6 habits to go from player to creator without even trying

A short one this week. I've had many failed attempts at developing a game until I finally did. So I recently jotted down some habits that got me over the finish line. If they can get my cluttered brain there, they can definitely help you. 




  1. Play games. Whatever else you do, never grow detached from the pure joy of playing a game.
  2. Be a fan of the community. If you ever felt like you could be getting more out of a game, there's probably an entire community of other players like you, with all sorts of community projects ready and waiting for you.
  3. Fill the gap yourself. Once you've hung around a community, you'll get a feel of what's out there, like community hacks, modules, creator tools etc. But better yet, you'll get a feel of the things you'd like to have that don't exist. Why wait for someone else to fill that gap? Just give it a go yourself. You don't have to be the best person to do it. You just have to do it.
  4. Ideas must first survive contact with the players. It's easy to over-develop your game idea without taking the confrontational step of testing what you already have. The danger here is that your idea might grow around hypothetical situations that don't exist, and completely miss ones that do. Instead, what's worked best for me has been to ask myself: "How can I drop my new idea into my next session?" and then I only do that and nothing else.
  5. Show your work so that others can engage with it. Once you do that, the loop is complete. You enjoy and get inspired by the stuff that's available from the community, got to work with something of your own, and release that thing upon the community. It's a powerful loop that can launch a career if you welcome unbridled enthusiasm and contstructive critisism alike.
  6. Open revenue channels where they would help improve your work. Even if you don't like asking for money, it's a great habit to allow people ways to give it. Especially when you can show how that money goes back into creating more great content. Maybe you feel like getting a buck or two isn't worth getting into the whole financial side, but actually that's a perfect time when nobody cares if you mess something up tax-wise. On Itch.io you can allow people to download your game for free, but also to pay you if they want to. That's a great place to start.

Is this all you need to know to be an indie game dev? Definitely not. I couldn't give you that full list because I don't know it and probably never will, but the trick for me has been to just follow these habits even if I know absolutely nothing, and the rest will follow over a course of forever.

Location: Utrecht, Nederland

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