Critical Lessons From My 4 YEARS as an Indie Game Developer

Please subscribe!
Wishlist on Steam: store.steampow...
Join our Discord: / discord
Music by Jordan from O. and Co.

[@costelinha1867]

Aah nothing feels me with joy than seeing a dad who's super supportive of their disabled son. As a person with a disability (though not a physical one) it sure makes me happy.

[@trispycee]

Same! So heartwarming, especially when you know this isn't how everyone acts in the face of challenge.

[@_xtel]

Probably one of my favorite videos to date! Also, let’s take a moment to thank the unsung heroes out there, the supportive spouse/partners.

[@OandCoGames]

Yes!

[@loipesmas]

On a note related to what you said about Undertale, something I noticed is that people make the same stuff over and over. You can see it your previous games that you showed here (puzzle platformer, nature, redhead protagonist). Or take a look at Elden Ring: it's pretty much the same formula as Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, but evolved and improved. And I find it encouraging, because it means that it's not about being talented or lucky, but about the craft and putting in the work. You just have to keep on making stuff and trust that you will get better!

[@OandCoGames]

Yeah, there's actually a lot to be said about how the concept of genres has evolved from the practice of iterating on existing ideas.

[@herlastborn_dev]

Pokemon's approach seems to introduce something new in one game and improve upon it in the next. And a lot of games start out of clones of others. Just look at how many retro arcade games copied each other until one was popular enough to start it's own franchise. Same with JRPG's. Same with any creative media.

[@Wh4I3]

the little sneak peaks for the next chapter looks really cool

[@OandCoGames]

Thanks! We're definitely going to have to dedicate a whole video to the visual design of that chapter.

[@Wh4I3]

@@OandCoGames I can't wait C:

[@jjkay03]

Thanks a lot for the videos you make, I am a developer and for the past year I have been trying my hand at game dev and all your videos have been a great source of knowledge and inspiration for me and I am sure a lot of other people✨

[@OandCoGames]

That's so great to hear. Glad to be a source of inspiration!

[@mikamuhlbauer1135]

I love to see the Game and channel grow. I remember seeing the first Devlog and thinking you guys had 100.000 Subs because of the quality of the Game and Videos. I think you guys are Insane and I love seeing how you are starting to get the traction that you deserve. Keep up the good work!! : )

[@AxXis--]

I love the vibes of this channel, I'm just happy to be here! Great work! ;)

[@OandCoGames]

Thank you so much!

[@OdinWright]

As others have said, fantastic video. There are a lot of developers out there that tend to sugar-coat their experiences a little. I think saying that your internal motivation "died" is the bluntness I needed. I decided to try to publish a game by the end of the year (which I haven't started yet). I think I'll take it more as an "attempt" than anything. Maybe I'll get to publish in a couple more years lol.

[@OandCoGames]

I'm sure I still sugar-coat things to an extend too lol.. but it's true motivation and follow-through is one of the hardest aspects of game dev. I wish you the best on your dev journey!

[@emanuel-alvgard]

Thank you for an inspiring video. Really like you humble and calm approach :)

[@OandCoGames]

Thanks man :)

[@sherekhangamedev]

Very good lessons, Jordan. Thanks for sharing, you and the team are making a wonderful job with the whole project, and the wholesome vibes. My take on motivation is that, I have been living, of, by and for video games for 17 years now, but the fact of not having made a title that is genuinely my very own in that time due to various difficulties and limitations leads me to make this my life goal to release a Good Game. The motivation has never gone away in 17 years, other things that happened in life demotivate me, but knowing this is the only thing I am good at, I love doing, and I enjoy makes me realize I am privileged, and I don't have to forget about my little achievements of the past. Even if I don't have any success tittle, nor game of my own under my arm, but I can live from what I do and put bread on the table, that's what matters. People tell me they respect my discipline despite my mental disability, but I don't think it's discipline, it's simply that I love what I do, we have to pay the bills and put food on the table and there are many people who depend on what I do and my decisions, I will not and cannot abandon ship, the fun of many, their valuable time, and the livelihood of my team is at stake. I hope, wish and work hard to some day, hopefully get as far as you guys. Respect for how you are doing things. Thanks!

[@OandCoGames]

Thank you for sharing even just a glimpse of your experiences! I think "discipline" and loving what you do go hand-in-hand. And it sounds like you've already made it substantially *farther* than we have. 17 years is amazing!

[@sherekhangamedev]

@@OandCoGames Thanks, Jordan! For me what you guys are doing is the true real deal and challenge, because it is building the skyscraper from the underground pillars and up, something that transcends and resonates with people. There's a phrase I like from Ralph Waldo Emerson that summarizes this - "It is not the length of life, but the depth of life."

[@luisces]

What an amazing video, very inspirational. I'm also making my own game while having to deal with the adventure that is being a parent, my son being only 1 and a half years old. Anyway, nice vibe!

