I am now, officially, a full time independent game developer. Today is my first day. Let’s start with a happy image.
The Men Who Wear Many Hats started out as a bunch of friends who wanted to make games in their free time. Now, thanks to the support of our fans and the extra large amount of money we got from our Kickstarter campaign, I have decided that I want this to be my only full time commitment. Organ Trail: Director’s Cut is our first commercial product and I aim to make it great.
I have been vaguely promising the game to release in “Spring.” And as that window of time grows shorter, I realized that we were not going to make it. At PAX East, I was telling everyone to look for the game at the end of May. When I looked at the actual schedule… it wasn’t possible. It may still be a stretch at this point, but at least we wont have to push it back more than a month. We also still have to send out rewards to our backers and that has been taking way too long. I feel bad about that.
Now that I can put in at least 40 hours a week, I will be working 5 times faster than before and without the drain of a full time job. It’s not easy to do good, professional work for 40+ hours and come home and keep the momentum going on a different project. I used to be able to pull it off when less was expected of me but then we didn’t really have a quality bar or fans to answer to. Now, I’m taking this game seriously; insomuch as my livelihood depends on it.
Wish me luck. I have about six months worth of savings to live off of in my current state of “no income.” We should be putting our game out within the next two months. Once we see how it does, that will be the time to decided if going indie is really just a dream or an actual sustainable career. I hope you all love what we do and continue to support us. Without the fans, we are nothing (other than handsome.)
Let’s end with an random quote that makes me feel better:
A ship in harbor is safe. But that’s not what ships are built for. ~ William Shedd