Really brutal!! I did some things with libgdx but ... java isn't my deal. This is a huge project, Why are you doing this for free? I think that putting heroes of umbra in the play store could be a VERY VERY serious business. What about translations? I speak Spanish, Italian and German but I am really good with Spanish and I can help you. Cheers from Spain.
I don’t consider myself an indie developer.
The game franchise is shifting towards small teams that can give AAA studios a run for their money. Given crowdfunding platforms like kickstarter, getting thousands of dollars in funding for a reasonably decent-looking game is easy. Indie developers have resources, business plans, and ultimately a lot of power to successfully develop games full-time. With platforms like greenlight, humble bundles, indiedb, and so on, there are clearly many outlets for independent developers to share their products and opinions.
However, I feel these outlets tend to inflate independent developers’ sense of entitlement and the success of the independent game industry is gradually shifting developers’ focus from passion to monetization.
Depending on whom you ask this may not be a bad thing. It’s just a thing. It’s just different than what I’m used to. It’s wonderful that people can make a living creating games; however I prefer to make games in my spare time. No huge Kickstarter campaigns, no large teams, no frills, and no fuss – it’s simply something that I’m interested in. When I started Starless Umbra, the term indie didn’t even exist in the context of game development. We were all just amateur or hobbyist developers with a strong sense of ownership over our projects which I feel some developers have lost sight of.
Admittedly, developing full-time for-profit is enticing. As Christopher Nolan’s Joker says, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” I’m thankful enough to have a job that isn’t overly-demanding and enables me to at least squeeze in a few hours here and there during the week, so I can provide Heroes of Umbra for free at the expense of a social life.
If people want to support the game, the best way to do so is by sharing it with their friends. I have plans for a very basic donation model, but my first priority is completion of the game.
Regarding OUYA specifically, I was going to talk about the Gridiron Thunder fiasco, but it doesn’t really matter too much to me. If anything, it just serves as an example of monetization outweighing passion. The OUYA is platform effortlessly to host my game, so I support it. Providing a networked multiplayer gameplay experience that is as device-agnostic as possible is one of my goals, and from what I’ve heard most people are having fun playing the alpha on any device they can get their hands on.
Java works for me and I know it’s a bit old-fashioned and not as quick as its contemporaries but for my purposes it’s just the right level of depth for a programming language. It’s not quite as quick as C++, but I don’t like memory management all that much. Also it comes with less bloat than Unity, but I don’t know if that’s saying much. No offense to Unity or C++ developers – I just think the whole “industry-standard” argument is rubbish. I prefer to use what I find most comfortable and efficient for my workflow.
I’ll keep in contact with you regarding some translation work, if my jumbled reply/rant hasn’t scared you off. Thanks for the question.
I would argue that you are in fact the best kind of indie developer. Your not in it for the money. As you know I have been around and familiar with your work for quite some time and one thing I can say about all your projects is that you are passionate. You make and design games that you would love to play. To me that is what being a great indie developer is all about. I am actively pursuing a career as a indie dev, but even if it is not the career for you, to me you are a indie dev great :)
