[@OandCoGames]

Thank you! Always great to meet a fellow parent/indie dev :)

[@mohammaddh8655]

best wishes for you great developer and even greater dad

[@OandCoGames]

Awe shucks thanks

[@misterlight5115]

"make sure your game is fun first" sometimes I wish I thought of that at the beginning of trying to make an educational game

[@OandCoGames]

lol hmm

[@andygeers]

Thanks for sharing - I especially enjoyed that first section about your journey becoming a games developer, really cool to hear

[@davkrnk]

Great video! Thanks for sharing the wisdom and insight!

[@KryyssTV]

Excellent video. I feel that most folks getting into gamedev, epecially programming, overlook the critical factor of HOW which will determine the progress you'll make. How do you create an effective UI? How do you reliably save and load data? How do you work around performance or engine limitations? How do you ensure players understand the objective of the game? How do you use audio and music to set the mood and atmosphere? How do different aesthetics impact workflow? All of these things can be taught but there's still the need for personal experiences you can fall back on to prepare in advance. Knowing HOW to get from A to B in gamedev is easily half of the challlenge and until anyone has built up that experience then progress will always be slow and that is the #1 killer of projects. In the end, the greatest and most important skill an aspiring gamedev needs to cultivate isn't graphic design, programming sensibilities or musical talent - what they need to master is patience.

[@OandCoGames]

Very well said.

[@ChicoAzevedo]

Thanks for your lessons! I just started in GameDEV. I am exited to make a prototype for a game idea that i have. I am learning with GDevelop and i will put my illustrator and animator skills to the test. The journey ahead seems exciting!

[@cupidmakesgames]

Hi Jordan. Fellow indie developer here. Thank you for this video. I just wanted to share that I felt an incredibly similar feeling of my daily excitement and enthusiasm for making games dying down after 3-4 years especially after being involved in long-form projects that weren't jam games. I remember waking up and feeling excited about making games and working on them for as much as 14 hours a day. But now, even getting through 2 hours of development per day had started to feel like a slog. It's not something I've found to be talked about often. So, I was elated when I heard you address it. Not only that but you also went on to offer a resolution to the issue in your case which was the birth of a more refined form of excitement for making games. I had never been able to think about it in those terms and had just accepted that I'm not that excited about making games anymore. So, you have given me a great gift by articulating and helping me understand the phase that I am in. So, I offer you a heartfelt thank you. P.S: Your game art looks incredible and the coin-collection UI is inordinately satisfying. Kudos. P.P.S: I saw that we'd joined the same Paint Jam 3 years ago :)

[@OandCoGames]

Hey that's awesome! Paint Jam was a blast lol. I'm glad to have been a source of inspiration :) I think most indie devs go through the death of the initial excitement, but it really can evolve into something reliable. Best of luck in your dev journey!

[@cupidmakesgames]

@@OandCoGames Thank you. I wish the same to you :)

[@aleksdeveloper698]

The older you grow, the less 4 years will seem

[@OandCoGames]

Seriously

[@joevaghn457]

I’m 25 and time is seriously speeding up

[@svinta]

love the message of your game! so sweet

[@mattwalker4715]

This is really inspiring and great advice! Thanks for sharing such important lessons

[@OandCoGames]

Glad it was helpful!

[@pabloferro2872]

Beautiful video, I agree with everything 👍.

[@Ryöken17]

Truth is game dev or coding in general belongs to nobody, your code is a code for everyone, they all share, nobody tells " plagiary". It's something like knowledge, when you don't feel rob, then you have nothing to hate.

[@Beets_Creations]

Great advice! I have also found the game development community great as well!!

[@OandCoGames]

Great to hear :)

[@katiescape]

Beautiful, by the way, that first game you made touched my heart

[@OandCoGames]

❤️❤️❤️

[@beefuskeepus3822]

I'm trying to start my game development journey right now And this video was very inspirational !

[@OandCoGames]

Glad to hear it! Best of luck!

[@tylerottesen2994]

Seeing those new clips of tethergiest are getting me hyped!

[@OandCoGames]

gonna be siiick

[@Zero2GameDev77]

I think personally, taking every little implemented feature as a win defo helps. Even getting a square to move ip and down or jump or roll. Its really basic but 1. You didnt know it before and 2. Thats real life progress right there in front of you. It gets harder as you advance for sure cz things are harder/ more advanced to implement but if at the end even if everything you tried didnt work then well now you know what doesnt work and thats progress too. Good luck in all future developments :)

[@OandCoGames]

Well said

[@moonsternine5286]

Did I just see a Bily Hatcher reference? OMG I feel old 😂 Keep it going!

