Indie company primary research
Here is the collected information I have gathered from people that work or have worked at indie companies.
Joshua (Jay) Adeloye
CEO of Drop Dead Interactive
In a series of instant messages on 1st November Adeloye, J. stated...
What’s your job role/title?
My official title is CEO of Drop Dead Interactive but as a small indie team I tend to also take on the responsibility of being the lead developer/designer and any other tasks that may come about which we are unable to outsource or another team member cannot do.
How many people work in the company?
Depending on the size of the project I would usually seek more talent to help out but as of today I currently have 3 people on the team as things like art and sound are always outsourced.
Where does the company work?
We work remotely so I work from my home/office and so does Charles
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
No because of the nature of how we work being not a full time job so will always have one game that is the main focus but may tend to drift on to prototypes or other ideas. Not all ideas are guaranteed to go to completion so we try to not focus on one project until we are certain we are happy with the initial prototype.
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
Well we try to go with what are disciplines are myself and Charles although we are both programmers, I'm better with game play where he is better with engine, shaders and creating system mechanics so he deals with that. Art and sound are always outsourced as no one in the team has these skills.
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
Myself and Charles we just call ourselves developers amongst each other and I will focus initially on design and concept then feed these ideas to Charles who will focus on fleshing out the games engine/system mechanics.
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
We may end up doing a bit of each others roles to help out where possible or when one of us is a bit busy, if anything we just try to not tread on each others toes.
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
Idea, concept then on to prototyping, once we are happy with have a fun product the prototype would usually go to a publisher to see if they will fund the development. Depending on if the game will be funded or not other measures to secure funding may happen else it would be full steam ahead to develop the game.
Does the company outsource any people?
Yes we outsource for art and audio mainly.
Where does the money for production come from? (crowd funded etc.)
So far all titles have been self funded, with our main current title we will be looking for a publisher and failing that we may look into crowed sourcing as a last option.
Typically how long is a game in production for?
How longs a piece of string lol, I would like to think most projects from start to finish should take 2 years from start to finish, but when you factor in things like marketing, bug fixing, doing events it can drastically add time on to the developments length.
Gear Gauntlet [1] [2]
TL;DR version:
Jay is the CEO of Drop Dead Interactive
3 people work in the company
They normally have one game that is the main focus and but still work on prototypes and other ideas at the same time
The split the teams up by disciplines
They call people in the team developers if they haven't just got one set role
They share jobs but try and stick to doing this separately to not step on each others toes
The company mainly outsources art and sound
They are a self funded company
Production takes on estimate 2 years
Small mobile development company
Answered by a developer at the company
In a survey on 3rd November Anonymous stated...
How many people work in the company?
2
Where does the company work?
Online/Remotely
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
Yes
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
We do not split up into groups
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
None, the two workers are known as developers
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
They work on everything together
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
Idea Prototyping Dev Test Polish Release
Does the company outsource any people?
No
Where does the money for production come from? (crowd funded etc.)
Self funded (unpaid)
Typically how long is a game in production for?
6 months
TL;DR version:
Its a company of 2 people
They work remotely
They all work on the same project
They do not split up into teams
Everyone's job title is developer
Everything is worked on as a group
They do not outsource people
They are self funded
Production time on a game is 6 months
Ben Jane
Art Director/Studio Head at Penny Black Studios
In a series of instant messages on 3rd November Jane, B. stated...
How many people work in the company?
3 Full time staff
Where does the company work?
We are a very buzz wordy “Virtual studio!” basically means we all work remotely and share online cloud storage space for all aspects of the business.
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
Yes. Being such a small team it's really all hands to the pumps to get games from start to finish.
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
So there is myself as Art Director, Charlie Cole as a Technical Director and Tom Turner as Managing Director. Splitting up roles and responsibilities isn't quite as clear cut as it was in AAA production. In practice Charlie has dealt with Engine code, Rendering code, Performance profiling, Game code requests, Animation code, Build process, testing and platform specific requirements.
