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Moderators Note: (8/26/2003)
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I have pinned this thread in the General Chat forum as it is a great resource for new users to introduce themselves as well as get to know the existing members of the community.

A little history about this thread, it was originally started by Steve Pavlina (Dexterity) back when the forum was first created. After many replies it began to retreat into the history of the board. A few months ago Steve created a new thread with a similar purpose entitled "Lurker Come Out Party" to entice the boards many lurkers to register and introduce themselves. That thread has been merged with this thread to bring it the state it is in today.

New users, de-lurkers, feel free to create an introductory post in this thread. For all you existing forum members, I'd like this thread to just contain introductory posts. So if you see someone you recognize or would like to respond to an introductory post with some small talk, please send a personal message or start a new thread with your comments in this forum. Happy posting!

-Dan MacDonald
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If you happen to pop onto this board, feel free to reply to this message and introduce yourself. Here's my intro:

I'm Steve Pavlina. I founded Dexterity Software back in 1994. Some background on our company can be found here:
http://www.dexterity.com/aboutus

Basically, I started out working with retail publishers, and that didn't work out well at all. But I had released a few shareware games along the way, and I noticed those were still selling after several years. So I switched my focus to shareware full-time, and from there I was able to build a thriving business after releasing our first shareware hit (Dweep) back in 1999. In 2001 we began publishing other developers' games, and since then we've released eight new games from other indie developers.

Like many players I've grown dissatisfied with the lack of originality in the retail game market. I see the real innovation happening in the indie sector. Both as a publisher, a player, and an indie developer myself, I'm strongly motivated to see the indie community thrive.

You'll notice that there are no ads on these boards -- this isn't any kind of profit center for Dexterity. We already receive far more game submissions than we can publish, so we don't need these boards to promote our publishing services either. The main purpose for this indie forum is to help support the indie community as a whole.

My name is Ronald Frazier. I am an indie game developer trying to break into the market. I have started my own company, Kronos Software, and released my first game Miko & Molly in August.

History: I have been programming for about 8 years. I graduated at the top of my class from the University of Michigan - Dearborn in 1999 (Computer Science). Spent a year and a half doing web development for an e-commerce dev company. I have since come back to work at the University full time. It pays less, but the extra vacation time and relaxed work schedule allow me more time for my hobbies.

As far as game development, I dabbled in it a little back in '95, then picked it up again in 1999. I spent a few years working on some high tech game engines before deciding that the indie market was more appropriate for what I wanted to accomplish. So, in 2001 I scrapped my current projects, designed something simpler (Miko & Molly) which I could sell by myself to a more casual market, rather than a huge project that would require a large team and a major publisher to sell to hardcore gamers.

I live in the Detroit, MI area. I'm currently working together with some other game developers, big and small, in the area to put together an IGDA (International Game Developers Association) chapter for Southern Michigan ( http://www.igda.org/Chapters/detroit.htm ). We hope to promote the area as a viable place for game development. While we do have a big developer in the area (Outrage), we have a lot more indie developers (a couple that have been around for a number of years and are quite successful). We also hope to build stronger ties between industry and education. We have some students involved, and the nearby Universities have some decent game development courses and clubs.

Steve/Dexterity has been an excellent source of motivation for myself. Seeing how he pulled himself away from the big-publisher market and into the indie market so successfully through pure dedication is quite inspirational. Hopefully in a few years I'll find myself in a similar position.

My name is Mike Sellers. I live in Austin, Texas, and head up a small studio, Online Alchemy (http://www.onlinealchemy.com).

My background is in programming and user interface design, and I have a degree in cognitive science. I've been working in the games industry since 1994, and this is my third startup. The first, Archetype Interactive, I co-founded with my brother to develop the MMP game I designed, Meridian 59 (the first 3D MMP yada yada yada). We sold that company to 3DO, and then shortly thereafter started another one, The Big Network, focusing on family games and community. We sold that company to eUniverse in 1999, and I went to work for Maxis (Electronic Arts), leading the design effort on SimCity Online. That project morphed into The Sims 2 (which still hasn't been released, due to The Sims phenomenal success), and from there I went and worked with Will Wright on The Sims Online. Then last year I was asked to come down to Austin to lead the design of the next game in the Ultima Online franchise. We parted ways earlier this year, and I started Online Alchemy.

OA is currently developing several small games, some of which may find their way onto Dexterity's site; we'll see. While I haven't worked with these guys yet, I have heard nothing but good things about them, and that means a lot to me. Let's just say that working with people of integrity would be a welcome change from a lot of what I've seen over the past few years (if you ever find yourself wistfully thinking of how great it'd be to work in a huge game company... don't).

I think too that the "shareware" market is quickly maturing past that name. For many of us (us older guys anyway!) that name conjures up images of amateurish software sold in the online equivalent of ziplock bags. I think the "downloadable software" market (or whatever it ends up being called) is more significant than the BigGameCo's recognize -- analogies to mammals and dinosaurs, or English frigates vs. the Spanish Armada come to mind. :-)

Anyway, I'm happy to be here and hope to be able to contribute and to learn from the rest of you about navigating the indie market.

My name is Yann Cleroux, president of Yamisoft Entertainment Inc. (http://www.yamisoft.com) I never liked saying that, so I prefer just stating my role as an independent game developer with many other shoes to fill (my modesty will be my undoing, as the Borg would say...)

I’ve been making games for the past 16 years, both as a hobbyist and working in the game industry. I’m a designer, programmer, artist, and writer – something this industry absurdly fears, as specialization becomes the reigning quality. It’s not my fault; I’m from the good old days when 1 person did all of the design, programming, graphics, and sound for a game. :) My last paid position was Senior Programmer for a startup game company, following my work on a Microsoft-published game. As a multi-talented geek armed with the everlasting desire to create original games and lead their development, I had no choice but to start Yamisoft and learn to grow my own food to survive - literally. Well ok, starting Yamisoft has been a dream of mine for the past 10 years, so it was definately by choice. :)

We have no interest in owing money and therefore work up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, to design and create original games, each increasing in quality depending on income from prior releases. Our focus is fun, depth, and originality, aided by a few secret ingredients we’re incorporating in our upcoming game. It all sounds so simple, but there are always unexpected bumps in the road to complicate matters. Since I can’t afford to pay anyone, as with most indie authors, I’m left with many intrusive and unrelated tasks, such as veering around those alien bumps.

Cramgene, a 2-month project, is officially our second title, although only our first release. Suffice it to say that Dexterity has a very good developer article mentioning the importance of doing research before negotiating.

Since I’m not a marketing guy and my obsession lies with game development, Dexterity offers the perfect opportunity for a developer like us. I’m hoping our upcoming platform game will gain the attention it deserves and make it on Dexterity’s list. So far, it sounds like they’re the marketing department we lack.

Excuse me while I go tell someone that we’re not just another shovelware company...

Hi,

My name is Michael Le,
I am currently working on my DirectX skills to create a 2D game in the near future. My goal is to create a 2D puzzle game that will be published by Dexterity but it seems like a lot of people are doing that. We'll see however, because I am really motivated and having fun at the same time when working on my programming. It's going to be a grueling fall working day and night but I feel like I can actually do this as long as I see my goal as being possible and realistic. And it is so far =)

My name is David Michael. I'm co-owner of Samu Games (http://www.samugames.com) (http://www.samugames.com), a small independent game development company, and DavidRM Software (http://www.davidrm.com) (http://www.davidrm.com), a small independent software company. I have been fully independent since 1999.

Since 1996, Samu Games has put out several small online-only games, including Paintball Net (which was taken offline in 2000) and Artifact (http://www.samugames.com/artifact) (http://www.samugames.com/artifact). In 2000, we did an unreleased (through no fault of ours) game for Sierra Online. Currently, we are working on a 3D version of our first game, Paintball Net (it was a 2D "arcade MUD" the first time around).

Besides the games mentioned above, in 1996 I also began my independent sotware career with the release ofThe Journal (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal) (http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal), which has been a moderately successful shareware product.

I have written several game-dev articles, most of them published on GameDev.net (http://www.gamedev.net). I also contributed to the recent "Game Design Perspectives" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584500905/davidrmsoftwa-20) book from Charles River. And, speaking of GDNet, I'm also the moderator of the "Business of Game Development" forum there.

Finally, I recently landed a book contract with Charles River, with highly guess-able topic that I hope discuss more openly soon. :)

Hi, I'm Phil Harvey, have been in the industry for nearly 12 years now. Currently working on PS2 and XBox games. But do have a couple of smaller projects going on. Have worked for people like Bullfrog, EA, Activision, Sega in the past, on just about every platform there is out there.

Recently developed a couple of PocketPC game, to see how the market was.

Currently developing another PocketPC game, and will also be converting it to the PC and Mobile phones.


Phil

My name is Gil Zussman, I'm a Computer Sciences student working
on small time computer software gigs.

I live in Israel, which isnt so bad to live in as you think,
I despise politics and violence, so keep me out of those
discussions.

I'm currently working on a nice 3d platform game,
trying to reach the level of ID's Commander Keen,
or maybe Sonic's success.

I've aimed the game to appeal to the largest audience
as possible, as arcade-platform game are always fun,
addictive, elegant and easy(er) to program than other
large scale games which are never finished.

thats about it,
feel free to check out my website.

