Solo developer - How Another Crusade came to be

After 2 weeks of the project had been launched, I had the luck to be interviewed sometimes about the game itself and the how the idea came to be. Since these interviews were only in Spanish, I’m making this devlog for anyone willing to know more about the project.

If you want to know more about the game, here is the kickstarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonvein/another-crusade 

First of all, one of the recurring questions was “How do you become an Indie Dev?” Well, I was working on another company, also making games, where I just didn’t like to work anymore. This is because the ideas of the company where not in sync of what I thought a game should be like. Although the company was full of great people and friends, I just didn’t like anymore what I was doing there; there was no challenge, no new things to learn. It was time for me to move on.

If you are on this same position, I’ve got great news for you. There is a way to make your dream come true. Since most of the time the reason why most of people stop at this point is because they do not have money to make the project, they have to work on a company, and in their spare time, build this idea. I tried this, and it just didn’t work for me. Sometimes I was just too tired to try to do something for my own. What I decided to do is to find people I had worked with before (by freelancing) and try to convince them that I’ve got an idea of a game, in other words, I was looking for a partnership with someone, they will put the money and I will put the game. To make the story short, the first person I told about the project was also the first one to believe in me, so I got the deal.

You might be wondering how I convince this person to partner up with me, as a game is costly. And here comes also the second question that I have received more: “How you came up with the idea to make a game based on Mario RPG?”

So let me explain, the way you can get someone attentions to partner up with you is with a Value Proposal. What makes your product different than the other ones and why should I put my money on it? If you had the money to invest, and you hear someone with the same idea that you have, will you be willing to put any investment on it? If the answer is no, then you do not have a solid selling point. At this point I wanted to create a game like Diablo, but I thought, maybe there are many games like that, what difference will my game have? As I didn’t find a good enough answer, I told to myself that I should look around for another type of game.  Later on I came with the idea of a game based on the mechanics of Mario RPG. Why? Well there hasn’t been a game like it since it came out. Sadly, square and Nintendo probably won’t partner up soon to make a second part of the game, or even a remake. Also I, as a lot of people, was always waiting for a second part. I know, we got paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, but it just doesn’t taste the same.

So that was it, a game based on Mario RPG will surely be taken in mind by other players, and I also added the wooden toy style, as an Easter egg for Geno and also to be differentiated between other games. These 2 were my proposal values, my differentiators between the thousands of games over there. Talking with this person and explaining why I choose to make this game, made him believed in me. The next issue was the money.

Ok, so how much will it cost? He asked. One could say that a game might cost millions of dollars, and yeah, most of them cost that. But in my case, I was so willing to do this that my offer was this: I will make the game alone, so the cost of the game will become the minimum. In other words, I just asked what I was earning on my other job so I can fully work on the game. Since I’m on Mexico, our living rates are lower, so that also has helped the game to be less costly.

At the end, the cost of the game vs the possibilities of what we can earn became clear. It might be a risky investment, but we might get a great game out there. The deal was signed.

This happened 10 months ago, and here we are. Making the dream come true.

You might be wondering, Why are you making a kickstarter then? Well, as far as I might have wanted, make the game on my own has been really difficult, it was consumed a lot more time that I have wanted, I mean, I was waiting it to be hard, but not that hard. I managed to make the entire game demo by myself (You can check it out here in itch.io) I made the code, 3d models, rigs, animation, blabla… But If I continued like this, the game might not be as longs as I wanted it to be. So with my savings, I hired someone to help me with the 3d models. Retaking the question, I want the kickstarter so I can continue paying this person, as well as hiring new ones if possible. That way, the game could be better and be longer.

Here are my tips if you are also an indieDev or you are planning to become one:

• Get a solid idea with a value proposal. Why is your game different and why will someone invest on it?
• If you don’t have a team or money to fulfill the game, search for a partnership.
• Work, and work a lot. This won’t be easy, that I can tell for sure, but fighting for a dream makes it all worth it.

If you happened to have a question, just send it to me. I will be glad to help people trying to make their game. That’s it for now, thank you for your time reading this.

Regards,

Mike Garcia

CEO of Dragon Vein Studios