Tom has dealt with the studio budgets, business strategy, gameplay feedback and testing, Music and Audio direction, Finalising process and publishing tools, TRC checks and General running of a company.
I've spent my time concepting, modelling, texturing and generally making assets and materials, creating particle effects, animation work, creating levels and setup for those, lighting, post effects, UI, marketing material and General running of a company.
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
In simple terms I looked after Art, Animation and Design.
Tom looked after company and audio.
Charlie looked after Code and Game features.
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
I guess in house was more as described above, when using external sources it was very much specifics for their body of work to allow easy tracking and briefing of work so there are no issues regarding expectations.
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
Tough one this. There are stages we certainly went through but never cut and dry because you have to be reactive to the product and your plans.
We started out with Concept and Discovery of the product. The phase where you are working out what you want to make and what it can be. All very white box and prototype in its execution. Mainly on paper figuring thing out in theory and principal. Trying to get the rough shape of the core premise.
Then you transition into Prototyping where you are trying to prove the core aspects of the game. In our case the flying fundamentals and what the user would be asked to do.Then I guess we did a vertical slice trying to push and answer all the remaining aspects of the game as far as you can to get as close to a final picture of the game as you can get within the time. Finally then we entered Main Production where it's all hands on making all the content for the game to fill out it's breadth.
Things pop up along the way that you aren't expecting and then it's back to those principles of concept and discovery and prototype and then final execution for whatever the task. For example at the start of the game minimal consideration was given to the UI and the various language options, control schemes that we might have. You can't think of everything at once! So toward the middle of the project we start thinking about that aspect with a concepting phase, alongside building out final levels. Things need to be fairly fluid to be at maximum efficiency. Again you refer back to your initial goals and core values for the product whenever approaching a body of work.
Does the company outsource any people?
Yes. We worked with a few partners on this.
3D art
Animation
Audio designer to implement game audio.
Music composer to create the soundtrack of the game.
Writer to create the story structure and dialogue for the game.
Voice talent to capture VO
Each of these people jumped in for a short space of time to complete their tasks and push the game forward.
Where does the money for production come from? (crowd funded etc.)
Not enough sources! We have worked with *A WELL KNOWN COMPANY* on this production and have acquired our funding with them.
You can get funding from a few places though.
Traditional publisher deals where a publisher pays for the development of the game. someone like EA, Ubisoft, Activision etc.
There are organisations such as Creative England, UK Games fund, etc, that can provide assistance to projects and are really good at fostering smaller teams.
There are larger European grants that can be applied for to fund interactive entertainment.
There are angel investors that might fund all or part of you product.
You can go to kickstarter and setup a campaign there.
Or you can go it alone and self-fund.
as the scale of the project and team goes up it's really only the larger publishers that fund AAA but that's not exclusive.
Typically how long is a game in production for?
How longs a piece of string? HWS was in development for about 12 months, but I've been part of productions that have lasted 6 years. I think you could call an average of about 2 years for a production, but it very much depends on your goals and what you set out to achieve.
How We Soar [3] [4]
TL;DR version:
Ben is the Art director and Studio head of Penny Black Studios
3 people work full time in the company
They work remotely and share an online storage space
Everyone works on finishing one game
The team is split up into Art, tech and managing
The main job roles are Art director, Technical director and Managing director
The team doesn't just have one self job each they work on multiple different things at once.
Ben works on Art, Animation and Design
Tom looks after the company and audio
Charlie works on the code and game features
The company outsources people for specific jobs, such as: 3D art, Animation, Audio design and game audio, Music composing and soundtrack, Writing and dialogue, Voice acting and voice overs.
They are funded by *A WELL KNOWN COMPANY*
How we soar has been in production for 12 months
An average game takes 2 years to make
Gary Lloyd
Art director at Sigtrap Games
In a survey on 4th November Lloyd, G. stated...
What’s your job role/title?
Art director
How many people work in the company?
At the moment, 2 full-time staff, including myself. We work with freelancers when needed to outsource work.
Where does the company work?
Studio/Office space
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
Yes
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
We have a diverse set of skills including art, programming, sound design and music composition.