Gil

My name is Eric W. Lund. I graduated college in 91 with what essentially amounts to a BA in English. I've been fascinated with computers since I was a pre-teen, and did my first game on a TRS-80 Color Computer not long after. I made a concerted effort to break into games part-time in the early 90's, but sold my soul to Corporate America for the past six years to do web development. Three weeks ago I quit my job. I'm going back into game development and I'm determined to become successful at it (read: self-sustaining). I've got a year of savings before I have to go back to the mines. Wish me luck. See the Game Entrepeneur (www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11) thread I started to give some advice to people making the leap.

I'm Michael Sikora, I just recently registered Guardian Light Studios as a business, and have been working professionally on games during the last 2+ years.

I've worked privately on contract making board games, and now have just recently finished having the Champion Board Game Series published by Xing Interactive in retail, and selling direct over the web through Guardian Light Studios (http://www.guardianlightstudios.com) .

Now that I've got my shoes wet in both retail and online distribution, I'm cooking up some more *original* games. (Not that board games can't be fun to work on... )

I live in Canada, and no, it's not always snowing here ;)

Hello all,

I'm Paul Jones. I dont have my own company, but I do love making games of all types I'm very skilled in programming, graphics and music. I have written several games but my latest work can be seen at http://www.powergfx.com I'm hoping to meet some great people here and hopefully work my way into the industry. this is a life long dream for me, hope to talk to you all soon.


Thanks

PaulJ

Hi everyone.

My name is Ilya Olevsky (the first letter is an i not L) and I'm currently a senior at the New Jersey Institute of Technology majoring in Computer Science. I plan to start a small game company sometime soon after I graduate, but I will probably have to get a job for a year or two to save up the capital required (since as you can probably guess being a college student I'm quite broke =)).

I've read all of Steve's articles and found them very inspirational. Before reading them I was very skeptical about starting my own game business but after reading some of the articles I realized why most developers fail at this. Armed with this knowledge I think I have a good chance of succeeding.

My friend and I have been programming a reusable 2D game engine for over a year which uses SDL (for portability) and OpenGL (for hardware accelerated graphics effects). My friend is currently working on a GUI, and I'm concentrating on finishing college so I'm not doing much programming right now.

I'm very excited that Steve created this forum. We'll surely learn a lot from each other and from him.

Wow, a lot of posts in a very short time.

Let me briefly introduce myself. My Name is Todd Chodorow, and I am a producer here at Dexterity Software. My background is in computer games and Interface design, and among other things, I am responsible for Helping to decide which games we acutally Publish, as well as the QA testing of those games. If you end up submitting a game to Dexterity, i am the guy you will probably talk to (but please, no bribes...well ok, maybe a few small ones :D ), and if we publish your game, you will talk to me a lot :)

Look forward to talking to all of you here, on our forums.

Todd

Hi,
My name is, you guessed it, Dan MacDonald. I want to start by saying hi to all my favorite goblins from the "business of game development forums" over at GameDev.net (http://www.gamedev.net) who have made it over here.

Like many of the above posters, Steve was the source of inspiration that lit a fire under my butt to get serious about my goals to become a game developer. For the past 8 months I've been hard at work on an adventure puzzle game. Despite various set backs the project is comming along nicely. (you can check out the progress by clicking the links in my sig.) I even convinced some of my friends to help out :).

After watching EA's slaughter of the Origin team and the UO2 project just months before completion I pretty much swore off ever working in the industry. Once I figured that out I knew I had to get serious about doing it on my own. I still work a day job but my goal is to be full time in a year and a half. I look forward to getting to know all of you and learning as much as I can from your expirences as well as sharing some of my own.

Alrighty, I'm Neil Graham, I wrote the Dexterity released Fitznik.

I live in Christchurch, New Zealand so I'm a bit out of the way.

I started out some whiles ago doing Amiga coding (I still yearn for many of the features of the old Amiga operating sytem) At one point I worked on a flight simulator (one of the types that has a huge steel dongle).

On the PC I wrote a few little games slowly building up to bigger and better things. Over the last few years I have alternated between writing games and studying philosopy at university. I'm writing games at the moment.

I have several new things in the works at the moment and I'm multiplexing best I can. Things are coming along though.

Hi,

My name is Maher Farag, I live in Egypt and I was lucky enough that Dexterity published my game Pharaohs' Curse and they are really doing a great job.

Well, I started back in 1989 on MSX computer, Amiga (Lovely old days) and now PC.

I was programming in Z80 assembly language and it was fun :) and I started by making a Brick out style game called Crazy Ball (never published although it was good in those days).

I am programming databases for living but with Dexterity I started to 'burn the ship' ;) and concentrate on making games, currently we are working on another arcade/puzzle game which will be very welcomed by many people especially Dexterity's customers, I am sure it will ;)

I would like to thank Steve for this great work and I am looking forward to seeing online reporting soon, also I would like to say a 'Big-Thank-You' to Todd as he was/still of great help refining/QA the game.

Keep up the great work guys

Feel free to visit my site http://www.ancientsoft.com

Hi.

My name is Andrew Waltz, and I live near Philadelphia.

I'm really quite impressed with the level of game developing
experience many of you have. Even though I've
been fooling around with directx and programming for awhile, I've not yet produced any complete/polished products.

However, learning from my past mistakes along with a
smaller workload at my day job makes me optimistic
that I will complete my (non-game) project soon.

After that I hope to develope 2d games that are
fun and easy to play.

I'm positive that this forum will be a great resource.

Hi gang. I'm Cliff Harris, I am the one man band behind Positech Computing Ltd www.positech.co.uk (http://www.positech.co.uk)
I started coding games on the Sinclair ZX81 with its 1k of RAM (yes thats 1024 bytes...), Then I gave it up to be a session musician and boatbuilder around the time Molyneux et al became millionaires...
I've been seriously coding games in C++ for maybe 5 years? I've done a long stint as an indie working from home (ran out of money) went to work for a big developer (Elixir studios - the code behind the newspaper in Republic - thats mine that is!) for 18 months, then got cheesed off with the big developer thing and am now back at home writing games again, but probably going to work full time again soon to pay the bills...
I'm well known for my rants about the dire state of the games industry, I think the indie/shareware market i set to explode big time, although if that's going to happen some of us have got to stop making puzzle games... I'm as guilty as the next man, I've got one in development.
Oh and by the way I'm 32 years old which makes me ancient to most of you. I remember before VHS and before Star Wars...

Bruno Sousa here.

In short, I'm from Portugal now residing in Scotland and working for VIS entertainment.

I also wrote Game Programming All in One and apart from that, I'm just another uni drop out :)

Ohh about experience, I'm 19 with about 7 years of programming in C/C++ and a couple of completed but unpublished games !

Greetings,

My name is Brandon Wood, my game Once Twice Thrice, launches here at Dexterity next friday Sept 27.

I've been programming for about 7 years, including 4 years getting a BS in computer science at the University of North Carolina (where Michael Jordan played college basketball).

I've been poking around gamedev.net for the past 2 or 3 years, but I finally got all my ducks in a row and turned out a respectable product with OTT.

So far, working with Dexterity is great, and I haven't even recieved my first check! I'm feverishly working on a second product that I'm sure will be even more proffessional and polished than OTT.

hey cool...... my name is Gregory L Lipscomb, 33 year old
owner of GLIPS Entertainment, Inc. i started my company back
in 1999 but was forced to go fulltime 1 1/2 years ago.

The PAST:
i quit college in 1992 after getting offered a programming gig. i
didn't get my first "game programming" job until 1997. i helped
put out a turn based strategy game called 101:The Airborne Invasion of Normandy,(Former Boss owns this site (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/)
afterwards i worked at another company
and helped put out 3 more commercial games:
Email Chess, Checkers & Backgammon(i did the checkers game),
Slingo for PC and Parker Brothers Card Games(i did the Solitaire game). Box Shots of the Games here (http://www.glipsentertainmentinc.com/resume/GregoryLLipscombResume.html)

The PRESENT:
i operate out of my corner office/retail store in the downtown
business district where i live. if you're in the area,
stop by the store and say hi:)
i'm currently finishing up a contract gig for a comic book publisher,
afterwards i'll resume my own development projects. also getting
set to release the next volume in my CDRom series here (http://www.garagedeveloperinternational.com/profile/demosoncdrom.html)

The FUTURE and BEYOND:
it had always been my ultimate goal to live
and work as a "real" indie developer.
it's great to see so many developers
that share similar business views.

this forum looks to be shaping up as a great place to
meet and exchange with new friends. kudos to steve...i had joined the ASP specifically because of the knowledge and
experience that he's previously shared in his articles.

I'm Brian Azzopardi and I'm from Malta (see if you can find it! :) )

I just graduated last year in Economics and Political Philosophy. I've been programming for the last 6 years (C/C++ for the last 5) and am currently working as a programmer coz it's fun and it pays well :)

Game programming is interesting, and like many others, have finally succumbed to temptation and started working on one. It's been both fun and a challenge so far. I'm not doing it for any financial reasons but purely for the joy of coding - the same thing that has driven me for the last 6 years.

I must thank most people (including Steve for his articles) and the people at flipcode for the motivation - seeing other people's work gets me all pumped up and ready to code!

Good luck to all indie developers out there!

Brian Azzopardi

Hi, my name is Diodor Bitan, I live in Bucharest, Romania and am a 22 years old aspiring indie game developer.

