I Quit My Job To Make Games ALONE - Full Time Game Dev Podcast Ep. 013

[@thomasbrush]

What do you guys think: would you quit your job and live on savings to make games? ► Learn how to become a full time game dev, free: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures ► Thomas Stewart's channel: www.youtube.com/@ThomasStewartDev ► Wishlist Bridges and Docks: store.steampowered.com/app/2741090/Bridges__Docks/

[@ThomasStewartDev]

I had an awesome time chatting with you Thomas! Thanks for having me on!

[@watchtowerdragon7098]

If I could toss in an idea for Docks & Bridges that would keep the cozy aspect while upping the 'monkey brain' goals. It could be about developing the cozy towns to have import export industries, the very name ties in nicely with this concept.

[@Justango69]

Great chat guys! Pretty sure the game you were thinking of at ~25 minutes was Forager btw :)

[@ethereal9639]

I wish you luck in your Game Dev journey .... we wanna see Bridges and Docks turn into something Great

[@RealCoachMustafa]

Great interview!

[@JoeTheis]

Great job, Thomas!

[@kwcnasa]

Very professional interview. One suggestion on video editing. Example @19:39, When your guest mentioning their games, and we can see you typing on a keyboard searching for it. We as an audience would love to see what kind of games you guys are talking about. Of cause we could pause the video and look it up. It will be a better experience, if you could post a short video clips or screen shots on your side or just go full screen. I would prefer replacing your side, so audience can still see your guest face.

[@LilyEvans1996]

Yes!!!

[@mischiefmotorsgame]

As a solo game dev myself, I really like these videos you've started doing with indie game devs! I just started out last year as a father of two with a full time job and I hope I can get to this point one day!

[@rechen2023]

Hey! Do you need music for your game? I am an audio engineer and composer.

[@mischiefmotorsgame]

@@rechen2023 hey, would really love it! But I currently dont have a budget for this as Im doing this solo on my limited spare time. I can keep you in mind though when I do need it! As it is one of the two things I really really struggle with and cant manage to even do a "good enough" job...

[@c4GameDev]

I really think the insights and suggestions to add on the game were awesome, but part of me also goes "aawww, it sorta is a loss to lose the cozyness". So why not have both! Keep a 'sandbox' gamemode where you can freely build whatever and costs are 0, and the other where you have to survive and fight pirates and there's a loop and so on.

[@iHeartGameDev]

Thomas Stewart is a gem! Awesome chat!

[@kozinoart]

I love that Thomas (Brush XD) has a very clear business mindset. This is truly a powerful skill to have especially for a creative. And I think not just gamedevs, but artists in general. Great video! Loved all of your advice!

[@gameworkerty]

If I had to guess, the reason you made more money on console with a local multiplayer game was because it was a local multiplayer game. This game is a mouse-first building game, and I predict it will not do as well on console as your steam release.

[@SubzeroBlack68]

I think the game is simple enough that adding console support doesnt negatively effect his development speed. So theres nothing wrong with just throwing that in.

[@gameworkerty]

@@SubzeroBlack68 There is only something wrong with it if the cost (in time or money) is higher than the amount of money the game makes on console, which I have no way to know.

[@andreww2208]

Yeah, perhaps the way to look at it is... it's not that the console release overperformed, it's that the steam release underperformed.

[@MikeGemi]

Hell yah a Thomas and Thomas episode

[@Domarius64]

Up until about the 28:00 mark, I 100% thought they were saying "Brigerton Docks" like the Netflix TV series "Brigerton", and thought it was a deliberate pun on bridges.

[@samwilsoncg]

I got to agree on the loop. You could give users a creative mode like minecraft does. You could also use tsunamis, hurricanes, or some other natural disaster too

[@hawkgamedev]

Inmediatelly sub to the new Thomas, what a great person to look up to too. Keep up the good work and inspiration to others, God bless your family.

[@AndrzejGieraltCreative]

I wonder if TBNT did better on consoles because it's a local multiplayer game. Hopefully Bridges and Docks follows suit and I'll be interested to hear about that, but intuitively I would imagine it's not quite going to go 100% the same way.