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
Art Director Technical Director
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
No
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
We utilise game jams as ways to develop new and interesting game concepts with the use of rapid prototyping before deciding on whether it's potentially viable as a commercial product.
Does the company outsource any people?
Yes
Where does the money for production come from? (crowd funded etc.)
Money from production was provided by a publisher
Typically how long is a game in production for?
Our debut title was in development for 12 months, but has been worked on since launch with new features and updates.
Sub level zero [5] [6]
TL;DR version:
Gary is the Art director at Sigtrap Games
Its a company of 2
They work in an studio/office space
They split the teams up into Art, Programming and Sound
The two job roles within the company are Art director and Technical Director
They utilise game jams to develop new and interesting game concepts
They outsource people
Money for production was provided by a publisher
Their debut title was in development for 12 months
Michael (Mike) Kelly
Concept Artist at Automaton UK
In a message on 7th November Kelly, M. stated...
What’s your job role/title?
Concept artist. I was hired after the initial pass of the game to create a realistic compelling and believable horror environment with a view to working on more fantastical subject matter further down the line.
How many people work in the company?
Around 15 though we have a couple of remote workers who also contribute on the programming side of things.
Where does the company work?
We work in an umbrella studio with another company (Playfusion) under the name of Cambridge Ventures, an initiative set up by Mark Gerhard former CEO of Jagex
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
We are all focused on Deceit currently, it’s had it’s soft early access release on Steam and we are gearing up for the hard release soon. That said, some early production has been done for forthcoming titles.
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
The team is pretty small so departments don’t really exist yet we also work pretty collaboratively, see below.
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
We have 2 animators, 1 character artist, 1 Audio, 3 Environment, 1 concept artists and the rest are programmer/game designers. The CEO has an office but hot-desks between there and our open plan studio.
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
People do generally stick to their specialisations however I’ve helped out with Environment props and done exploratory work into using colour grading in-game, the character artist also makes weapons and cosmetic items. The programming team handle the UI and front end too and there’s a lot of play testing and feedback that gets done. So generally people help out where they can.
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
The production lifecycle of Deceit has been a provisional block out of the game which included a rudimentary asylum building and characters to demonstrate the gameplay. Once they had the rough outline of the game play and a teaser animation set up along with the peripheral necessities on social media they expanded the team to include a concept artist to create a look for the game. As the design emerge, the environment team and character art team create their assets, simultaneously audio, animation, ui are all worked on together and the game is synthesised in incremental builds. Currently I’m heading into a polish phase where I’ll be playing the game and concepting over screen shots to help guide the env teams polish work.
Does the company outsource any people?
Outsourcing was considered to handle the large number of props we wanted however it was deemed more cost effective to hire 2 more environment artists instead and handle it in-house.
Where does the money for production come from? (crowd funded etc.)
we are funded partially by Cambridge Ventures and we're partially self-funded from money James has raised independently from previous projects.
Typically how long is a game in production for?
Since Deceit is the company’s first game it’s difficult to generalise. The game’s been in production for almost a year now, which was the expected amount of time. It’s had it’s soft release on Steam and is soon going to be given a hard release with more targeted marketing. In the not too distant future we are going to be experimenting with very different games so we’ll be striving to stay pretty nimble for those ones too. Typically, the approach is to meet regularly, discuss what needs to be done and what to react to, form an action plan and then test and adjust as the weeks wear on. James the CEO has the big picture in mind and steers the development keeping in mind feedback from early release testers and reviewers.
Deceit [7] [8]
TL;DR version:
Mike is a concept artist at Automaton UK
Its a company of around 15 people
They work in a shared studio space
Everyone works on the same project but as they have moved onto polishing their current game some people have started to work on another
The company doesn't have departments, they all work collaboratively
They have 1 CEO, 2 animators, 1 character artist, 1 Audio, 3 Environment, 1 concept artists and the rest are programmer/game designers
Everyone sticks to their specialisation but people help out where they can
They considered outsourcing but it was more cost effective to hire 2 new people and handle everything in-house instead
They are part funded and part self-funded
Their game Deceit has been in production for 1 year now and they are working on polishing to do a hard release of the game
Small sandbox game company
Answered by the art director at the company
In a survey on 21st November Anonymous stated...
