In talking to publishers about World of Goo we’ve often wished we could call other indie developers and ask them how they did things, who they talked to, what worked and what didn’t, and generally feel better equipped to make the business decisions that needed making.
Just recently we started feeling like we’ve gained a little knowledge that could help other developers as I’m sure other developers have knowledge that could help us. There is no reason every indie developer should have to learn only from their own experience.
Kyle and I want to pool the collective indie wisdom into a resource that we could all tap and help each other become more successful as businesses.
To start out, we’re creating a mailing list for active indie game studios to discuss indie business. Anything from publishing contracts to requests for introductions to hiring leads to legal advice to whatever. This list is intended for indie developers who either have a game in development and/or already have a game out there. If you’d like to join, send us an email and briefly tell us who you are.
We’re also organizing a get-together to discuss business aspects of indie game development. This will happen during GDC, but not as part of GDC (we want to restrict this to indie devs only). The idea is to have each participant give a very informal five minute brain dump on their experience in the indie business, or to share some nugget/insight/anecdote/disaster they think could be useful, or serve as a warning, to others. Each talk will be followed by a bit of Q&A and discussion. If you want to come, send us an email and mention who you are and what you might like to talk about. We’ll figure out the date, time, food, and venue based on responses. See you there!