I can program quite well, I have been playing around with ModeX, DirectDraw, SDL, OpenGL, 2D and 3D graphics (including a fair share of low level ASM fiddling), graph theory, data structures and algorithms, AI. I can find my way around 3D drawing programs, and I like game design even more than a programming challenge.

I've worked on a number of unfinished projects, like a 2d tanks game and a rogue-like rpg. I have helped with the creation of Smugglers 2 and TV Manager (testing, doing art, design, and a drop of programming). Right now I'm trying to make my own games. My next project is a collection of classic logic games (Othello, Go-moku, and the rest of them).

Hi everyone!

I've been hanging around GameDev for almost three years now and it's nice to see some familiar names on here already.

About me... I started programming in Atari 8--bit basic in the mid-eighties, moved onto 6502 assembly, Amgia (AMOS & M68000) PC (C then C++) etc etc but programming has always been a hobby (it's got me some good gigs in Engineering though as Mechanical Engineers with C programming skills are a rare commodity. I've made attempts in the past to break away from my day job, all so far have been to no avail.

My day-job peaked about 4 years ago, and I found myself in a position where I was ready to begin game coding again.

So after a few years of even more learning/tinkering/hair loss, I'm a reasonable DirectX/3d/C++ coder with a couple of serious projects under-way. I have a small website here (http://www.matibee.com) which is not being promoted at all until the projects are closer to release.

I'm hoping Jeepers Leapers will be a suitable candidate for Dexterity's publishing route, but I'm not so sure Ground Attack Force is; with it's level of voilence. We shall see!

Bye -and good luck everyone!

Matt Bennett

I'm one of the founders of Twilight Games - We have 3 titles out now, all initially self published, with several new projects in development. (3 active titles in production and one of our older titles now being ported to palm and pda devices) I've been doing this full-time for about 2 years, but I started about 4 years ago with the very first version of Aargon.

Before that I wrote many games, just to play them, on all kinds of different machines going all the way back to the Ti99/4a for those who remember. I have extensive experience working for large well known corporations in North America writing many types of software from robotics to medical and financial, but I'm happiest doing what I do now, in part because I love games but also because I love working for myself.

I guess I'll try to bring this post back on topic:
My name is Joel Carlson and I am a hardcore programmer that has a creative side, too. I'm happy to find this forum because it looks like a good collection of people who are serious about the business of games. A nice fit between the inexperienced imaginations on GameDev and the hardcore coders on FlipCode.

I, like many of you here, see the beauty of creating a collection of software that can earn you money even while you are sleeping, and the fact that it's games makes it that much more appealling. I've read all Steve's articles and I must say you can add me to the huge list of people you've inspired.

I'm currently looking for someone to team up with to make some money in the shareware market while having fun doing it. I've been able to find people with talent, and people with creativity, but noone with both. I have finally started updating my website ( http://www.jc3d.net ) to show some things I've been working on. Please check it out occasionally, and if there's anyone here with talent and ideas and wants to try partnering on a game, let me know.

I look forward to participating on these forums a lot more in the future!

Greetings,

My name is Jai Shaw and I live in Australia. All my childhood I have been facinated by games. I learnt to program and wrote a few very small games on the Apple 2e and the Amiga but when I left high school I ended up in application programming jobs for about 6 years.

Eventually I had to get out before I had a melt down so I decided to go to university to try getting a degree under my belt, however somewhere along the line I ended up programming games.

I finished Dreamstars in August and have come to the realisation that games programming is definatly where I want to be in life. However even though Dreamstars is selling a little I have I am pretty much flat broke so I'm looking for work, prefferably in the game industry, so I can get on my feet again.

My eventual goal it to be an inde developer or start up a small development house of my own.

I have dabbled in Story writting and can occasionally come up with a peice of nice artwork but programming and design is definatly my strongest points.

I have a few projects in the works and there is some possibilities to get a start up company going due to some nice offers from the Acadamy of Interactive Entertainment and the Australian Government at the moment so I am keeping my option open.

I'm at an exciting crossroads point of my life at the moment. I know my destination, but the path there is still to be determined :)

Jai Shaw

Hello, my name is Keith Weatherby II. I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States of America.

I've been programming close to 10 years, but didn't really get serious until 5 years ago. I've completed 3 games, got two of them put on the cd accompanying Bruno Sousa's book "Game Programming All in one", and i'm attempting to sell my games.

So far i had 1 sale from someone I didn't know.

If you want to see what i've done head on over to
http://www.uhfgames.com and see if you like any of them.

That's about it.

I'm shaft,

I'm 26 currently a grad student in software architecture and engineering. I enjoy long walks on the beach and holding hands... oops sorry.

I used to want to be a game developer until I learned software architecture, and I learned how to develop expandable maintainable software. Since software architecture / engineering is not likely to enter into the pro world of game developement, I'll have to survive making double the money in another software industry and doing the game projects I want in my spare time...

My current project right now is a VERY powerful scripting engine. It's a complete object management system that plugs into any C/C++ system and manages dynamically loaded Java objects (There's a lot more to it, but that's the short version). It's pretty sweet. The 3rd and final design is faster than unreal script and AT LEAST as expandable (I need to update the website so I can point people to a better explanation). It's pretty cool and has really given me a chance to learn a lot about software engineering.

My goal is to land a job working under a skilled architect in a company that has a strong software engineering process. After a few years of that I would like to start my own business.

My name is Jason Chong. I am 26 too, going on to be 27 end of this year.

I used to work at imaginative illusions and did a raiden style
vertical shooter. Got it published, but didn't make much moolah.

I left the company to further my studies. I just finished and look forward to resume game development as indie.

I haven't finished my new game project yet, because like steve has mentioned in other threads, the psychological factor needs to be dealt with. ;-) Recently attended some job interviews but i am not so sure about taking them if i do get any offers.

I am slowly moving back and getting on track, and you can see the screen shots of a rather old page of my ongoing project at http://www.geocities.com/jcvw75/

I am gonna try and finish this side scroller now that I've finished my education (sort of, still no degree yet. ;-)). I am burning my bridge to go full steam ahead, but of course will do occasional custom software development work on the side when the need arise.

Soon I am gonna have .com website and a registered company name. I really hope to get some results from gamedev.

I only need usd 500 a month to be able to be an indie game developer full-time. So i believe if i don't do this then I am screwing/wasting my youth chance of a lifetime. Others here may disagree and think I am screwing my own youth now by not getting into the corporate world. :-/

Anyway, I have no loans to pay, no debts to clear, no kids, no chicks and no life... hehehehehe. Why waste such a good boring
lifestyle ? Be an iNDIE !

Hello:

I am Mike Boeh from the Chicago area. My company is Retro64, Inc. at http://www.retro64.com

I have been an indie game developer and publisher for 2 years now, and have no regrets! :-)

I am currently in crunch mode because I am releasing my next game, "Best Friends" on October 1st. To add to the stress, I am also launching a totally redesigned website at the same time.

Cheers

Hi,

I'm Marc Georgeson from Addictive 247 (http://www.addictive247.co.uk).
We set up in May 2001 with the intention of writing games where playability was the key and not just the gfx or sound. During May we released our first game Smuc's. Later on that year, in November we released our arcade/action tank game called Onslaught.

There are 4 of us who make up the team and there were several debates over what the next game would be. It was eventually decided that we would go with an original arcade/puzzle game called Shift 247. Shift 247 was released at the end of March 2002 and an add-on pack for it called 'Shift 247: Advanced Racer' was released in May.

All that seems a long, long time ago :rolleyes:

Currently we're working on two games. One's a puzzle game and the others a football (soccer) game. The puzzle game will hopefully be released at the end of October and I think its our best work yet. The football game called 'Addictive Footy' will be released next year. All the latest info on our games can be found at In-Development (http://www.addictive247.co.uk/Indev.htm)

Hi there. My name is, unfortunately, Caspian Rychlik-Prince, and I'm still merely a wannabe indie game developer. I was working on a game called Multiple Injury (some old history found at www.shavenpuppy.com might enlighten you) but of course it's too ambitious to finish on my own.

So I'm back to square one with a new, much, much smaller game, which once upon a time I wrote on the ST and lost. It's a 2D arcade puzzler. Currently in dire need of art.

I use OpenGL, OpenAL, and Java to develop my games. This surprises most people and makes others derisive, but that's because they don't know :D But should you think that's the way to do it go and take a look at http://java-game-lib.sourceforge.net/ which is what came out of my abortive game efforts last year.

I am the same princec who pops up on gamedev.net and JGO too often.

Cas :)

Hi. Hanford Lemoore here. I was a level-designer and animator on a bunch of bigger-production games a while back for LucasArts and Disney before switching gears to do user-interface design for consumer-electronics products.

Now I'm back to video games, but this time working on my own (much-smaller) games rather than working on someone else's. I just started selling my game last week on www.monolux.com.

Glad to see these forums. Dexterity's a great company.

~Hanford

I'm Gregory Micek from Sacramento California. I'm 26 years old and work at Verizon Wireless doing technical support, but none of that matters.

I'm one of the people putting together a new gaming news site called DIY Games. Its purpose is to cover the gaming world(like too many other websites out there), but will concentrate on Indie games. It's not meant to be a link site with downloads and such, it's more of a indie.ign.com kind of thing.

