How to Make and Self-Publish a Game in 12 Months

This GDC 2015 talk goes over the path SomaSim's Matthew Viglione took when he decided to make and self-publish his own game in the span of a year.

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[capzombie]

We love tycoon games and simulations in Germany and the market is big compared to other countries in Europe. So an early localization is always a good idea. imho

[JoeGeorge]

Really wish he mentioned the total unit sales of 1849, not seeing actual data on a multi year long venture (savings into game development) is rather important. The biggest hint we got with regards to this is when he said, "if we didn't have the extra sales from Android or iOS then we wouldn't have continued to make indy games" or some shit along those lines.

Data like that is objectively important for people who see their selves in a relatively similar frame of reference (just graduated with Marketing degree). Some of the smaller marketing tid bits (ie: just talk to everyone approach) is something I figured and was assured by, but mentioning the fruits of said investment is relatively important. The strongest knowledge learned here not found in other GDC talks is with regards to the pros/cons of game expo's, which I hadn't thought of before.

Regardless, the content that we got was a worthwhile read. Thanks

[chrisanderson]

I'm gonna go buy his game just to pay him for this great talk - plus it looks fun.

[GameSoup]

Amazing talk, learned a ton, will be rewatching it again when we are closer to our first release to remind myself about some of the topics. Thanks!

[sarccacious]

I have 5 dollars and can type "hello world" to command prompt. How long will it take me to make a game?

[Chiros]

His sip of water is the stock gulp sound from every game you can drink in.

[MauratenHoopen]

I'm a game music composer, but I intend to learn more about the "game world" in general. Keep it up, everyone!

[ViorelMocanu]

Years later, this is an inspiration. Thanks a lot for this!

[digitalbeat]

how to get divorce in 12 months and marry
your computer

[konstantinkostadinov]

!Disclaimer - these are just my notes, that I want to keep under the video. I encourage You to watch it from start to end. I also might have missed some of the important information!

Lessons Learned from this video:
* avoid mentioning other games in your elevator pitch.
* game media is a key - rock, paper, shotgun; pocket gamer; polygon; depends on your game
* important youtubers
* indie game stand is good for the early stages of the game, the community is nice
* the steam community has too high expectations
* have different selling points for different platforms
* ads are communication, don't just say - "come and play!"

[DewmOnline]

just stumbled across this GDC channel...loving it. another great video.

[MathiasJ]

Very solid talk covering a lot of interesting topics. Nice one :D

[Gijontin]

Tough crowd, he was a pretty good and funny talker... ;P

[erikm]

Love the composer plugging herself in the Q&A wtf hahaha

[mrjed]

"Are you ready for Lodes of Fun??" [sips water]

I laughed

[huntdog]

Nice Video, I realized at the end of your presentation I met you at Pax West 2016 and played project Highrise. Bought the game after and loved it. It was a little odd to do a simulation game demo at pax, but loved the idea of scheduling a time to play that you did.

[gamedesignwithmichael]

I seem to keep looping back around and end up watching this talk about every 6 months. Which I'm okay with, good talk.

[numgun]

I appreciated this talk, very concrete and actionable advice. Thank you.

[gengar]

That composer should not have been doing some shameless self promoting. The guys is like "if you have any questions about my game you can ask them and ill try my best to answer them" and shes like" so im a composer and if any of you want some music for your game ill be staying in this room" you can also see how the whole crowd looks back at her like wtf are you doing XD

[LtVax]

Almost 4 years later and I'm still working on my game, but it is a 100% solo endeavor. Thought about hiring an artist due to the amount of animations but I'm in no rush and I do enjoy it. Good talk but most of this has been covered in other talks I've watched.