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Jonathan Evans on asking yourself what kind of indie developer you are

Maybe it's time you found out

Jonathan Evans on asking yourself what kind of indie developer you are

"What kind of indie dev are you?"

That's what Jonathan Evans, Design Director at Team Lumo, asked the crowd at his talk on indie design philosophies.

According to Evans, the indie philosophy began with developers leaving big name studios to work on their own games, but struggled to find success in the world and became "zombie" developers.

New developers rose from this era, however, and Evans talked about five different types of developer that you may fit into.

First is the Ideas Fountain, who comes up with a wealth of ideas, works on numerous games, but never actually manages to finish them because they "get distracted by the Ideas Fairy."

Second is the Recycler, who claims to make a new variation of a game, but is actually just repeating games that have already been successful.

Third is the Artiste, who find that "art is a cruel" business, and that no matter how hard they work, they don't have a particularly large audience.

Fourth is the Churner, who releases games quickly based on their own ideas, but repeat the idea over and over when they release a game to look good.

Finally, the fifth type is the Analyser, who believes that the data will tell them which games will work, but won't listen to other people about what they actually want.

While these traits may not seem attractive, Evans says that it provides a sense of identity, which is important for being "self-aware" and working to improve in aspects that they feel they're lacking.

"You can't have five philosophies in your head", he said, but being able to bring the various ideas to your game development and maintain some balance will make your game more likely to be a success.

"Find balance between all the philosophies," he concluded.

"Zombies are not allowed on the see-saw."


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.