We'll be opening it officially in about a week or so, and expect to get some decent traffic because of an interview I did with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman a couple weeks ago. Most the people here probobly won't see their titles in the library yet, the main reason is time. We're still trying to finish the entries we have in their now, and will wait to add more until after we launch, that way they can be mentioned on the main page.

Anyway, that's it, and that's me. Stay tuned and all that fun stuff.

I am Stephen Burns.

I am 21 years and I live in Australia. I started working on computer graphics in 1998 and have continued to develop my skills (self taught). I have mostly being working on projects that I find fun. 1998 I was at Tafe learning computer networks. In 1999 I started to work on card games and board game which ended up on the back burner. 2000 I got my first job but quit so as to continue with my graphics. 2001 I started helping out a local community centers and tried to get the government to help local youth in my city. 2002 I quit my volunteer work to focus on my first computer game project.

This year I have meet 2 programmers and we are working on our first computer game.

I can do a lot of art related stuff on the computer.
I enjoy drawing a lot and want to get back to drawing. But the computer game has been keeping me busy. Also I am into role playing games and I am developing my own role playing game system.

Here is my web site http://www.gplgames.com/B-Games-Main-1.html

My name is Dax (Named after some Scottish detective or something. My Dad never did explain it properly) And I'll be releasing my first "proper" game soon.

There are two things I have learned in my 27 years on this planet:


1) happiness is more important than money.

2) I will only ever be happy working for myself.


After finishing University with a degree in computer science, I worked at a games company as a 3D artist, and eventually progressed to lead designer, which a lot of people think would be their ideal job. But personally, I couldn't freaking stand it. Taking orders from people who knew next to nothing about games, simply because they were in a higher company position started really getting to me. So I quit. Making games is the only thing I have ever had a "passion" for doing. When you are younger, your aspirations tend to jump around from one profession to another, but with me it always landed back on games. So that's what I'm now trying to do, not for fame and fortune, but because I think its the only shot I'll have at leading a happy life.

Not to get too off topic, but I can't stand the current corporate culture that says the only way to be a good human being is to become an employee in a large corporation and work your way up the ranks. So many of these people are completely miserable and stressed out, but still see this as the only path a "productive member of society" should take. Get a job. Work hard. Get a promotion. Work harder. Never complain. Don't rock the boat. Increase your earning potential. Here's a thought... how about actually enjoying your life instead! Pretty radical idea huh?

So that's my motivation. I'm prepared to give it everything I've got to succeed. And I wish good luck to everyone else in a similar position.

I am Jake Stine, and I'm still trying to figure out how/why I named my profile 'Jake Stine' and not 'Air' ... I guess that's what I get for signing up on these forums 5 minutes before I went to bed.

I have been a gamedev and multimedia programmer of the amateur brand for about 8 years now. Like a lot of people, I have a heck of a lot more experience with starting projects than finishing them (until I finish my current project, that ratio is ad-infinium, really). That doesn't stop me from trying; and just like most other people, it doesn't stop me from making a nice website either! :)

My plan is to make a couple cool games, make enough money to upgrade my living status from 'boxed shelter' to 'makeshift hut', and to promote a general good feeling of achievement among myself and my friends and co-workers who put up with my wackiness.

- Air
- Curious? Hour 13 Studios (http://www.hour13.com)

Hi all -

My name is Bill Keller, and I live in north central Florida. I've been programming professionally for a little over ten years now. I'm currently an independant consultant, doing custom software for small businesses. So in a way, I'm already doing the indie thing. Sort of.

I have set the goal of living completely off of software sales, at my current level of income, in 3 years. 36 months. My plans are to split my development efforts between games and pocket pc apps. I'd like to be able to get an app done every 2-3 months. Each won't sell for much, but 15 or 20 of them will add up.

I'm glad Steve set these forums up. In the lurking I've done so far, there seems to be less noise here than over at GameDev. Let's hope it stays that way.

Take care,
Bill

edit - I hate typos

Hi, My name is Nick Bischoff.

I am currently a lecturer, I am pretty young I guess (21), I lecture networking, TCP/IP and mostly networking geared towards Windows related architecture, AD etc.

My real passion is game development, but I have yet to complete a project for release. I have been messing around with game dev for the last 8 or so years.

I am still studing, doing a BCOM (IT) with a few years left of that.

I recently purchased a .com, check out my first release there. In the sig!

Oh, I live in South Africa, but I have lived in the states, Tampa FL.

Hi. I'm Charles Oines.

I am currently a freelance and contract artist. For the last twelve years, I've been working at varous companies doing game production art. I left my last gig because I was just plain burned out on game production.

So, naturally, I'm making my own game :). I'm working on an idea I've had floating in my head for a few years now, and finally have the tools and skills to do it myself.

My name is Christopher Emirzian, I'm 21 years old. I've been making cheezy computer games since I was 13. Recently I've tried to make a carreer out of it, and it's been a learning experience all the way. I hope to someday be successful enough to live on my own from the income I get selling games.

You can check out my page at www.toastsoft.com :)

- Chris

I R Bernie. I am a professional software engineer specialized in 3d visualisation, CAD and GIS softwares. I love creating games in my spare time since I had been employed at one of the first gamedev company in Hungary in the last millenia.

And I live farther than Malta... :)

My name is Brian Lockwood - I founded LockwoodTech software in 1998 and run it as a full time business.

I don't write games but in every other way my interests are shared with other Indie developers. I work at home office, sell software over the internet via a web page. I develop my own software from an idea, publish it and hope each product does well. I also have to create graphics, help files, installs etc.

I run a virtual company with several virtual employees in Canada, Chile, Russia and India. I have worked with most of them for 2-3 years. I wrote an article on the unique nature of a virtual company here:

http://www.lockwoodtech.com/index.asp?PageId=articles/virtual_company.htm&TitleID=articles

I also recently wrote an article with tips on starting a software biz that has gotten a lot of good feedback

http://www.lockwoodtech.com/index.asp?PageId=articles/commercial_software.htm&TitleID=articles

Hello,

I am Peter Sokolov from RUSSIA. My company is Warlock Studio at http://www.warlockstudio.com

I have been an indie game developer and publisher for 1 year.

My new game GUNNER2 ready to releasing and I will do it soon.

__________________
Best Regards.
Peter Sokolov
Warlock Studio
http://www.warlockstudio.com
"Fun is just a click away!"

G'day, I'm Daniel Neville, a C/C++/Delphi programmer, bitmap artist and dilletante living in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I was the main programmer for Space Jihad I and II flight sim projects (both involving 700kg dongles with slice-and-dice capability).

I'd be developing my own games, but I suffer from the endless prevarification syndrome, or perhaps a lack of initiative.

I do manage the odd burst of productivity though, such as with the artwork and sound for Lerc's game, Fitznik.

Hello,

I'm Patrick from Midnight Synergy, http://www.midnightsynergy.com

I've been working on games as a hobby since the early 80s, where my first game was a vector-graphics space game programmed in Simon's Basic on the C-64... oh, those were the days! :)

Did some work on the Atari ST (and first dabbled in Shareware) in the late 80s and early 90s, and finally switched to the PC platform in 1993. Under the Midnight Synergy label, myself and other team members have published four games since then: Operation Carnage, Colony, Intensity XS, and Intensity XS: ReCharge.

Currently we're hard at work putting on the finishing touches for our next game, Wonderland, which should be out "very" soon.

Looking forward to some interesting discussions.
Cheers,
Patrick

Hello

My name is Joseph Qualls. I am CEO of the RenderMatrix www.rendermatrix.com . The RenderMatrix has been around for two years now. We are working now to slowly move into the game indusrty. We do everything from computer consulting, web design, implementing computer networks, and game developement. Currently we are working on our second game the "Deliverator". Our first game was Accounts in Action which was shipped to high schools across the US. This was an educational title to teach people about accounting.

The Deliverator will be done at the end of November.

Joseph

Hello,
I'm Alexander Samarin fromVSBgames (http://www.vsbgames.com/). About one year ago we've released our first shareware project - Xtreme Tankz Madness II. Now we're working on our next project - Paradoxion. It will be a board game with classic concepts combined with some new features. Currently my duties are programming, graphics and game desing.

Hello

My name is Kyle Nau from Cancerian New Media. I started off selling texture collections and am moving into indie game development with Scramble Knights which should be ready in November.

Before that I had an unpleasant stint as a level artist for Rockstar Games. I don't really mind mainstream games (although they do rehash the same ideas over and over again) but honestly can't stand how corporate the development process has become.

That's why I'm here, I guess :)

Hello to you all!

My name is Kai-Peter Bäckman and I am running a one-man
startup here in Helsinki/Finland. I have a 15+ year background
in programming and many years as contractor.

I started thinking seriously about a career as indie
developer about two years ago, even if writing games
and demos had been a hobby before that. With a contractor
background the legal structure was ready so during the summer
I made the leap and started working full time on games.

I am aiming for the streaming market where the total file
size doesn't hopefully matter that much. My genre of choice
revolves around science fact/science fiction games. The first
project, scheduled for initial release in the beginning of 2003,
is a non-violent real-time strategy game.

My main fascination with working as an indie is the ability
to further oneself in many professions. In addition to
programming I am interested in visual arts and
entrepreneurship in general.

Wow, this looks to be a great forum! I've been downloading some great shareware games recently and I'm thrilled to see that several of the developers are regular posters here! (Mike at Retro64, for example.)