[@AndrzejGieraltCreative]

The reason Minecraft's creative mode is appealing is because of the absolute infinite complexity. you can dig up the world and put stuff absolutely wherever you want, as high as you want, as absurd as you want, without limit, with unfathomable amounts of options. It's simply to grasp and very hard to master and create unique beautiful stuff. I also would challenge the idea of "there's a market for it" - how was that determined? I'm hearing a lot of "I feel that x" which I do find a bit concerning and, especially since TS is not making his big dream game yet, it's a great time to amp up the research and look at outliers and stuff. And idk if TB's suggestions are necessarily going to fit those outliers and those genre expectations either. There's a lot of potential for sure but it sounds like it could be a city builder and whatever. Chris Zukowski talks about people who play cozy games want "to go from chaos to order", maybe those are useful to look at. His most recent livestreams on his channel I think talk about them.

[@JoeTheis]

Great interview. Thomas Stewart seems like a great guy, from the couple of interactions I've had with him. Thomas Brush seems like a stand up guy too, giving airtime to fellow indie devs. Would love to get his opinions on what I've been building. Hopefully I can land myself in the hot seat in the not too distant future. Cheers!

[@makeitsogames]

I liked when Thomas was talking about game dev.

[@calebkrauter4027]

Thanks for the great video! This was inspiring to me for my game I'm working on. Now I wanna make my projects more cozy.

[@gxddr1835]

Awesome and insightful! I aspire to one day go full time and be the next guest! Love from SC :)

[@BronsonBragg]

And I aspire to see you as a guest, stranger.

[@RockyMulletGamedev]

I feel the reason Thomas's game did better on consoles than steam was mostly because it's a local multiplayer. For consoles, you are sit in front of a TV, potencially with multiple controllers, that's way more prone to playing local multiplayer than from sit at a desk on a computer where you might not even have one controller. PC multiplayer is mostly online. So a console launch from that game made sense.

[@burnheart2965]

Christ, Brush really has a hard time being a host. He just takes over constantly. During the end he was talking 90% of the time. Very frustrating.

[@xedusk]

Yeah, the last half was just the guest nodding his head.

[@Xander-vp3nr]

Like, were we supposed to listen to this guy and be inspired by his particular experience, or just critique his choices and how he could have made better money if he did things differently…? I’ve never seen a respectful guest get derailed so much. Brush, I love you and your videos man, but I thought we were here for you to facilitate his story.

[@Inputbrick]

Thought this for a long time, I wish he would allow the interviewee to speak and direct instead of having him tell them what to say basically

[@stewartdahamman]

Brush believes he is the smartest man in the room and we are lucky to witness his wisdom and golden excrement.

[@PhirstyMehn]

Try this reframe you are watching Thomas mentor his students

[@zionen01]

Love these videos, great for other creators and viewers.

[@EarwormEngineAI]

Wonderful talk. Tons of great info I haven’t heard discussed elsewhere.

[@TreeFallStudios]

thomas is literally the best

[@3DPrinterAcademy]

How do you get all your guests to have purple background ?!

[@srsherman7]

Heck yeah! I'm trying to get there myself, I'm jealous.

[@SubzeroBlack68]

I would add something like "Achievement unlocks". You build a certain amount of bridges, now you unlock an alternate version of the same bridge. Maybe with slightly different wood texture or maybe some norse or other style of carvings in the wood design. Or you have have upgraded bridges with added metal reinforcment around portions of the bridge for the player to work towards decorating or rebuilding portions to their preferred style. Same with buildings and other parts of the game. Maybe the water elevation will go up and down and drown portions of the map. Or go downward in sea level. Maybe level 1 versions of every craft can be destroyed or worn down extremely quickly and have to be rebuilt. Then the water levels drain its level quicker. So the player has to rebuild portions of their previous creations again though with less resources needed.

[@ssuversa]

i like brush's idea about the loop for thomas's game to make it more spicy !

[@thetuningroom]

He’s doing it, so props to him. But, I don’t think he’s ever heard of taking lessons from others before him that have already been in those deep waters. I get he wants to travel his own path, but definitely don’t dismiss others that have already been in his shoes for a long time and already have gathered that experience necessary to achieve what he wants.

[@LilyEvans1996]

Which is ironic because he wants to be that for people.

[@l.a.w.6494]

Thomas all jokes aside Microsoft or Nintendo seems like the perfect fit for what we have seen of Twisted Tower. I know it's a business and money is the primary motivation so I get steam first, but ruling out switch or Xbox at least for this title is coocoo for cocopuffs.

