But I saw a tweet from Notch here and it really stirred up a huge amount of unexpected thoughts in me that I wanted to share today.
Notch (in real life known as Markus Persson) is one of the founders of Minecraft , and sold his share in the company recently to Microsoft for a hefty $2.5 billion dollars.
After recovering from shock at both the raw number and the fact that he sold and exited the company he helped create - naturally many hopeful indie developers probably have had a fleeting thought that Notch could be a really powerful Angel Investor / Philanthropist in the indie community and seed some incredible indie projects around the world with much needed funding - potentially causing a game production revolution single handedly.
There are all sorts of projects on Kickstarter that want small amounts like $20,000, $50,000 and so on. Notch could pick one project a month under $100,000 and be funding projects for the next 10,000+ months if he reserved 1 Billion for his philanthropist efforts right?
Sounds great, lets get to work!
But then I stopped and really thought about it. I mean really think about it.
What if he did invest in my project .. does he get a say in my development now?
Maybe I would be willing to to have him as an executive producer for the cash influx? But what would you have to trade for an investor?
Are you really just expecting an investor to throw you a bucket of cash and say "I truly don't care what you do with my money, buy a truck of bacon for all I care?".
But I thought I was an indie? All of a sudden I'm really willing to surrender some portion of my vision - this thing I've been telling everyone else (never mind myself) that I believe in so much!! SO freaking much!
But no apparently all it takes is Markus Persson walking up with $55,000.00 and all of a sudden I'm throwing shit out the window like I don't give a damn about my game just to make him happy?
I thought this is the entire reason I'm an indie so I can do it my way?
I'm not going AAA for a reason.
I'm not looking for a publisher for a reason!
I'm not looking to sell out to make a quick buck for a reason!
Because if I was I wouldn't be slaving over this blog for a year to build a community, and grinding architecture out late at night after I get off work from my day job and after I put my kid to bed would I?
I mean its hard, its damn hard. But am I being honest with myself if I take this kind of money??
If your going to sell out - then don't ask Notch to be your enabler. Just sell out. Go get some AAA or hell .. these days in the mobile market I'd call most of these mobile studios single A studios - go get paid. Stop bellyaching.
And then there's this other thing that hit me - that made me write this.
Get this .. if Notch did invest in my project (or yours) then all of a sudden everyone would know (because of course you would proudly tell everyone someone so awesome as Notch invested in you right??)
So now .. everyone is looking at your project all of a sudden. Everyone is wondering to themselves "What is so cool about this project that I missed - it's got to be there, Notch saw it!"
And everything will change; just because he invested. Even if it was some small amount like $5000.00 dollars.
$5000.00 won't make a dent in my project; but the press attention, the community exposure, the freaking twitter storm? You can't buy that kind of exposure!
So now - the world has changed ; you are on the map now man! All because Markus threw you a 5k drop in the bucket.
But every time someone sees your tweet - its in the back of their head and they are going to pay you one more notch of attention (no pun intended :-).
And when your game finally ships - you know all the news sites are going to mention that this is the game that Notch invested in right?
And lets say (for fantasy or arguments sake - take your pic) that your game ships and is a financial success.
When you sit back afterwards and the a euphoria has worn off are you going to pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how right you were all along? How your game's vision was just so awesome that it was destined to succeed no matter what? How great of a designer you are?
Or maybe, just maybe might you start to wonder - what would have happened if Notch never did invest?
Would anyone have ever noticed you?
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| This is your chance of getting noticed in the mobile market place today |
Would anyone care about your project?
And to me that's heavy shit. I've dreamed of making this RPG for a long time. But if I had to attribute all of its success to someone else's fame and investment rather than my effort, my design, my dream - to me that would be a bitter pill to swallow and I sure as hell wouldn't be patting myself on the back.
So in the end that little dream many of us have of someone swooping in and solving all of our financial woes when it comes to production doesn't feel as sweet to me as it sounds.
Finally I admit even with doubts I am expressing here; I can not dismiss the possibility of investors or crowd funding or other sources of income to supplement my development are interesting and would need to be carefully considered for their reward vs their impact on the project.
I (like many of you) wish I could have a self sustaining business and do this for the rest of my life - as I've been doing on the side for 20 full years.
But Notch buying my success with his personal gravitas is no recipe for sustainability. It doesn't make my studio in to a gold minting machine.
What happens when he doesn't invest in my next game? Then, all of a sudden, I'm getting 1/4 of the sales and attention? Does my studio go out of business?
As indie's we have to find our way to sustainability, usually on our own.
And so I close with some thoughts and advice:
Do not dwell in despair over another person's success, even if it seems outrageous.
Do not overwhelm your daily sense of wonder and joy in creating games in jealousy over Markus's billions.
Do live in the moment, find joy in creativity, hope for wonderful things, and put a little bit of your heart in your game every day.
When you finally finish I hope you find a sense of satisfaction and a job well done, perhaps a few moments of truly uplifting euphoria - the kind that money can't buy.
Walk the path you've chosen without hope or despair, just simply enjoy the journey, sometimes that's all you get.
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