My name is John Cutter and I've been a professional game developer since 1983. Got my start at a sports game company known as "Gamestar", then was the first employee at an Amiga-based company called "Cinemaware". After that I worked at "New World Computing", "Dynamix", "Cavedog", and others. I took a year off and tried to start my own company, but that didn't work out so I recently had to take a job as Senior Designer at a large developer in the Seattle area, working on console games.

My current job is fine, but I hate office politics and working with large teams; and I'm tired of making money for *other* people. Twenty years in the business, 50+ games on my resume, 5 games listed in Computer Gaming World's "Top 150 Computer Games of All Time", and I've never worked on a SINGLE project that paid royalties. <sigh>

I'd LOVE to work on shareware games full time, but I have too many financial responsibilities. Still, I've got evenings and weekends to run my side business: "Escapist Entertainment", and I'm really looking forward to it. (Strange as it may sound that I have to escape from my job of game-making to... uh... make games. ;-) )

Anyway, I'm very excited to have found this forum -- I know I'll learn a lot and perhaps I can even reciprocate with some nuggets of wisdom I've learned over the years about game design.

Yo John - good to see you here. I think we have quite the PNW contingent growing up here (though I'm in Austin now -- a fine town on its own -- I still consider myself to be from Portland).

When were you at New World? I visited there a few times after 3DO acquired them in 1996 or '97. Just wondering if maybe we've met.

Heya folks, just checking in....

Jonas Stewart
Artist and Co-Owner of Silver Creek Entertainment creators of the Hardwood game series:

Hardwood Solitaire ( in it's diffrent variants)
Hardwood Spades
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Euchre

We've been around since '94 making card games and in the last few years running our multiplayer game servers for Hearts, Spades and Euchre.

I also wanted to say thanks for The folks at Dexertiy for setting up this cool message board.

Well see ya folks on the message board :)
<waves to Steve and pals>

OK, I'm here.

This is Thomas Warfield, my products are Pretty Good Solitaire (two time Shareware Industry Best Game of the year winner, also two time People's Choice award winner), and the brand new Pretty Good MahJongg.

Hello,
I am Tams11 and I'm currenting working on creating a gaming community, The Tams11 Lobby Http://www.tams11.com, with a variety of different games, mainly card, dice, and word games.

I don't have a long programming history. I've had a passion for computers since grade school. I took a few pascal courses in high school back in the early 90s. But didn't really do much until about 4 years ago. Since then I've created over 17 simple games.

I'm working solo right now, but someday I would like to join a team and create a game with more substance.

I look forward to the valueable information I can obtain from this forum and Thank you all in advance for the information you give. :)

Hey there folks :)

My name's Jon, and I'm *gasp* an artist. I've been working on games of one sort or another for several years, and hey, maybe one of these days I'll actually get paid for it :P

Right now I'm working with my friends at Hour 13 Studios (http://www.hour13.com) , but I've usually got the time (AND DESIRE) to do some work for anyone else who might need it.

Ah, my dream has always been to make games, which I am doing. My dream is now to be paaaaaaaaaaid to make games :D

Hey guys, I'm Wozza, and I'm a Gameaholic

*round of applause*

I am 21 and have been a 'hardcore gamer' for as long as I can remember, and have allways been interested in the industry. I have a strong interest in Art, Journalism and Web Design. I have completed a one year Art course and I hope to do a course in 'Internet Technology' next year. I currently help run http://www.videogames.co.nz and write for a new free New Zealand gaming Magazine, 'Press Start.

This year I have moved into a flat with two of my freinds who are programmers to start up out little game development company, 'Left Eye Dominant' (LED). I am the art and internet guy, but I know no programming at all, but thats where the other guys come in. We havn't finished any games yet and I am currently making a website for us.

Recently found Dexterity and I should be around often. :)

(edit)

Just to add that I really like the Indie perspective and outlook towards games and such. I have had a few average, to say the least jobs and I have decided that there is really any point in doing things that relate to my interests. I hate pretty much anything that stifles my creativity.

Given that this thread is a kind of old, no one will probably ever read this, but here goes anyway. :)

My name is Paul Kerchen and I've been making games for close to 10 years now. The bulk of my experience came from seven years at Maxis, where I worked as a simulation programmer on SimCity 2000 (PSX and SegaSaturn versions), SimCity 3000, and the unreleased SimsVille. I had a lot of fun there and met a lot of great people (including Mike Sellers, aka alchemist--hi Mike!), but I decided I needed a change and a better place to raise my family. So, last year my family and I pulled up stakes and moved to the wilds of rural southeast Michigan (outside the town of Almont), where I took a year off to build my own house.

Now I'm back in the game (so to speak), starting my own development studio with my brother-in-law (no name yet--finding just the right name is tricky). I've always believed that one who has the talent should be able to make a good game no matter where they are, so now I get to put my belief to the test! At this point, the only obstacle to success that I can see is spending far too much time playing Earth & Beyond. :)

I'm glad I found this board and I look forward to meeting everyone and discussing games, game development, or whatever else comes up.

Cheers,
Paul Kerchen
kerchen@glis.net

Hey Paul! Great to see you here. Drop me a line at some point - I'd love to catch up and hear what you're working on.

I hear you too about pulling up stakes from the Bay Area. There are days when I miss Maxis (not many that I miss EA management duels :) ), but I'd much rather be here in Austin than back in the SF area again.

Hi.
My name is Vytautas Shaltenis. I am from Vilnius, Lithuania. I am 20 y/o and have 5 years programming experience. Currently i am a second year student in Vilnius University, faculcy of Mathematics and Informatics. I have been trying to break into indie gamedev industry for 3 years, meanwhile without success.
You can find more info on my homepage: http://www.mif.vu.lt/~vysa1570
Random stuff:
Language of choice: C++
OS of choice: GNU/Linux
Favorite browser: Links
Favorite drinks: Black tea and beer

ummm... that's pretty much all of it.

Hi All,

My name is Ciaran and I live in Dublin, Ireland.
I first started programming when I was 13/14 on the old Apple II in school. From there myself and a couple of friends got heavily involved in the C64 scene writing demos and platformers for cover tapes on magazines. Great Fun!

I've never worked in the game industry as such, though I'm currently working in the area of machine vision as a algorithm developer.

In my (limited) spare time I've been working on a project, and its only now comming to a close finally.
I'm returning to college next year to do my PhD and I'd really like to support myself as an indie in my time studying.

Enjoy this forum a lot! Cheers.

Hi,

I am game developer from Europe, Holland. Got experience as game developer for some years. In the begin when I started my goal was to develop commercial games for retail publishers. After I realised that most game publishers (even the small one) are not fair to deal with (so many reasons), I tried to figure out if there was another way to work in this industry. And there was only one possibility, the shareware marketing. My opinion was always, to be honest, that most shareware game developers fail. And my opinion is still that most fail. Only a couple survive, because they got the mix of a good developer, marketeer and patience. It take many years to be succesfull. I agree with Steve that you can do consultancy/ freelance work for small/middle big companies, like lawyers, etc. to survive. Because the game will generate after a couple years, if you got luck, enough income to live from it comfortable.

I also like this forum alot. It's more useful then gamedev.net, because there is here plenty information about marketing etc.

I like games like:
3D Racecar actions, like Driver, Midtown Madness. etc.
3D Speedboat, Miami Speedboat Racer
3D Helicopter, the one from EA couple years ago.
3D Space, like Starwars (Space driving)

Unfortunately I don't got the money to develop these kind of games. :(

But, I also like:
Puzzle strategy, Stockboy, Fitznik
Puzzle logic, Tetris, Block out
Platformers, like Duke Nukem Manhatten Project, Tarzan, Jazz Jack Rabbit. The first two titles are using 2D and 3D techniques (still expensive). Jazz Jack Rabbit, also Rayman are so cheap to buy in the stores (I think also online), how do I competete with it ?
So platform games isn't the right choice, unfortunately.
Mahjong I only liked for a little time, so that isn't also the right choice.

I like arcade action games, but most arcade games are 3D.
So it's difficult. The graphics can be a true problem, I am not a modeler. I made as game developer 2D arcade action games and also edutainment games. The market for edutainment there isn't a well big niche for, unfortunately. Design is however interesting.
So I decided to go for the best possibilty and that is puzzle strategy games. And I only go for one product. I am sure that this will be very interesting and get a nice result.

Hi,
My name is Ray, I've got more or less the same profile as carrot also am working on the same project as him. Hope to work for myself in the near future (developing games) and move out of Dublin. Hey carrot I see you've got time to post messages to this thread but not reply to my mails ;).

Ray Mitchell

Oops, wrong date on my system, sorry carrot.

I'm Kevin Ryan and I've been developing games since the earlier 80s. Most of the games were done with Dynamix and published through various publishers. Just recently I've worked on a couple of games with Garage Games.

Kevin

Hi Im Jo, a high school student who's suddenly fallen in love with the idea of making games.

I started my first game about a month ago, and it's comming along fairly well. I just wish I new whether or not other people would play it.:D

I never really play games much anymore due to my huge busy class schedule, but my avorite genre has always been strategy games. ALPHA CENTAURI AND STARCRAFT rule!!!!!

I havent got around to learning any programming languages yet, so I make everything so far with Multimedia Fusion. This software is great, I recomend it to anyone!