[@TUKMAK]

I'm changing my name to Thomas

[@Nhi_bataunga.988]

We have Thomas talking to Thomas before gta 6

[@kingokaze]

Hey Thomas, a fantastic idea for your next Podcast Episode could be one with @PirateSoftware! He's a fantastic indie dev and streamer, I think getting him on and having an interview would provide a lot of value! Thank you for making these Indie Dev Podcasts!

[@MitraKesava]

Something tells me that would never happen… But I’d love to see it too.

[@LilyEvans1996]

3:56 I’m curious, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to focus on the game itself rather than distributing it on every platform?

[@Stargate16789]

Hi there! I think it depends on the game in which platform you sell the most. For example if my stats are good BloonsTD sold 10-10 million copies on android-ios and only 6,5 million copies on steam. It depends on the game.

[@WyrmyrGames]

Awesome interview! It was helpful/interesting to see where your successful strategies and ideas overlapped. Like a Thomas-Thomas Venn diagram. 😄

[@HOOKD-UP]

Thomas needs to be just interviewing the individual instead of comparing everything to himself and promoting himself. I love these videos, but that is the biggest gripe i have. Everyone knows your journey already Mr.Brush. there is no need to repeat it in every podcast. Just let the others talk and speak about their journey and answer their questions. You're not better than them, and they're not better than you. You're all equal and skilled in your own strengths.

[@AndrzejGieraltCreative]

As to the courses (I have several thoughts as I listen to this) I've been reading Launch like you suggested, I can't say I like it too much but, the thing guys who do that stress is that courses you launch should be pitched as a "transformation" (i.e. you will become a "full time game developer" etc.) and purely technical courses might not be enough to fit into that sort of powerhouse product, but idk. People definitely really want that sort of thing, and it baffles me as to why people still struggle to find that because technical resources are so absurdly prevalent I have no idea how people still struggle to find something to help them there.

[@Urotsuki]

35:00 honestly i was thinking about something like boons / tower defence would work really well with this

[@IrishZOMBIE117]

Combine the cozy idle game with the island defense game. You use the games current mechanics to build island and generate terrain. Turtle NPC's automatically gather resources depending on what is spawned. You spawn houses it creates a village for the turtles. They spawn more turtles increasing your work force. You spawn mountains the turtles mine for ore to make tools You spawn trees the turtles collect lumber. With enough lumber and ore the turtles can build defenses like walls to protect against the pig pirate cannons, and their own cannons to sink the ships. When a pig ship is sunk the turtles capture the pigs and dump them in a volcano (ritual sacrifice is cozy, right?) The more pigs you sacrifice the happier the gods are, the happier the gods the longer it takes for the cataclysmic storm to arrive. The goal is to see how long you can keep the storm at bay, so it's a game of attrition and resource management. The longer you survive - the more resources you get - the more pirates spawn against you - the bigger the storm is until it arrives.

[@joegreen427]

there is a mobile game called last day's on earth that use the loop. every 7 days a horde of zombies come through and can ruin your base.

[@samwilsoncg]

Also wonder if you’d benefit from more and more updates like Stardew valley has done over the years. Release a small game now but keep adding upon the game until it’s the game you envision instead of making a sequel

[@N7sensei]

Evidence says no. Once you launch EA or release properly you will receive most of your sales from what I have seen. Games such as Stardew Valley or No Man's Sky are exceptions, and their sales were not really carried by additional stuff, but marketing in my opinion.

[@okamichamploo]

I'm really curious to learn more about Apple Arcade. It seems like a great market for doing mobile games that don't rely on microtransactions, but when I was subscribed to it myself, it seemed like hardly any new games were being added. I think it was like a handful a month. So I don't know if there is literally that few people developing for it, or is it strictly walled off to only select studios.

[@okamichamploo]

I think the most Cozy and Fun and Exciting game I play is actually Dwarf Fortress. The dwarves are pretty hardy, so you can be really chill about it, but when things go wrong, man do they go wrong, And it always generates interesting and sometimes crazy interactions that make each experience your own.

[@Jisbrowsing]

My child wants to make a game.. I was wondering where to begin there are so many ways to start.. Any advice on what software to start with? UnReal Game engine is a bit to much for me I think.. I can follow along but not do on my own.. TIA for any advice..

