Pascal, you are one of the only REAL, working indie game devs on KZitem that I know about. A lot of the others are hoping and trying, but you actually run an indie game business. Respect.
@foldupgames
Ай бұрын
Your advice at 2:00 was "the key to success is creating games quickly" and I think you're right. As an indie, you can't afford to sink a year+ into a project and hope it's a smash hit. You have bills to pay and the "long tail" of residual (wink) profits are important.
@gameboardgames
Ай бұрын
Ya I agree! Pascal is living the dream IMHO: making enough to do this as a career for a long period of time. A lot of videos sell the fantasy that you'll make a 1 in 100,000 game that makes millions of dollars whereas Pascal's success is more realistic and an actual goal of mine.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Think there are a few others , but I get what you mean! And I like to give the realistic view of this business from experience 😁
@SuPeRNinJaRed
Ай бұрын
I just got an ad for McDonald’s at the beginning of this video... so meta
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Probably not by accident! Can imagine McD has ad targeting for their name! 🙃
@GrahamOfLegend
Ай бұрын
Branding is everything!!! Whether just the brand of one game, or the brand of your overall studio and the types of games you make. It makes selling your backlog easier if you have consistency within your catalog
@astoldb
Ай бұрын
I don't make games but I'm curious like how do you improve and explore more things while trying to keep up a brand as an indie game developer? Like do you recommend making a separate studio in name? In books, some people have pseudonyms when they want to sell books of different genres sometimes so I was wondering if it was like that for the indie game devt sphere too. Really interesting topic, thank you!
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Don't think separate studio names work, but having a brand doesn't mean you can't try new things, just means that you try to match them with your brand and want you're known for.
@Mikoyan_Felon
Ай бұрын
For brad identity, I tend to lean more towards genre-based identity. So for example, I exclusively create Simulator games, if I want to create another genre, I can create it as a branch of my main studio
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
That's indeed an excellent example of a good brand.
@CloudlessStudio
Ай бұрын
Thats kind of why I make PS1 styled games, a few people recognize my style and it helps to appease to those fans.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
That indeed sounds like a great thing to keep going for, retro and cool looking! (Just played a bunch of Wii laser gun games with that look.. still loving it!)
@DiegoDevPro
Ай бұрын
Great video. Very useful information as usual. 👍
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
💪😎
@bobbygeneric9396
Ай бұрын
You should make small games from all your unfinished projects
@mandisaw
Ай бұрын
My brand is more audience-based at this point. I like to focus on age 40+ gamers, since it's [we're] basically an ignored market by most AAA and indies alike. Gives me the freedom to explore genres that appeal to me & suit the current/changing market, at a more achievable dev pace than if I was aiming for kids/teens (older = defined prefs, less volatile market generally). Got the idea partly from late hubby & that Spiderweb Software talk - he was a big fan of that studio, and just like you said, he would buy games from them on reputation alone, over almost 20yrs. Consumer brand loyalty is what Coca-Cola, McD's and the like spend literal billions on, but all we have to do is make good games :)
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Ooooh just make good games, you make it sound so easy 😅
@mandisaw
Ай бұрын
@@orangepixelgames I mean, compared to spending billions over decades, it ain't _that_ bad 😅😂
@crtglowgames
Ай бұрын
My condolences on the loss of your husband. Interesting comment around the 40+ demographic being underserved. Do you mean people that have been gaming since the dawn of home computing? I haven't released a full game yet, but always thought I'd first aim at providing the captivation and immersion I enjoyed as a kid via 80s and 90s games - to pay it forward in a way. So making a game accessible for young kids but with a sprinkling of jokes or references for the boomer gamers to appreciate. Sorta like how The Simpsons does it. After that I'd certainly be very interested in targeting 40 somethings like myself in a grand immersive story driven game (hopefully I'll still be a 40 something then!)
@mandisaw
Ай бұрын
@@crtglowgames 40+ just means by age - they could have started gaming during the pandemic/last couple yrs, or started in the age of arcades & the Amiga. You can look into studies that give insight into what players by-age are into, and are looking for. AARP & ESA have info on older gamers for the US, and I've found good reports from Statista & even region/country-specific agencies, like for Germany & the UK. Catering to kids/teens & adults (or seniors) alike in games is harder than the movies make it look 😅 You've got to remember that movies are a shorter time-commitment, and even most "family" movies are really kids' movies that adults can tolerate. Kind of similar with books. Games are significantly different by age-cohort, since you also need to account for accessibility, relative preferences around UI/UX (e.g. color scheme, info density), session length, cognitive load, even reading-level & ability to engage meaningfully with narrative content. So design & implementation present their own challenges 💪
@crtglowgames
Ай бұрын
@@mandisaw Thank you so much for the references and insights! I have quite a game design reading list pending too. I'm dreaming of a work sabbatical coming my way so I can pull everything together.
@williamtucker3700
Ай бұрын
Residual had great graphics and sounds. But I think you may have pixelized to much, not enough definition in the player, etc. Probably suited to a phone screen. The main problem is that the player didn't know exactly they were supposed to do, it was to stop and starty. I suggest you give it a new release with a title like: Residual the New Beginnings, but make it a fun adventure like Mario or Commander Keen. Well that is, if these game genres are not dead. Note, things come in fads until everyone is sick of them. The current production line/industry genre is another.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
It certainly had some flaws, but it's still good to see players exploring multiple planets and having fun. And with the last few updates it became user friendly and think it mostly failed because of wrong expectations in the end.
@ArksideGames
Ай бұрын
Brilliant advice:D
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Thanks!
@markguyton2868
Ай бұрын
I don't know if I could think like a real-estate company like McD's, but it makes sense. I think most indie devs don't think about branding is because they either don't want to "trap themselves in a bubble" or they are too busy just trying to get one game to succeed, but then again this is coming from someone who's never made a true game due to lack of coding comprehension so I don't know.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
That's indeed the problem, thinking about just that one game and releasing it and then either giving up or moving to very different games instead of using what was learned and try better.
@mandisaw
Ай бұрын
Most indies never make more than 0-1 game, unfortunately. Branding requires being intentional & persistent across time / multiple games.
@MysticRiverGames
Ай бұрын
Agree with you!, though I end up making different games every time :) maybe I will stick with one genre/art style eventually, until that happens I will keep trying different ones as many time as I can. It is quite fun to try different things
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
It is certainly fun to try new stuff!
@hambonetunes1988
Ай бұрын
I def agree making games quickly is where it is going forward in the indie scene!
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Not just indie scene, all of gaming has the same issues with investing in long development cycles and limited returns. But indies should be in a better position to counter it!
@mandisaw
Ай бұрын
@@orangepixelgames Maybe it's cultural, but feels like a lot of indies (and most AAA & press) who grew up in the PC / console era, only see big games as "real games". Ironically, growing up with arcade games and early platforms (Amiga, Atari, original Mac, ZX Spectrum) may be what's helping you to thrive - you have experience of great games that were short & fast-to-develop by modern standards. Think the folks who came up in the Flash era specifically, might be similar.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
True, but even at AAA levels they are looking at how to do it faster, because the math just isn't working anymore (excluding the hit games of course)
@bobbygeneric9396
Ай бұрын
I love your games. You should build a small unique platform game.
@orangepixelgames
Ай бұрын
Don't think there's a good market for that right now, but maybe the platform games will come back!
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