My dream is to start an income so I can survive through college and spend my time studying instead of working. I hope to one day learn to program in c and make my own 3D commercial quality games.

I think game programming is fun and looks like an excellent source of income while I spend my life persuing my true passion.

My name in Johan Peitz, I'm 25 and I just got to these forums. I have however developed freeware games for a few years now and I'm slowly trying to convince myself (or dare myself) that it's time to move on and actually make some money.

So far I have released a handful of games of which some has become extremly popular and I count downloads in thousands per day. This is something I never could imagine when I first started out, but regarding the popularity of my free games, I think it would be possible to at least get a few bucks from a non-free game.

I'll have my master degree in computer science before the year is over (I hope!) and I'm looking into various ways to make my hobby into a living. This place seems like a good place to start.

Feel free to drop by my site and see my work here: Free Lunch Design (http://www.freelunchdesign.com)

Well, that's it I think. See me around!

I registered a few hours ago as well, so I'll introduce myself as well :)

I'm Almar Joling, from The Netherlands. I started programming like six years ago, in Visual Basic. I'm still working with Visual Basic, but by noww I consider my self pretty proffesional :). I run a site with many of my stuff, and also a sort-of knowledgebase how to speed up Visual Basic code, called VB Fibre (Persistentrealities (http://www.persistentrealities.com)) .

I started with DirectX programming in 1998, still pretty basic. I learned myself everything through the few samples that existed, for DX5. By then I started to work on my game called Quadrant Wars (Quadrantwars.com (http://www.quadrantwars.com)). Well, after all those years, QW is still in development :rolleyes:. The multiplayer code has been the hardest part of all... I have learned a LOT on multiplayer programming in those years :) Well, the game is like almost complete now. I went from DX5 to DX7 to DX8... for all just one game.

Now, meanwhile I'm working on a new smaller game... Which is comming up nicely, and I actually hope to publish this game here at Dexterity.

My name is Daniel Hedrick. I have been lurking on the Indie game dev forum for about a month now, and figured it was time to say hi. I am not a game developer, although I make believe that I could write a game if I had a good enough idea. My wife and kids love puzzle games, and so I've got about a half-dozen ideas for them, but I've never really written anything. Mostly, I work for the Man and contemplate being my own boss.

I stumbled across Dexterity (and Steve) when reading the articles cross-posted to iDevGames. Steve's insight to marketing shareware is helpful in my own endeavors. I may not be a game maker, but MUCH of the information that is presented in this forum is of a more generic nature that is highly useful to small business owners and specifically shareware authors.

Even stating that, I haven't really released any shareware yet. I'm working on a couple titles simultaneously that are primarily for testing the waters - simple utilities.

So, a little bit about me. I'm 32 years old, with two kids (age 4 and 6), and a wife I've been married to for 6 years and in love with for 11. I currently write web application software as my Day Job and do minor consulting/contracting gigs when time permits.

While at work, all of our software is written in Java and we have a mix of Windows and Unix servers, my computer passion is MacOS X. Writing software for it is just dreamy.

Anyway, that's me. Please don't hesitate to drop me a line anytime. I love having e-mail dialog with other shareware developers -- knowing I'm not the only crazy one is a Good Thing.

Peace,
Daniel

Hi my name is Simon Vaillancourt

I'm a new one in game industry. I hope to get a chance to be published. My dream is to be a game "guru" in the Montréal region in the province of Québec in Canada.

I am 22 years old, I made the mistake of going in a computer institute to be Analyst Programmer, now I seek a job and no one want to take the risk of hiring me. I am quite good in C/C++ and I am learning how to build software in the Win32 environement.

I love games and live for them. So if you have a debug or paid testing job for me I'm in.

I have returne to college to get a human science diploma. To get in graphism in college or university. I want to touch to everything in my game dev. business.


Simon

Hello all,

My name is James Prudente and I've been doing various software development for over 20 years.

I've recently taken the plunge, and founded Tiny Science, an independent shop focusing on mobile game development.

Before Tiny Science, I spent the last year and a half developing a mobile multi-player game architecture that is currently in production at Mobliss. Previous to Mobliss, I worked for Amazon.com for three and a half years. During my time at Amazon I designed, implemented and maintained several of your favorite features including the shopping cart, top 100 sales ranking, and the wishlist.

I'm currently focused on single player games for phones, but with the success of multi-platform games like those found at popcap I'm considering other platforms. I am also interested in developing more multi-player mobile games once Tiny Science is established.

- James

Given the number of posts that begin with, "I've been lurking here for months and finally decided to introduce myself..." I thought it would be good to have an official Lurker Come-Out Party. So if you've been lurking for a day, a week, or several months, please take a moment to register and introduce yourself here by replying to this post.

We had a similar Roll Call thread when this forum was first launched:
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=10

But this is a special roll call for lurkers who'd like to convert to registered users. It's free to register of course, and it only takes a minute or two. Most of the fields on the registration form are optional, so you only need to fill out a few required fields to register.

If you'd like to register, just click the "register" button in the upper right corner of your screen, or follow this link:
http://www.dexterity.com/forums/register.php?action=signup

When you register the board will keep track of which messages you've already read and displays new messages with a different icon color, so even if you don't plan to post, the board simply works better in registered mode.

All are welcome here... newbies, students, amateurs, and pros alike. Please don't be intimidated if you're just starting out. Keep in mind that there never was a winner who wasn't at some point a beginner.

Well, I'd hardly call myself a 'lurker' because I've been a member since last year and have 80 some-odd posts, but I never formally introduced myself so here goes:

My name is Bruno Campolo and I'm 23. I live in NY and am a computer science student at New Paltz University. I made my first game (space invaders clone) in C with dos graphics lib in highschool, and a few other 'cheesy' games around the same time. About a year ago I started getting into DirectX and started an RPG. When, like most, I realized that this project was a huge undertaking (especially for a first game), I toned it down a little and started my current project: Trials of Werlin. I frequented GameDev.net's forums for a while until the noise ratio got way too high, and then I stumbled onto Dexterity's site through one of Steve's articles. I love the forums here and don't think my game would be nearly complete without the people here. Anyway, I'll be releasing a beta of my game in the next month and an actual release when the beta proves itself ready. Thanks
~Bruno

I found this forum a few days ago. I've been developing games for a few years. My target platform is Windows 95,98, NT.....
I started out using Visual Basic but moved on to VC++.
I'm 18 and have taken a break from school to serve in the millitary (it's compulsory in Sweden). Due to the lack of sparetime for the next 14 months I won't have time to develop new games.
I'm working on a new game for the Swedish market only (it's a puzzle game where you combine letters into words).
My goal is to make a game that people is actually willing to pay for.

My two latest creations can be downloaded from http://www.deodec.com

I guess I am a lurker I come here once in a while and look at the forums. I live in Michigan. I graduated high school in June and will be pursuing a degree in electrical and computer engineering at Wayne State University beginning in the fall.

I got into programming at the end of the summer of 99. A year or so later I started my website that has a few free programs on it (most of which were written quite a while ago).

The original reason I got into programming was to make games. However, I obviously didn't have the ability to create games right away, so I made several failed attempts at games (As well as a pretty much functional pong game). So I made some other programs in between attempting to come back to game development. Now I am working on a variation of the game I originally envisioned making 4 years ago, but this time I think I have the ability to eventually complete it. I have decided to not push myself to get it done by any particular time but to just keep coming back to it and working on it. Eventually I would like to finish the game and look into distributing it online using shareware methods.

Although I came out a couple of weeks ago, I've been a lurker for months. I was introduced to these forums and Dexterity in general by a friend of mine that is working on some children's educational software. I also frequent Gamedev.net, Flipcode.com and Ludumdare.com (a participant in all 3 48 hour game compos) and I am lurker and occasional poster at pixelation.swoo.net. One day I plan to fight my chronic laziness and actually finish some sort of game, but I can't really decide on what I want to make (well, I know what I want to make, but I don't think it's very practical as a one man project.)

I, like BrewKnowC, have never formally introduced myself. So I guess this is as good a place as any...

My name is Brady Wright and I've been programming for a pretty long time and have started many game projects but have sadly never fully completed a game. (Well, there was that one cheesy 3-level game I "finished" for a VB class I had.) I've wanted to write games for as long as I can remember, but only recently found a good path for me to take to actually realize that dream.

With no way to break into the mainstream retail side of the gaming industry, I was flailing about not knowing what to do or where to start to make this my livelihood. I had never really thought that shareware could provide the kind of meny that one could really live off of. But my first indication that this was false was when I stumbled upon dexterity.com probably over a year ago. Steve's articles really motivated me and helped me see that it could be done.

I still didn't have a plan yet, but I was encouraged. Later, I contacted the developer of a shareware game called "Billionaire" that I thought was pretty good to see if he could tell me if he's had some real success. He was very kind and answered some of my questions and that made me feel better about the ability to actually make a living from shareware games.

I was almost there. Not long after that, I ran into a guy over at flipcode.com who was also a HUGE help. I asked him for some advice, and he responded with tons of extremely helpful information about his own personal experience. It really reminded me of when I had read Steve's articles. Ironically, by this time I'd forgotten the address for dexterity.com and had somehow failed to bookmark it. I went looking and looking for it but couldn't find that place I'd found so much helpful advice.