[@OandCoGames]

Ha! Yes you did. It was for a game jam called "Retro Jam" where we were supposed to take a 3D game and turn it into something that felt retro. Billy Hatcher is so underrated imo, so I decided to use that as the reference for a 2D side scroller for the jam. I think you're the first person to catch the reference on this channel.

[@moonsternine5286]

@@OandCoGames I had a gamecube cd that had like 4-5 demo of games, there was the first level of Billy Hatcher and a fight sequence for Viewtiful Joe... I played only those two demos for like... months before I got a new gamecube cd... I'd feel like a failure if I didn't realise the reference XD

[@kubus_puchatek]

Great video

[@OandCoGames]

Do it!!

[@Nicklefritz]

Spending lunch breaks watching game tutorials... That was me a couple years ago, but watching Brackeys.

[@spgames9648]

Good work ! Your video game sounds good ! Well done !

[@Galent41]

Lovely video. Really cool and down to earth

[@husklyman]

Wow the design of chapter 2 looks so cool

[@thecreator255]

cool! i personally like a lot the plots and graphics of Hero Wars and Island Hoppers, what do you think of them?

[@OandCoGames]

uhhhh

[@ergergzbhzefer]

How do you find the time to make as many quality videos at the same time as developing the damn game?

[@OandCoGames]

lol I've gotten pretty quick at editing I guess?

[@samidev4122]

I am thinking of starting my first commercial game, but I am very bad at any type of art (2d Or 3d) any tips for me Sir please

[@vascothestudent]

Drawing small things everyday is a great way to improve imo

[@OandCoGames]

Yup, drawing something every day is a great approach. For me... I just found actual professional artists to work on the game lol

[@bluesillybeard]

I am dogwater crap at art. But, I have managed to get "good enough" for my own projects. Generally, here are my tips on how I draw: - draw from reference first, then try on your own. The result will be pretty useless, but with enough practice it will get better - Don't be a perfectionist. If you are spending more than a few hours on a single sketch, it's time to leave it and move on. - Keep it simple and consistent. For something like a game there can be a lot of assets to draw, so keeping the art style simple and easy is usually a good idea if possible. Consistency is a lot more important than "beauty". - Watch these two videos by Jonas Tyroller - they are extremely informative and do a good job of explaining things that a comment simply could not: o5K0uqhxgsE, URJ6KxTlhhA (these are just the youtube video codes since links tend to get deleted)

[@costelinha1867]

Wait... there's a Celeste playthrough playlist with the actual dev team? I mean, sure they made a live playing Strawberry Jam once, but I am not aware of any of this. Also even your first game that never got finished looks so much better than anything I ever made, it's kinda... upsetting, but also really cool in a way... It's also kinda hard because I don't HAVE a dream game.... so I dunno what I'm aiming to build, I just wanted to build something that is slightly more impressive and finished than a game jam project. (Preferably something I could actually sell so I could stop working for free for once...)

[@OandCoGames]

Yeah! I think it was this video I referred to in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q17RhJ2efsygjsU

[@costelinha1867]

@@OandCoGames I think it's more of a devlog stream, I mean it's clearly an old build of the game, and the video is 6 years old. But still, pretty neat.

[@costelinha1867]

"While 4 years may seem like a lot" The funniest part, is that when it comes to game dev, it really isn't, no offense of course, it's just that many of our favorite devs were developing games for decades before they found success. It's funny how something that feels as big as 4 years is actually nothing when it comes to stuff like game development.

[@GratissTVofficial]

How much knowledge did you have before joining your first game jam? I have been following tutorials for a few months and started working on my own game about one month ago, same as you I can only do it during breaks at work or free time (wich is scarse) I would love to partecipate in such content but I'm too afraid of still being a Newby

[@OandCoGames]

I had been learning game dev for about 2 months before I joined the first jam. Honestly I didn't feel all that ready either, but you've got to break the ice eventually! You'll probably surprise yourself and do much better than you think.

[@ConorKelly86]

Great info. Subscribed!

[@OandCoGames]

Welcome aboard!

[@choppergirl]

I spent about 5 years writing shareware games, and later another 5 years modding online multiplayer FPS games. It was a complete bust and waste of time. The second 5 years I got at least $1,000 in donations, but spread over 5 years, that didn't even pay the cable bill to run the server at home or host it elsewhere. Here's a bad fact about being an indie game developer, even if you buckle down and become lasar focused on how you're going to reach an audience and spreading access to your game : kids don't have credit cards and are trash talking skinflint cheapskates... because most of them don't have money, and if they do, they spend it on console hardware and junk food, not your video game labor of love, passion project, or work of art. Don't even bother with it. The same thing can be said of being a content creator for pewtewb. There is no money here. It's an illusion.

