

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This is not unique at all. You probably just don''t know where to look. A couple friends of mine recently celebrated their 1,000,000th dollar made from shareware. I think the problem is that these success stories seldom get outside the ASP newsgroups. At the Shareware Industry Conference, you''ll meet dozens of people with six and seven figure annual incomes from shareware. In fact, myself and a fellow indie developer had our pictures in the New York Times last summer with an article about how you can make it big in shareware.

Shareware is big business for those who are serious about it.



Steve Pavlina
Dexterity Software
www.dexterity.com

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Original post by TheSalmon
How much of an issue is piracy then? It seems to me like the huge companies can survive it whereas the small timers need every sale they can get just to put food on the table...

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Piracy is tough to measure. The ASP is very active, for instance, in shutting down crack and warez sites. Some developers spend a great deal of time dealing with piracy, and many have been effective at virtually halting it for their own products. Personally, I don''t worry about it because I haven''t perceived it to be a major problem for us. It''s more cost-effective for me to focus on releasing new games than attempting to convert pirates into customers. None of our games currently use registration codes, for instance, so there are no working cracks for them.

Some ASP members have found that pirates can eventually become customers, so it''s really hard to know what impact piracy has.


Steve Pavlina
Dexterity Software
www.dexterity.com

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Original post by granat
I think you should all read the articles on personal productivity on www.dexterity.com..

They are very funny (they are not meant to be funny though). Especially "Do it now".

This guy is a robot He does not go to the bathroom if it''s not in his daily todo list.

(no offense...I just smiled alot when reading them and I think you should all read them).

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Hey, I resemble that remark!





Steve Pavlina
Dexterity Software
www.dexterity.com

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Original post by Diragor
Yeah, funny but you have to admire the focus and determination.

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Yes and I do. And it DID inspire me to read it. But I still thought it was a bit too much and I did find it funny also.

If you publish your game with Dexterity I''m sure your product will get all the attention it deserves.

I was afraid Dexterity would get mad at me but he took it nicely though....

Dexterity, if I publish my game with you, will I ever have to move or go on long trips to sign stuff or can all this be done from the comfort of my computer desk?

Thanks

quote:

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I think you should all read the articles on personal productivity on www.dexterity.com..

They are very funny (they are not meant to be funny though). Especially "Do it now".

This guy is a robot He does not go to the bathroom if it''s not in his daily todo list.

(no offense...I just smiled alot when reading them and I think you should all read them).

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It made me stop and think. Time management has been something I''ve wrestled with. I work out of a home office for a company very far away, so there''s very little oversight on what I do. I''ll try to get some work done, but between email, conference calls, *cough*GameDev.net*cough* I''ll sit there at the end of the day and wonder why I''m not further along than I thought.
Developing my own games is only going to make the situation worse, since there won''t be any oversight at all. Learning not to squander your time away is very important, and his articles have given me some practical things to try.

Next time I''m out in California, lunch is on me Steve.

Take care,
Bill

Dont tell my boss, but i''ve been working 5hrs a day since I started wearing this blasted stopwatch. It''s suprising how motivated you can get to do crap work when you know the reward is a shorter work day. I''m only averaging about 65% (time working/time at work) effiency but i''m still getting more done then when I was working 8-10 hrs a day. More time for the wife and kids, more time for indie game development. Time managment rocks!