It's a radiant day in San Francisco, and I am surrounded by indies. You can't turn a corner in The Midway without locking eyes on the most fascinating, offbeat morsel of interactive media you've seen since all of two seconds ago. The talent on display at the latest edition of Day of the Devs is electric and inspiring, and for a few glorious hours in the California sunshine, you'd be forgiven for thinking the game industry has finally reached nirvana.It hasn't, of course. The world of video games continues to treat developers big and small like interchangeable components in a dystopian corporate machine. Funding cuts, widespread layoffs, project cancellations, and the perplexing notion that video games should be made to appease shareholders rather than spread joy have decimated the game industry of late. It's evident that developers are growing weary of those debilitating trends, but how can the smallest teams in particular weather the storm in the hope of witnessing a brighter future?We asked those exhibiting at Day of the Devs for their own personal survival tips. Here's what we learned.
Stay lean, move fast, scope efficiently
"Make something really small with as small of a team as you can, so that you don't have to do as well for it to be considered a success," explains Gourdlets developer Preethi Vaidyanathan (a.k.a. AuntyGames).She's not the only one who feels smaller is mightier in the current climate. Alastair Low from Lowtek Games tells his peers to "keep it lean" and believes solo devs and smaller studios might find it easier to meet deadlines because there's more direct accountability. Bigger teams, he feels, can get away with kicking the can down the road to a certain extent.Santa Ragione programmer and designer Stefano Sanitate broadly agrees. "Don't overscope your game," he says. "Do your best to try and go small and grow steadily. Everyone wants to achieve the perfect game, but firstly you don't have the resources, and when you think you have the resources, you don't have the time. Just be honest with yourself and look around at the context. The industry is in kind of bad [place] right now."
Image via Day of the Devs