[@choppergirl]

I had about 100,000+ player play my multiplayer games, according to the score tracking award winning record keeping database I built inside the game. I think less than 30 people donated around about $1,000 over the course of 5 years. I kept a table of it on one of my webpages somewhere. Literally, you could do anything else with your time and come out better than being a content creator or video game designer. If I had spent the same amount of time making Tacos at Taco Bell... I'd probably have $200K in the bank by now.

[@OandCoGames]

Dang, that's rough.

[@FieryPandaStudios]

You need to tell us how you built your amazing team, I realized you have couple of artists too in your team. Let us know how you found each other!

[@OandCoGames]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5qXXqacfa1knrM

[@timmygilbert4102]

Flappy bird was made by a vietnamese dev, who made a lot of game before it 😅

[@OandCoGames]

Yeah, I honestly wasn't sure about the example I picked lol. It was really hard to find an overnight success story!

[@arylk4]

thank you

[@OandCoGames]

... your welcome

[@kukukachu]

I'm a grumpy guss. Did you play Animal Well? If so, did you feel the same way I did? I definitely don't think it's anywhere near GOTY, but that's for many reasons I'll probably talk about some other time, but MAN, is it masterclass in atmosphere. If there's one thing about that game that I can't fault, it's the atmosphere.

[@OandCoGames]

Interesting. I haven't played it yet, but it's on my to do list. Videogamedunkey did a ton of advertising for it, could be part of why it's gotten so much attention.

[@kukukachu]

@@OandCoGames Yea, the difficulty, or there lack of, is all over the place, some things can easily be cheesed and there's some really bad game design choices that I personally would have done differently. He spent 7 years on this project and if you ignore all the flaws, it's a great game, but there are definitely flaws. Then again, I'm a little biased on this issue due to being wrongfully banned from the discord for showing spoilers in the voice chat called "spoiler well"..It's very ironic, I know.....I'm sure that's one of the reasons I can look at the game objectively.

[@austinmiller2214]

Wait!! Does your kid have Cerebral Palsy? Aspiring Game Dev with CP here!

[@OandCoGames]

That's awesome! Welcome to the indie dev community! My daughter actually has Spina Bifida.

[@PROLIFIC_TRAVELS]

Im starting gsme development at full sail university sooon 😅

[@QuintonmcGaming]

Great insight

[@ronindelray]

yooooo my indie game was shown in the discord clip lmao

[@OandCoGames]

Nice!

[@Johntawilson2012]

okay okay the reeeeal question is where can i play this billy hatcher gameeeeee

[@OandCoGames]

lol it's a clunky little game jam game, but you can play it here: oandco.itch.io/billy-hatcher-and-the-retro-remix

[@Johntawilson2012]

@@OandCoGames thank you!!

[@iiropeltonen]

Yo! We need a link to your itch ❤

[@OandCoGames]

Hmmm yeah, I should include it huh. oandco.itch.io for your reference

[@minosg9580]

Very nice video!

[@chinonsopeter9327]

What if you aren't good with game art but have brief knowledge on the programming and story aspect Cause it's not easy to find artist that are willing to collaborate with you

[@OandCoGames]

Yeah, that can be tricky. I kind of lucked out finding the artists on my team.

[@chinonsopeter9327]

Ok but in case you have a recommendation in mind I'm available I'm currently learning and creating games with Godot I'll truly appreciate if I can build up a team

[@cosb7207]

How do you put out videos out frequently while also working on the game?

[@OandCoGames]

I've gotten pretty quick at editing videos. I've been editing videos for nearly 10 years and I feel like I've nailed down a pretty good process for being efficient with my time. I'm thinking I might one day make a video on how to make videos with tips for managing time efficiently.

[@studiologixgames]

awesome video

[@OandCoGames]

Thanks!

[@ElianeGameDev]

Cool video!

[@OandCoGames]

Thanks!

[@alexminniefield9835]

BRRRRR VERY GOOD BIDEO!

[@GatheringStorrm]

What is that chess game at 2:55?

[@OandCoGames]

"Chess Survivors" by Aarimous: kzbin.info

[@GatheringStorrm]

@@OandCoGames Thanks! Time to show my dev friends from chess club ahah

[@error17_]

Im not one to sing kumbaya

[@OandCoGames]

What would you sing then?

[@RoccaaaHD]

Bro learned less in 4 years about game dev than people who dont do game dev, wtf

[@OandCoGames]

bahahaha

[@RoccaaaHD]

@@OandCoGames After i checked my comment again, i might have came out wrong. Just to make sure - im joking :p I was trying to be sarcastic about you talking about surface level stuff. I was expecting things like "break your code into modular functions" etc.

[@OandCoGames]

@@RoccaaaHD Oh I gotcha man lol. All good!

[@furkannarin2844]

it literally takes 3 minutes for the video to start. sorry for your kid but you got a dislike.

[@OandCoGames]

lol no need to apologize. Like I said, she's a rock star. Sorry for taking 3 minutes from your life you'll never get back.