I misinterpreted a message earlier today and it led to an exchange on Twitter, the core message being: Don’t give me fucking JFDI A smart Web Developer Saying JFDI is the answer They made a Web Service No Use to An Ideas Man Who Writes No Code Doesn’t Make Pictures And Can’t Get Easy Money … Continue reading “JFDI”
I misinterpreted a message earlier today and it led to an exchange on Twitter, the core message being:
Don’t give me fucking JFDI
A smart Web Developer
Saying JFDI is the answer
They made a Web Service
No Use to An Ideas Man
Who Writes No Code
Doesn’t Make Pictures
And Can’t Get Easy Money
I did apologise for being a grumpy sod but I’m a little sensitive about this predicament.
There’s a lot to be said for product validation and building something iteratively that people will buy. Getting sales from big customers and using that to finance your first build (either directly or using bank money) is a completely valid way to start out. For certain types of business.
It’s no use for games.
With a game, even if you don’t succumb to hubris and insist on writing your own engine, you’re going to be in the shed for months with development tasks, getting code written, getting art and sound assets made and getting it all put together.
And my personal experience of hiring developers and artists has, almost without exception, been disappointing. It’s too hard to find people who have vision. Another Tweeter asked me if I was looking for a co-founder? Of course I am but I’m uncompromising in my vision and I would expect them to be the same. Co-founder? Maybe. But I’d rather just pay them. So, in the absence of big sales to make your balances, how do you pay for code to be written?
Government grants are a way of getting some risk cash to make games. Finding a private investor is another way. But both require considerable (and onerous) conditions. And (speaking for myself here), I’m pretty much excluded from government grants due to my day job and I doubt I’d find any succour from our local VC due to the general abrasiveness I have applied to their latest term sheet.
This is why Kickstarter matters so much to the average game developer. They can figure out how to provide value to customers who choose to buy the higher levels of product. With exclusive graphics, promo codes, special attributes and physical items like T-Shirts and Posters make all the difference. And this is why I often contribute to Kickstarter projects – even projects that I don’t personally want for myself – if they show a little spirit, a little vision.
So, I’m down but not out. There are others to be helped, dreams to help bring to fruition and I can live vicariously through the assistance I provide to others in their aims to create their own games studio, inadvertently helping me create a local industry.
So we soldier on and in our spare time, we chase only the things we dream about.
