Hey guys! Me and an associate recently started an independent game company and I stumbled across this forum when I googled art tablets. I liked the community and I found a wonderful tablet thanks to you guys. If you have any advice for a newcomer like me, I would appreciate you sharing.

1 hour ago, Novadude987 said:

Me and an associate recently started an independent game company

Normally my first piece of advice is not to start a game company until you have a game to sell.

If you haven't officially registered as a company yet then hold off on that till you have a game ready for publishing.

If you did registered the good news is that dealing with digital stores will be easier at least. The problem is now you have a company and the responsibilities that goes with it, including tax depending on your country.

Trail an error works in both making and publishing games. The more games you make the more you will learn about what players want.

There is no best tool, language software or engine for making games. So instead of asking what is the best X or Y for making games you should ask what is the best option for making a X or Y game; even then all we can give is subjective answers with reasons.

Don't make games where players can get stuck and are unable to finish the game.

Asking people how to do something is only going to get you responses where people tell you how hard that thing is to do. Once you start trying yourself and asking for help you will find yourself flooded with suggestions.

If anyone ever told you making games was easy they weren't lying, they just didn't tell you the full story.

1 hour ago, Scouting Ninja said:

2 hours ago, Novadude987 said:

Me and an associate recently started an independent game company

Normally my first piece of advice is not to start a game company until you have a game to sell.

Emphasis on this one. Also reminder that for a small group (which is your case), you can make a deal with publishers that will take away a lot of papework that you probably will be doing with a company.

When you are indie, don't wait to advertise during the last minutes of the development. Build a community earlier. Advice: start using twitter, and not just to spam, interact with people, post your screenshots, the game art, GIFs.

Be careful with innovative game ideas that sound amazing. Sometimes (often) they aren't. They are amazing in your head, but when you put in the gameplay, they are not that fun as it was supposed to be.

There are, on the other hand, several reasons you'd want to start a company before having a finished game to sell, such as having a distinct legal entity to hold the IP and sublicense it, or to arrange collaboration agreements under, et cetera. Sure, it sets you out some (generally small, though that varies with your location) amount of cash. But it's not a bad idea, as long as the ongoing maintenance thereof isn't costly (in the US, for example, it generally is not until you are actually making money - just some routine paperwork).

I appreciate the advice guys!