How many people work/worked in the company? and Are/were any of them outsourced (if yes how many)?
Initially just three and this was part time work fitted in around other jobs. Over time more staff were added and at the stage we went for a Kickstarter there were about 8 people working on the project (but only part time). There were an additional 3 or 4 outsource staff, This were a mix of concept artists, modelers and a graphics coder. The team is now about 13 full time staff, permanently employed.
Where does the company work?
Studio/Office space
Does everyone in the company work on the same game or project?
Yes
How are the teams split up? (e.g. Tech and Art)
2 Artists, 1 Art Director 5 Coders, 2 designers, 2 community managers / publicity, 1 producer
What job titles/roles do people have within the company?
Artist, Art Director, Producer, Designer, Programmer. Community Manager. These also have the prefix Senior and Lead depending on seniority and experience.
Does everyone have a specific task or are the job roles broad? (e.g. does someone only do character concepting or does someone do character concepting, character modelling, texturing, rigging and animating?)
No
In what order are things done when producing a game? (e.g. Idea, concepting, prototyping....)
Actually ideas, concepting and prototyping are a constant loop that continues during the games development. It's more useful to think of three stages which are Inception/Prototyping -- Pre-Production and Production. Inception/Prototyping is the stage where the core concepts/mechanics of the game are tested. Pre-Production is the stage where all the major questions that need to be answered to allow safe production are addressed. These include how art pipelines are set up, how outsourcing is planned and funded etc. Finally Production is the stage where the game is created to the plan and specs set in Pre-Production.
Typically how long is a game in production for and where does the money for production come from? (e.g. crowdfunded)
As a sandbox game with a big community the game is really in constant development. So far for about three years. Funding started with some a small amount of seed funding sourced by the games creator. This then drew in a little more investment and then a successful Kickstarter. The game is now self sustaining largely through sales on Steam.
Any additional comments…
Indie development is difficult. Usually the teams are quite small and do not have much funding. The critical thing during initial development is to keep costs under control and look to bring in some income. This is often done by team members having other jobs or part of the team working in contract work while the rest gets on with the game. Fireproof Studios worked like this when creating their hit 'The Room' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Room_(2012_video_game)
TL;DR version:
The team was initially just 3 people
The company now employees 13 people full-time
They work in a studio/office space
2 Artists, 1 Art Director 5 Coders, 2 designers, 2 community managers / publicity, 1 producer
They all have specific job roles
The game is in constant development and is now funded by its sales on steam
It was initially funded by the game creator, then though a kick-starter and now though steam sales
The game has been in production for 3 years now
Bibliography:
[1] DROP DEAD INTERACTIVE (2015) Gear Gauntlet. [Online] Xbox One. Nottingham: Drop Dead Interactive.
[2] DROP DEAD INTERACTIVE (2015) Gear Gauntlet. [Online image] Available from: www.moddb.com/company/drop-dead-int-ltd/videos/gear-gauntlet-coming-soon-to-xbox-one [Accessed 09/11/16]
[3] PENNY BLACK STUDIOS (2016) How We Soar. [Online] PlayStation VR.
[4] IGN (n.d.) How We Soar. [Online image] Available from: http://uk.ign.com/games/how-we-soar/ps4-20054630 [Accessed 09/11/16]
[5] SIGTRAP (2015) Sub level zero. [Online] Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux. Huddersfield: Sigtrap games
[6] SIGTRAP (2014) Sub level zero. [Online image] Available from: www.sigtrapgames.com/presskit/index.php [Accessed 09/11/16]
[7] AUTOMATON (2016) Deceit. [Online] Microsoft Windows. Cambridge: Automaton
[8] AUTOMATON (2016) DECEIT: LEVELLING UP FOR RELEASE. [Online image] Available from: https://automaton.uk/blog/2016/jun/1/deceit-levelling-release/ [Accessed 09/11/16]