A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of grabbing a coffee with Max and Josh Scott-Slade who make up Johnny Two Shoes, and are probably best know for their great game, Plunderland. I saw on Twitter that they were heading to the fine city of Norwich to take a lecture at Norwich University College of the Arts, so dropped them an email cheekily asking if we could meet up. Because they’re such nice people, they agreed, and so I had a chance to ask them about how they got to where they are and what it takes to build a successful iOS indie games company. I thought it would be good to share some of the key things I picked up.
Work for hire always sucks
Having read up on what the Johnny Two Shoes boys had done in the 3 to 4 years since starting, I noticed that they had quite a few client projects in the mix for big names like Channel 4. As someone who freelances making non-game apps, I wondered whether this might be a good direction to head in, and I still think it might be a good direction to head in as a stepping stone, but Max and Josh helped me to realise that that’s not the end goal. The truth is making games for someone else limits your creative freedom and never has as much earning potential as you could have making something you want to make. Stressing out with deadlines working on stuff you don’t enjoy doing just isn’t worth it. The guys say with the success of Plunderland, they’re now done with freelance work — good for them!
Make the game you want to make
You’ve probably seen similar advice before, but I think it’s worth repeating as it’s an easy trap to fall into, particularly when success eludes you. Don’t try and copy someone else’s game or make something that you think other people might enjoy but you yourself won’t. Make the game you want to make — the game you’d enjoy playing. That’s what JohnnyTwoShoes set out to do with Plunderland, and Max told me he still plays it on the tube because he enjoys it. This has the effect of making the game really fun for you, and if you find it fun, there’s a good chance other people will love it too.
Marketing is overrated
Journalists only want to write about stuff from people they already know: people who are already popular. Once you’re at that point, then they’ll be asking you if they can review your app, not the other way around. Knowing the right people obviously helps, but the really key thing is to make a game that people will talk about.
It takes time … keep going!
Max mentioned he’d been making games for 13 years, which is quite impressive for someone in their mid-twenties. We talked about how Angry Birds was Rovio’s 52nd game that they made. Whatever looks like an overnight success from the outside always has years of working away unnoticed preceding it. I think the best advice I got from Josh and Max was just to keep going. Keep making games you love and build on the experience gained from each one. Nothing happens overnight, so I need patience, passion and determination to keep going.
Thanks again to Max and Josh for taking time out to meet with a random guy who follows them on Twitter! You guys are awesome.
Great read! I love Plunderland and it’s nice to hear something from the creators.
Some really interesting advice there. The point about marketing stood out for me since it’s so different from what we’re used to hear. After trying (quite unsuccessfully) to get some press attention from my upcoming game I can’t say I disagree.
I have to agree with the Work for Hire thing. I don’t do the freelance/indie thing. It’s just not my style. The way I work is I have a full time job that’s different than my startup at night. This way, I’m never “burned out” on what I need to do for my startup because it’s different than what I do during the day.
I noticed that a lot of animators do some sweet side projects to get noticed by Pixar, then once they get hired, they stop working on the cool side projects. I think the same effect probably applies to Work for Hire work on the same platform you’re trying to build your business on. If you’re fighting UIKit all day, the last thing you’re going to want to do is reopen Xcode to work on your game. Luckily, we at Area 161 have jobs way diff’t than iOS game dev. Smiley sells high end appliances and I program on the Flash platform.
The thing I love about this post is that it reminds you it’s the simple things that bring success. Simple in nature, but take a TON of patience to see to fruition. The more I look at life, the more I see that more than anything it’s patience that we lack as humans and deprive us of our goals and happiness.