Surviving Indie is a documentary that tells the story of different indie developers. It showcases the life of an indie developer through the process of game development and how the job affects your life. A common theme between all the stories is the passion that keeps them going despite being in a bad position in their lives both financially and socially. It depicts the all struggles of game development - the deadlines, motivation, money and failures. Indie developers have to be resilient and accept their failures. I found that the passion the developers showed - pulling through tough times to fulfill their ideas and goals - inspiring. Being an indie developer is, for most people, not a particularly profitable job. They choose a harder job over a steady income because they truly enjoy making games and bringing their ideas to life and I find that admirable.

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https://www.polygon.com/features/2013/4/24/4257958/cloned-at-birth-the-story-of-ridiculous-fishing

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One of the stories was about two developers, Jan Willem and Rami Ismali who made a mobile game called Ridiculous Fishing. The development was going well until a different company made a clone of their game called Ninja Fishing and released it on iOS where it was greatly successful. This killed the team's motivation and the game was nearly cancelled. It was eventually released and did well, but this is a strong example of all the things out of your control that can greatly affect development. Putting lots of work and passion into a project does not guarantee success. It was only due to support from followers and other game developers that the team found the motivation to continue. Despite the harsh realities of indie development there is a strong, helpful community around it and it is always good to make connections and talk to others in the industry.

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I found this documentary eye opening as to how much struggle and work goes into every indie game. Some of the games, Nuclear Throne for example, I have played myself and would have never thought that the final product would be such a struggle to create. All indie games have a story of ups and downs behind them and there is no such thing as an overnight success. I enjoyed the documentary and I am considering a career in indie development myself. I respect how much indie developers value their creative freedom and how much faith they put into their ideas.

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1. Rami Ismali, Jan Willem, Tyler Coleman, Richard Cook, Ryan Zhem, Randy Greenback, Jay Tholen,

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2. 30 Minutes or Less, Nuclear Throne, Radical Fishing, Super Combat Fighter, Pro Janitor Police (never released), Battlesloths, Dropsy

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3. Passionate, Resilient, Working without income, motivated, accepting failure, carrying on in a bad situation

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4. Lack of funding, lack of interest, clones stealing attention

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5. Indie magazines, Kickstarter, Game Developer Conference, Social Media (Twitter, Reddit), Humble Bundle, 

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6. For indie devs, their passion and commitment is the most important part of game development. Money is not their first concern - the main reason they persevere is due to their passion and commitment to their goals.

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7. Indie developers spend many hours at home or in an office working on their game. They communicate with their team either directly or in a group chat. Besides working on the game they also have to manage tasks like talking to publishers and managing social media.

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8. Game Developer Conference, PAX

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9. Game Jam Prizes, Crowdfunding, Publishers

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10. Indie games can find success. Most make enough money to cover a living wage. However, projects often fail in development, either from not reaching financial goals or loosing passion.

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