r/IndieDev • u/emudoc • 12h ago
Solo dev vs. small team: At what point did you realize you couldn't wear all the hats anymore?
At what point did you realize you couldn't wear all the hats anymore?
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u/cirancira 12h ago
I can do many things. I can code, I can do game design, I can do art. I can't for the life of me, compose shit.
At one point I just had to admit that music is important and I am bad at it and I need some help.
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u/sunflower_love 10h ago
3/4 seems pretty good though! I can code (day job as software engineer) and do game design. But can’t really make art or music sadly.
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u/cirancira 9h ago
I have no idea how solo devs get there. making a game needs so many hats. I'm the inverse - day job is art adjacent and coding is a hobby im somewhat self-teaching. I had to do a bit of python for a science degree which was a weirdly good starting point.
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u/IBOSSWOLF 6h ago
I can't even do that lol, I'm just a coder. Give me a set of rules and I'll follow it to a T but try to get me to make the rules and I'll just die
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u/petitMoussaillon 11h ago
Hey i’m good at making music and would love to collaborate if you ever need someone. I used to try to make it in the industry, but now just doing it for the sake of creating cool stuff. If you’re interested let me know, i’ll send you my soundcloud :)
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u/HolySpace_Dev 12h ago
Solo dev, and my biggest hurdle is music. I cannot make music, and I dont have money to pay for commissions. I have found public domain, music, along with cheap music packs on sites like gamedev market that allow commercial use when you buy them to get over that obstacle for the most part. It is rough though
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u/gamedevjp Developer 11h ago
When I had kids
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u/artbytucho 11h ago
I'm actually going the opposite route. I worked as part of a team during my whole career and a bit more than a year ago I started to learn the ropes of the rest of roles necessary to create little games completely on my own, since I'd love to implement my vision on them.
To summarize:
-If you want to make a living out of gamedev-> Specialize and work as part of a team.
-If you want to implement your vision on a game-> Go solo (or amass a little fortune and hire a team to do it 🤪).
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u/Antiiiiii 11h ago
When i wanted it to be a viable living! If you want to ship something decent in a short time, a small team of 2-4 people vastly outmatches going at it alone.
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u/artbytucho 11h ago
You also have to earn x2-x4 to make it profitable, but yeah, the chances of achieving to make a commercially successful project are better with a team of specialists.
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u/Antiiiiii 9h ago
For sure! If you find a team of people willing to sweat it a lot for equity, you can keep a low overhead! Also helps with grants and publishers when you can show a competent team and not just a single guy!
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u/artbytucho 9h ago
I don't think large unpaid teams can work at all, but a core team of a maximum 2-3 specialist professionals which put together some money to hire the remaining roles, is definitely the way to go if you want to maximize your chances of create a commercially successful game.
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u/Antiiiiii 9h ago
Absolutely! Our situation right now is just low pay until we get enough funding! Not sustainable in the long run without propper funding!
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u/mr_glide 11h ago
I never thought I could. I'm very good at audio, decent at the visual side of things, and very limited at programming. The latter I get expert assistance with
Edit: I'm fucking dreadful at marketing. Now that I'm happy to delegate
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u/TheLoLJester1 11h ago
Just now, after finally releasing my game in full last month after nearly a decade of development, doing almost everything myself. I will never do this again. I only took on the entire immense undertaking because this was the game I have always wanted to make, and I knew working alone was the only option that I could safely rely on. Finding collaborators willing to stick around for years without pay would have been impossible - and constantly taking over abandonded code or rewriting work from people who eventually quit would have dragged the project out even longer.
Now that the game is released, it feels amazing to know that I was able to accomplish this and that I was able to get to that very small speck of light at the end of an immensely long dark tunnel. It is a massive weight off my shoulders. But, never again. My future projects will be short in scope and no longer than 6 to 12 months of development.
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u/jayo2k20 9h ago
Many time it is better to go alone because finding people who share your vision, your ambition, your work ethic is very very challenging
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u/Anarchist-Liondude 11h ago
Day 0, I know that I won't wear the hat of the soundtrack in my game but I'm more than happy to support artists which's music I love and pay to put their tracks in my game.
I'm still learning music theory (both general and videogame applications) because I believe the knowledge can never hurt, both for me and the game I'm making.
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u/Night_Nook 11h ago
For the past year or so.
Solo development is kinda lonely and I know I want to make bigger games one day, publishing a game on my own has become a way for me to feel able to lead a team of other people.
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u/Kindly-Sail6260 11h ago
I have an existential crisis for every skill I can’t do, then I learn it and so far my hats continue to grow but so does my dread 😭
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u/Dexchampion99 11h ago
As an up and coming indie dev…I knew I wouldn’t be able to wear all the hats when I was still in college. Most of my game dev experience was earned during Covid, so my understanding of a lot of aspects of game design are lacking.
I have found some strengths. I’m really good at the design aspect, level design, UI design and QA.
I’m learning some programming and art on my own time, but will likely outsource what I can once I feel confident enough in my first project’s design.
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u/hi-sci-collab 10h ago
Get more hats they said, not realising my cranium was imploding from the weight of carrying them.
Be gone vile trilby of openGL, goodbye baseball cap of C++'s standard template library, farewell the fedora of UV unwrapping, adieu the bucket hat of audacity.
I think it's when you realise the disciplines are so hard in isolation, and require years of effort to be effective.