I finally decided that I should start small and work my way upward in baby steps until I could actually finish a full game. The important thing for me was to actually FINISH a project to the point that it was actually ready to sell. So I started with a screensaver I'd toyed with earlier. I have since finished this project and have been selling the screensaver for a few months now. I'm coming out with a handful of other screensavers soon, and after that, I have a few game projects lined up. But with each iteration, I'm inreasing the difficulty level for myself and taking it all in steps. I learned a long time ago that if I try to bite off too much at once, I'll NEVER finish. I also learned that if I work on projects without any clear direction, I'll never finish and I'll never eventually get where I want to ultimately go.

Just to close this loop, I came across one of Steve's articles over at gamedev.net not too long ago, and when I realized that this was the same guy who's articles I'd read so long ago, I jumped for joy! I immediately signed up to the forums and now here I am.

So now you know about everything there is to know about me. :) A huge thanks to Steve for everything he's doing for the community and the industry! Thanks, Steve!

well,

reading this board since a few months, but i have only a few posts. like most others i stumbled upon this page by a link to the articles from gamedev.net or something.
man, i have to say these articles here really got me thinking; not only about game developemt but about general life stuff as well (things like what i want to achieve etc., things which i didn't/still don't know). no doubt the best articles i ever read.

anway, i'm 25 years old, already have a few years experience in the commercial games industry (as a programmer), but now my utlimate goal is to work indipendent and to develop my first shareware-game. i don't know for sure if this will work, but i learnt to be optimistic.

i have a bit of funding, am already working full-time on the game (it's some sort of "unusual" strategic puzzle game),
i love to work on it and am feeling confident that people will like it. my only worries are that it's a 3D game,
apparently the more "hi-tech"-games don't sell too good on the shareware market, maybe because of the system requirements etc. (please correct me if i'm wrong).
oh, and i have absoluetly no business/marketing experience :) , but fortunately i have ability to visit some free business seminars soon, really looking forward to them.


anyway, i *will* finish the game (my goal is end of september), + installer + editor + auto-update + website :eek:
until then i go into lurk mode again, and then hope to find lots of testers here :D

Hi everyone,

I've been watching this forum for only a week. Stumbled on it and have been very pleased with the content. This is a fantastic resource.

Anyway, my name is Keith Sink. I'm a 35 year old programmer who's been working primarily in the SQL/CRM industry doing programming work for business and the government. On the side I've been programming small games since I was in college. About two years ago I started wanting more and started learning everything I could about programming. I wrote a book on DirectX programming with VB through SAMS and I graduated from the University of Washingtons new Game Development Certification Course.

My programming languages are VB, C++, Python, and the .NET technologies.

I currently work with a small group of developers and artists working on an UT2003 mod and hopefully starting to create shareware in the near future. We renovated a building I have out back. We're located in Woodinville, WA(near Seattle).

Nice to meet everyone. Keep up the great topics.

I'm not exactly a lurker either, since I started posting about a month ago, but I am new to this forum and I've never formally introduced myself, so I will now.

My name is Damon Du Bois. I first started making games as a kid before anyone I knew had computers. I created my own little pen and paper RPGs, and played them with my friends. I've always loved making games. I've also always been very seriously into art as far back as 4 years old. Even today, I'm a much better artist than programmer. When I was about 11 I saw the movie War Games and was instantly and forever after obsessed with computers. Tron also of course helped fuel this obsession.

I got my first computer about 6 months later. A Texas Instraments 99-4/A and within a few weeks had written my first computer game, a very simple and short text adventure. But I lived on Kauai (in Hawaii) and had no contact with any other programmers, there were no computer stores(I bought my computer from a music store), and I had no internet access so my programming skills didn't go very far.

When I was 19 I moved to southern california and soon after got a job(I was VERY lucky) in the games industry as an artist. I've now been working in commercial game development for almost 11 years now as an artist. About 5 years ago I started seriously getting back into programming using C++ and started trying to create a shareware game in my spare time. This was back in the DOS days(sortof) and I ended up getting stuck on getting sound into my game. So I abandend that and soon after moved to windows and started learning directX 2. A string of unsuccesful and unfinished games followed over the next few years. The biggest of which was a RTS that I worked on for 1 1/2 years before realizing I'd bit off way too much and was a long way off being done.

I then decided to start a small, simple arcade game and I actually finally finished something! If you're interested you can take a look at it here http://wizardslab.com/NetWarInfo.htm

I've now started my second game and it's going to be a bit more complex. I still find DirectX and especially Direct3D very complicated and difficult to use though and on my new project I've switched to using Blitz3D. I've only been using Blitz3D for a month now but I can aleady say I really love it and it's a much better fit for my programming skill level.

I also hope to eventually make enough money at shareware that I can go full-time with it. Working in commercial game development has been a great experience and I've learned a great deal but in that environement I'm kindof just a cog in a machine and only work on one part of the overall game. And I'm not able to come up with my own game concepts and make them happen. My real dream is to make games independently.

Anyway, I arrived here on this forum the same way so many of you have: through a link to one of Steve's articles. Over the last year and half I've been coming back to re-read those articles and study every aspect of how Steve has set up his company. Though I only about two months ago started reading the posts on this forum and realizing what an awesome forum it is.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks to Steve and everyone on this forum for providing me with so much great information and inspiration!

Woo! Lurker party...I brought the Chex Mix and Pictionary. I'm not sure what that is floating in the punchbowl over there, but I'm not responsible.

Howdy, everybody. I'm Sparky, the non-programming half of Octopus Motor, working on They Came From Hollywood (http://www.theycamefromhollywood.com), a giant-monster-vs.-cities action/RTS that we're going to be self-publishing (mail-order sales, not download) whenever it gets done - hopefully before the end of the year. <sigh> It always takes longer than you think it will. :mad:

hi,

I'm not a lurker since I've posted before under a different name (jih) but I've decided to introduce myself with a new account name after my new website.

I've been a c/c++ programmer for several years, but after much soul-searching, I have recently decided to take the (scary) plunge as a full-time indie game programmer. Although I am nervous about my decision, I think the risks are worthwhile because like many people here, it is very much a labor of love. For me personally, games hearken me back to a much simpler and innocent time of life. Now, crafting games as a grown up recaptures in a small way, the innocence and nostalgic feeling of that time.

I am very glad to have discovered this website for I have learned much about the indie game business and am grateful to everyone for making it a great place to share advice and learn.

Hey,

My name is WreckerOne, I'm 25 and am working out of Golden, Colorado. Its been about 18 months since I quit my pro job fo two years. Now I'm writing my own stuff and hopefully will have my second ever indy game out any week now, called Jupiter Grid. I wrote a really bad scroller called Zulu Assault back in 1998.

Now I'm working on my stuff, I have no funding and I'm totally broke so I often am forced to make textures out of construction paper and models out of popsicle sticks. kicking the microphone can be a really cheap source of sound effects in a pinch.

My website is at http://www.arrowhd.com

Hi and hello to all, I am what you would call your classic lurker!. As you can see, this is indeed my first post here.

My real name is Stephen Greener, and I have been coding semi-pro titles on and off for a while. Two of my recent completed titles are Revenge of the mutant camels 2 (llamasoft) and Dr Franken (elite) for a publishing company called idigicon (aka Guildhall lesuire). Also wrote a number of public domain/shareware/licenceware titles for the Amiga too.

Now I have that experience under my feet I fully intend to enter the indi-dev scene and to make it my life! (one day).

Got a nice spanky webby address aquired already ( www.sublimegames.com ), and now I am just spending my spare time building some contence for it!.

Hello, I'm Steven Zhao, here is my formal introduction:

Klik Programmer for 7 years. 20 Years old. College student at UCSD.

Developed two games: Ballmaster and Meeklits. Each game sold over 1K units and has some great reviews.

Currently working on a game with Buddhist philosophies.

Wow lot of people from USA :)
Well I do a little introduction to myself too. I am from Italy (but since the weather got so bad I'm thinking of relocate!!!) and if you don't know, in my country game developers are pretty rare :)
However there are some talents here, and I hope to be one of them :)
Since now I have only made some budget games for italian market, programmed with VB + DX, but now moved to Blitz3D and I am developing since 5 months (part-time though) a soccer management game.

Like someone said here, I started with a huge project, but after some thoughts I decided to "reduce" the amount of work by removing some features. After all I can always add them later :)

I too am programming a game with some uncommon system requirement (that is 1024x768 only) but I hope to get some sales anyway (after all I am doing a niche market game).
I'll be sharing sales figures when I release the game... hoping to celebrate with you!!!

Hi Folks!

Well, I guess you can say that I'm a lurker too:)

My name is Joe Hillman and I'm from Dallas, Texas. GO COWBOYS!! I'm currently a software engineer developing software for our DSL line of products at Efficient Networks (Siemens). Our group consisted of 20 developers and after going through 12 layoffs, there's only 3 of us now. I consider myself very fortunate.

During the after hours, I work at home on my screensavers and hopefully will start on a shareware game. I'm a developer at heart and know nothing about marketing and sales. Although, through the help from Steves articles and the invaluable information from this forum, I plan to change all that.

Anyway, it's great to be part of this growing family and I hope that I will be able to give something back to the community.

Thanks.
-Joe
www.webappstogo.com

I did a little "coming out" thingy recently, but I'll maybe spill the beans a bit more.

