“Faster does not mean worse,” says independent developer Jake Birkett, speaking about the timing of the creation of video games.
According to Birkett, time is an unacceptable luxury for an ordinary indie developer. But most people don’t understand this.
Jake Birkett interviewed 380 people on Twitter on the topic: “How much time did you spend creating a video game.” 27% of respondents reported that the development period of their title exceeds 3 years.
Jake Birkett is guided by a simple logic: the faster you manage to make a game, the sooner it will start to pay off. For clarity, he compared two of his own projects: the card role-playing game Shadowhand and the causal “three-in-a-row” Spooky Bonus.
Birkett did the first title for 2.5 years, and coped with the second in 3 months. If you divide the gaming revenues of Spooky Bonus for the development time, it turns out that the game earned about $ 400 for every hour spent on it.
Birkett did not specify exactly how much Shadowhand earns. According to him, the game sells well, but it cannot compare in revenue with Spooky Bonus.
According to the developer, you can save time without harm by using a ready-made engine and not spraying efforts on insignificant elements of the game.
“Just be realistic and don’t try to turn the game into one huge art object. It will bring you nothing but disappointment,” the game designer summed up.
Jake Birkett is a British independent video game developer, creator of the studio Grey Alien Games.
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