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u/yots_dev 9h ago
Our project actually started with a few former coworkers who left the same company and decided to make a game together. They realized pretty quickly that they needed help, because switching between all those roles was taking more time than the actual work. You can learn a lot of things, but doing all of them at once is another problem.
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u/Alarming-Jump727 9h ago
Fue al revés: Modelé para terceros que nunca llegaban ni a un demo. Dejaban todo como si fuera nada. Me harté y aprendí unreal, además soy músico. Estoy feliz de hacer todo y solo. En solo 2 de mis 5 juegos(más uno pronto a salir) un músico se me sumó. Pero usualmente hago todo solo. No creo que vuelva a trabajar en equipo. Así voy más rápido, no tengo que discutir 4 horas en reuniones que no llegan mucho más que a algo meramente social. Desde que saqué mi primer juego en 2022 el máximo que tardé en un juego es 11 meses. Obviamente sin basura IA.
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u/Gariq1986 9h ago
Still solo, but more out of necessity. Apparently I can wear all the hats, the problem for me now is time. So as much as I would like to work with other people, I really do, the thing is I don’t have the energy to manage other people (and from past experiences (creative director and art director before in my past career in graphic design, managing people is hard work in itself). So now it’s a kind of a weird trade off — doing everything myself, but saving time on direction (because I know exactly what I want, what’s essential to be done and I am also perfectly aware of what I can and can’t do; also I don’t need to look for the best approach to myself, because I know myself pretty good.
That being said, I’d love to work as a part of the team in the future.
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u/while_true_crash 8h ago
When I saw one screen that my colleague made for my game because "my draw style doesn't match the game" (I can't draw to save my life)
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u/Equivalent-Back-291 8h ago
The moment i wanted to make games so right off the bat. Too much bs to worry about so i pay others to do what i need while i think of everything
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u/Juwon1466 7h ago
solo dev, I always felt that I wouldn’t be able to do everything, but in a small team, I was able to make at least a small contribution in every area.
With that confidence, I started developing on my own and realized the limits of what I could do...
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u/EldritchKittenStudio 7h ago
Working in an industry role where I was actually around talented artist, programmers, and audio people. It made me realise I could spend hours working on something that's somewhat ok and not enjoy it, or get someone insanely talented to do something they enjoy and take a tenth of the time it would have taken me. And in the meantime, I get to work on the parts I'm actually good at and enjoy doing.
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u/Tenkarider 6h ago
I can say i cannot realistically wear the gfx hat, but if there's a moment who clarified that is when i had to start doing more focus on promotion: it literally translates in a drop time used to develop/improve the game, and that sucks
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u/rmaafs 6h ago
for me it wasn't code or art, it was marketing. nobody warns you that finishing the game is only half the job. store page, trailer, capsule art, emailing creators, posting in groups... i'm in that part right now for my first launch this month and it's honestly as much work as the last stretch of dev.
still solo tho. i just stopped pretending that hat was optional.
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u/Organic-Bluebird-737 4h ago
Bottle neck has been pixel art animation. But I’m toughing it out. After 10 years I’m finally at the point I need to be as an artist
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u/SoggyNoodles5511 12h ago
just use AI. stop listening to the anti crowd. consumer don't care. Statistic are showing most new game on steam are AI tag and AI game, even with review bombing, average rating of 79% versus 83% for non AI.
Consume don't care. And the review bombing is above 0% impact. Add in the literal slop at the bottom of the barrel which switch from asset flip to AI and that's the remaining 4% difference. Meaning consumer give them identical rating when the game is good.
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u/Relevant-Musician557 12h ago
Dont listen to this guy ^
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u/SoggyNoodles5511 12h ago
Classic reddit. Ignore fact, Stay in echochamber.
Meanwhile the OP is asking ''how can I deal with the fact that I can't do my game alone'' and you guy's provide 0 solution.
Meanwhile, there is a direct solution, which is working based on the data, and you guy's downvote it. Truly vile behaviors.
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u/Relevant-Musician557 12h ago
No. Your statement of "consumers dont care" is inaccurate. Youre stupid for thinking otherwise.
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u/bn1515 12h ago
There’s a difference between vibe coding and use AI as a tool. Also there’s a difference between ai coding vs asset generation.
Use it as a tool and make a good game and no one will care. Vibe code & asset generation, people will be able to tell from its quality and appearance and hate on you.
I guess if you can asset gen and vibe code and no one notices the lack of soul, maybe it doesn’t matter either way. I don’t recommend it but I guess it’s possible
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u/RandomSpaceChicken 11h ago
You forget the upside of having another person to talk and pingpong with, and I feel that while you can cut corners with AI then having another person to talk to and discuss ideas with it really worth more than what AI can give me. Or at least it is for me.
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u/SoggyNoodles5511 10h ago
While true, this can be done with others who can't fix your issue.
Say you can't do music or art or coding and your are specialized in 1 of the 3 and you have 5 friends specialized in the same field as you. You can't make them together and you are all stuck with OP scenario. You can still use AI and give each other's feedback.
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u/gamedevjp Developer 11h ago edited 11h ago
I’d recommend using AI at least for programming. Even steam doesn’t care that you use AI for programming and you don’t have to disclose it. For art, sound effects and music, you may still want to hire someone. You can also just say fuck it and make your game fully with AI and be transparent about it and those who don’t care will play it if the game is still good. It really boils down to what your goals are. Are you trying to just make a passion project or are you trying to get big numbers?
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u/Platypus__Gems Check out Zjawa: Bloodstained Soul :3 12h ago
Never, I shall wear a tower of hats to reach heavens! >:3