[@shenlong3879]

Gameplay is always king. It is the biggest factor of what makes something fun. It's a game after all, not a movie or a book. You can have a shitty game and the gameplay is excellent and you can still enjoy it and get addicted. If you make a game with beautiful graphics and no gameplay you don't have a game, maybe a movie or a book. Of course all factors add up in the end and each part can make the game better.

[@alexanderlinderson2655]

I don't think that a game has to be fun, I think engaging/engagement is a much better word! A game ought to be engaging. Doesn't need to make me laugh, but keep me interested. So narrative games, cozy games has their place in the market, but carve out their own unique way of engaging the player.

[@N7sensei]

I think you 49:00 can have your loop and eat it too. You can have a "Free build" game mode and a "Siege" or whatever.

[@gidkid100]

You know what you can make your loop? you can make it so where there are a predators of the turtles that are coming to eat the turtles’ eggs and you’re building bridges and etc., so that the turtles can build up their infrastructure and have a successful hatching season and if you don’t build it they will and their children will get eaten

[@wondervolt]

The important question to his statement is: but what is fun to you? Define fun. Quite frankly I dont find fun in most games. Even tho they are fun to masses.

[@motioncache]

@ThomasStewartDev New Subscriber. I'm interested in your journey and look forward to you doing well.

[@KuarTo1]

In cosy apocalypse game “I’m future” users asked to remove threats to not destroy cosy atmosphere. BUT core auditory of the game are women 25+… So, know your auditory, do user testing on focus groups… and then think twice

[@BassShoter]

I think you can make the turtles come for food to your island you can grow the food there this will give you another mechanic for limitations of the amount of turtles vs plants available and sustainable. The same time once the food is being destroyed by weather ☁️ less food will make the turtles go away now leaving the island open to attack's from pirate pigs I would do it this way if it was my game cheers from frostydavestudio

[@ifstatementifstatement2704]

In the tech company where I last worked, a senior dev made a presentation and said it's bad to program alone.

[@William1424]

This looks perfect for mobile and tablets especially if there isn't going to be a bigger "point" like battles, etc.

[@Urotsuki]

love you thomas

[@jackmiddleton2080]

It feels like he made a development tool with Bridges and Docks. It is unclear whether the future should be one in which the player is the developer or he could just use the tool to make RTS/RPG maps. Or a combination of the two. Dwarf Fortress and Roblox come to mind.

[@facelessanon]

Ah yes, Thomas & Thomas. Would've been cool of Thomas (whichever it is) marked that out.

[@xedusk]

They did. At the beginning, the guest Thomas jokingly said he was the better Thomas.

[@facelessanon]

@@xedusk Ah, I guess I didn't watch enough. Mbad!

[@Nomad454]

Stop interrupting your guests when they’re speaking…

[@MarioCola]

True

[@dclxviclan]

So cool, i think when u have idea and awesome uniqe fantasy u need work alone, team make proccess bad and ego feel many terrible pain, because talent people dont love big companies 🤔💭👍💯💯💯💫

[@kwcnasa]

Resume @1:05:00

[@cartwright1348]

How I quit my job making video games to make video games

[@beardordie5308]

I mean, look at that head of hair. What can't he do? The world is his oyster.

[@MxzStudio]

Steamdeck is a good thing too. 20:51

[@sealsharp]

At 34 minutes i noticed that its "Bridges and DOCKS" and not "Bridges and DOGS" and i am still disappointed.

[@DandeHakker]

Thomas v Thomas!?😳

[@Ionixification]

Beauty is scarce lold

[@yigithicylmaz774]

25:30 the game is called foreigner. thank me later. or play and be addicted for the rest of your life

[@calebkrauter4027]

Love the bible reference.

[@KyleGameTesting]

If I need to pay to watch this truth. I will.

[@ricktyner5801]

ShellCraft Inthink might roll off the tongue we easier...

[@Trunkoid]

Nobody likes my KZbin channel.

[@Randalandradenunes]

If Bridges and Docks is just a step towards the "full game", I would say it's important to give it for free for people that have bought it. Just a thought.

[@RealBrianRussell]

Games often build games into bigger versions. Just because it is not big in scope of the future idea does not mean it's not a complete game. You can view all the features on the steam page and choose to pay for those features or not. Why give away a product for free, especially one that's LESS than 5 dollars, less than a meal at McDonalds.