The Cheapest Bastard article does a great job of keeping it real with what it takes to financially be stable as an indie game dev.

Its easy for gamers to think that anyone can get some programming & art work under their belt, download a bunch of game making tools, and can self publish a game that makes a profit. It is true that anyone CAN, but it is a different matter for it to be sustainable: Living wage, work/life balance, on-going revenue stream, etc.

I watch his GDC speech like once a year https://youtu.be/stxVBJem3Rs Sometimes people talk of "indie legends" and they usually think of a solo-dev who made one big hit and nothing else... Nope, this guy is a real indie legend.

I have played Jeff's games since Exile, keeping an eye periodically on what Spiderweb launches. It's practically a one-man show, complemented by an equally dedicated community that provides additional assets, that still manages to create grand worlds with vast branching storylines. That is true dedication to game development.

Good read, thanks for sharing. It's clear that far too many game developers are sitting around waiting to hit the jackpot with the next 'stardew valley' or 'minecraft', (or taking the short cut thanks to Epic) and then even successful developers, who have a big hit, oversell themselves on the next game, trying to make it bigger and better than the first, and they fail to find the same audience. This guy has a great understanding of the numbers game and that's why he can stay open for business for so long.
I'm a programmer and I can draw some basic stuff, and I've worked on some prototypes that I think would make interesting games. But I also have a family to feed and a home loan to pay off, and in order to make the game the best I could, I would need to do it full time. And the numbers just don't add up, so I keep my reasonably paid programmer job, and dream. Maybe one day when my kids are older we can make a game together. Otherwise, maybe one day I'll retire and it will be my way of staying busy, but that's still more than 30 years away hopefully.

Didn't know Avernum was an "indie" game, I know this serie for so long

If anyone is interested in reading more by Jeff Vogel, he has a pretty active blog about being an indie dev called The Bottom Feeder.

Thanks for the recommendation. I do like his games and don't mind "the art", there still are tons of better games I like even more though. ;)

I've only played through Escape From the Pit, which I loved.
I know very few devs as dedicated as Jeff Vogel.

Haven't played any of them yet for more than 5 minutes.
Have all but one game from the Spiderweb Software Super-Gigantic Bundle.
Help.

I LOVED the Avernum series, played it a long time ago before it was on Steam, Geneforge was good too. Unfortunately, it's only on steam so difficult to gift here on SG - I just checked - but minus the "remastered" 3rd game of the series, it's on cheap sale sometimes. For newer players however, I'd imagine they would go for the more modern pillars of eternity which is similar, Age of decadence is also similar and I put in 50+ hours into that recently. I just really get into these games where you equip your character and play faction storylines while wandering around the world.

Understandable that it's tough to have to do everything yourself as an indie dev, although judging by glancing at the other thread, it's not much better in a company.

I am a big fan of the Spiderweb games - have played Avernum 4, 5 and 6 as well as the Avadon games. I own all the rest and have just wishlisted Queen's Quest, thanks to this post.
His article was great - an incite into how difficult it is to create a game with a small company that will actually be appreciated and played. I thought his referring to his art as ugly was funny. I love this art style and do not find it jarring at all (also do not mind retro pixel art and love rpgmaker style games so maybe I am weird). I think what draws me to Jeff Vogel's games are the stories - well fleshed out, great adventuring sagas that for me last hundreds of hours (lots of questing, lots of exploring).

I will look forward to his upcoming game and the sequels :)

Very interesting article, I kind of struggled with his numbers though. He's cutting a $140k margin and he's saying $25 an hour for assets? Surely he could apportion some of that towards some assets, like it would actually make his life a bit easier too.

I know he said he was forced to get people to make bespoke art for things he couldnt find stock items for, but surely if he just invested in say someone for UI, character models, or whatever, his costs would increase but not to the point where he needs to blow an entire budget. This would then decrease time spent on stuff he hates, so increasing his free time and potentially speeding up releases, thus making him more money.

Perhaps those are the bespoke items he was talking about, but I'd be urging him to rethink his budget ever so slightly, it definite sounded like madness to hire someone or get majority of assets done though.

Exile was the first deep RPG I played. I spent so many hours on that and Realmz on my old Mac back in the mid-90s.

Great to see he's still going strong.

Queen's Wish: The Conqueror is out.
Store page

I am also a big fan of the Spiderweb games, the scene of C-RPGs would be a lot poorer if it wasn't for the likes of him, his controversial design choices are economically sound, so you can't really fault the man.

Anyway, here's a chance to win a a copy of his latest release : Queen's Wish: The Conqueror.

I don't understand why people make games like they're two decades old. Lord British aka Rich Garriott always tried something new with every Ultima game, but there are people trying to recreate an Ultima IV feel in 2019. Just play Ultima IV, you do not need a new game for this, because it will be worse - creativity is always about something new, and if something is uncreative, it's boring in all aspects.

Thanks for the links, pretty interesting read.
When you see all those abandoned early access game on Steam, I think he's pretty smart.

Nice read. I like his approach to things and I also enjoyed the couple of games I played by Spiderweb.