I'm Phil Carlisle. 30 something and currently a programmer for Team17 Software here in the UK (working on Worms 3D right now, which will be my fifth title released by Team17).

In about 2 months or so, I'll be leaving T17 for a new job as a Senior Lecturer job at Bolton Institute (about an hour up the road from home) where I'll work part-time.

During the rest of the time, I'll be running a small indie-size dev company doing a number of different things.

My first project is "The Secret Life Of Aliens" which is a 2D game based loosly along the lines of a "Theme Hospital" type game.

I'm also developing a game called Deep Space Legends, which is essentially a remake of XWing (Tie Fighter, XWA et al) for modern times.

If thats not enough to see me to an early grave, I'll also be doing some articles and other stuff for various publications (AI Wisdom 2 is the next book article, plus the journal of game development).

I'm lucky in that I've got a pretty healthy bankroll AND a job that supports and encourages me to be an active developer (and more importantly, it doesnt own my IP).

I guess I'm one of the guys thats gotten a bit tired of the whole "pro" developer scene and is trying something new. I suspect that this might even become a trend, as more and more games are released as sequels, movie tie-ins etc.

Maybe we'll do a peice about this whole transition at the IGC in october. :)

Phil.

PS: www.stormchaserstudios.com is my website, but frankly, I'm not sure about the name. Its not a great one for branding, which might be an issue in the longer term. Plus the damn thing isnt actually up properly yet (its a work in progress! :))

And another one - recently (~4 weeks ago) found this forum while hunting for all information about indy game development available on the net.

I'm from Germany, working as a game programmer but as the current situation of the industry here is getting worse each month and I think I might give the indy game development another try. About 4-5 years ago I tried it already but at that time we (it was me and an artist) failed badly - maybe because we just had not the neccessary experience to do it right at that time :-(
You can find some information and images of our former main project at www.clawdesign.com (it's all German but all you need is a click on projects).

Have fun,

Michael

As I have only posted a half dozen times as being a registered member, I might as well consider myself a "lurker". First off I'm familiar with programming concepts and terms, but don't consider myself one. I mainly stick with artwork and business development.

I started a company (about 3 months old) called Rocket Games which I started soon after I left RealOne Arcade where I served in a marketing role for the group, mainly covering web games. At Real is where I really learned about the whole shareware games business, gained some great connections and learned the ropes from some really talented people.

The company is composed of myself and an old friend of mine. I handle the game concept creation, graphics and marketing, he handles the programming, backend server work and web site maintenance. My list of game concepts has only grown since the company got started, I just need to catch up a bit more :-)

Our first game, WordBlitz Deluxe, is the result of looking at several technologies and finally settling on one! It's a simple puzzle game ala Bookworm or Text Twist. Hope you try it and drop me a line with any thoughts you have about it.

Our main goal is to help other indie game developers get their names and games noticed by partnering with them to sell their games on our site (www.rocketgames.com). Too many other sites out there charge an arm-and-a-leg to carry indie games and we thought there was room for improvement.

We have another game that I just finished (took far longer than expected) but is already off to the programmer. It's another puzzle game title which I spent countless months pouring over. I'll make sure I post the beta here to collect some good input from everyone.

Great forum you have here Steve. In many ways, more informative than the ASP stuff. Always found your articles very inspirational.

Hi everyone, I'm Andrew Ewanchyna (the only half of ApeZone.com). :D

Released Starships Unlimited in late 2000, got signed by Matrix Games in late 2001 and produced Starships Unlimited Divided Galaxies (wargamers love long titles), got itchy to be completely independent again so I've just put out a new version of the original game.

Currently working on a naval game called Battleship Chess. Been fulltime 3 years *before* Starships Unlimited was released (hey, it's good to plan ahead). ;) Did the quit-my-9-5-job-thing before that. Absolutely no regrets, well, except that I wish I had done it sooner.

Sparky, release your game already! I want to crunch some puny human cities.

I already posted something in the Jazz-Jackrabbit-sort-of-game-thread a few days ago (even though nobody responded... :)), but here comes my formal introduction:

I'm 17, also from Germany, and currently working on my first shareware project: Terra Vera, a 2D jump'n'run/fighting/adventure/whatever game. Selling shareware games is something I always wanted to try.

In the past I have only released one freeware game and done some minor side-projects while working on Terra Vera, like test games for my lib or the last Ludum Dare game coding contest. I'm better at coding (Delphi and C++) than at producing content, but except sounds and music I think I can do everything in my project.

Hi,
I am lurking around here for some months, the last 3-4 weeks on a regularly basis.

I am so happy to share this with you. I feel much better now that it's out.

I found my way to dexterity software throught the enlighting path of the articles. I think, the articles are great. I am so hardcore a gamer I don't now if I would like those games. I can't play them because they don't run on my Mac. That makes me sad. The articles are great thought.

I found those articles when it became clear tha the dotcom agency I was involved in would cease to exist. It is still in biz, but I don't care anymore.

I started to study the fine arts after deciding that big bussiness (which basically meant to me working your best pieces out for somebody else (who in most case does not even care about your work but mererly the cash he makes with letting you work)).

I wanted to start my own biz (around computers offcourse), the I read those articles. BTW, great writing skills Steve! I have several relations to that motivating thingies industry, so I have some experience in those things. The articles made me moving my best pieces. Thanks Steve!

Anyway.

I started to work on a project half a year ago. I am doing this in java and I am working on a turn and tile based startegy title.


I have to end this post now due to time management issues. That means I have to leve this place I am posting from. I will come back!

Hi,

My name is Glenn and I'm 24 years old from Brisbane, Australia. I'm a Network Administrator for a international manufactoring company. I do a little bit of C++ programming, but my real strengths are art / pixel art and writing.

I'm currently in the process of developing a side scroller game to be released at shareware, however it still has a lot of work to go. I enjoy lurking here as it gives me a lot more information about things like marketing and sales that I have very limited experence with. I am hoping my game will be completed in the next few months so I can finally release it.

I haven't formed a company as such, but I am looking at setting up something as soon as my game is finished / near finishing. I have completed a few small games, however these are more of a learning experence games and will remain unreleased :-P.

Found this forum about a month ago myself when slashdot linked to the gamedev article. Hadn't really paid any attention to the gamedev site in the past year due to the signal-noise ratio. I'm still amazed at quality of posts on this forum.

I'm 23 and have been programming about 5 years. Worked on a few games that I never really finished due to them not turning out as well as I'd hoped. Well that's the excuse at least. ;)

Right now I'm trying to work part time on a relatively simple 3d rts game while working at a full time job doing database programming. Not sure yet whether I'm writing this game to get into the indie business or to try to get into the retail game development. I just know I don't want to keep writing business software.

I'm Allen Varney, a writer and game designer in Austin, Texas. Like many others I've lurked here for a month or so.

I've been a full-time professional designer in the computer and paper game industries since 1984. I've published three boardgames, two dozen roleplaying supplements, seven books, and 250+ articles, columns, and reviews. I've worked freelance or on staff for Origin, Interplay, Looking Glass, and others. My most recent gig was writing dialogue for the new Star Wars: Galaxies MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment.

The grievous condition of conventional computer game publishing has dismayed me, but in Steve Pavlina's essays I found inspiration. I have turned a programmer friend on to them, and we are partnering to work on several ideas. The first is a simple side-scroller, intended as a learning project, that we hope to complete within the year.

What entices me about shareware, aside from the clear health of the field, is that many (all?) factors contributing to your game's success or failure appear to be under your own control. You can succeed or fail on your own merits. If that's wrong, please correct me before I get too deep into this!

I've introduced myself before, but what the heck.

Name is Nick, I live in South Africa. Im 22 . I am an IT lecturer focusing mainly on MCSE, A+, N+ related subjects. I also run my own web hosting/design company (which I hope to do full time ina few years). As for as programming goes, Ive been using clickteams products for 9/10 years now. I use php for a lot of backends for my clients, and Ive also written many internal programs for varies companies using c/c++ to interface with their intranets/databases.

Ive have a shareware program, url history, which has sold a few 100 units in the last year. (learning curve for future shareware products...) Im working on a shareware game at the moment with my brother; Chris- http://www.artofchris.u4l.com more news on that later ;)

Ollright-than! I am back online again.

Well, what remains to say? Some facts about me personally: I am a young (25) german boy, my name is, er wait, I`ll say differently: Hi, I am Christopher and I am lurking around here for some 8 months now.

The last few years I worked in different agencies in northern Germany. I did jobs in different areas like marketing, web design and graphics design. It all started out in making some CD-ROM stuff in Macromedia Director.

Now, how did I come into this game thing? Well, how did you come into computing? Because you saw a spreadsheet in some office and you thought "Wow, if I could handle my taxes with that, I would..." Offcourse not. You start with computing because you see a game somewhere. :-)

Anyway.

I think I can enrich the community more in the artsy-artsy area, and offcourse web design issues.

BTW, the main reason I am addicted to this stuff is because you guys keep me going with your talk about our industry. If you would not talk all the time about this I think I would not believe so much in my game dev efforts. Thanks guys (&girls(?))!

I’m not exactly a lurker, but this seams like a good place to tell you about me. I lurked for a long time before I made my first post. Then after about 15-20 posts I lost them all in the great server crash. It was sad, but I reregistered and started again. From reading this thread it looks like many of you true lurkers have a lot of different experience. What makes this board great is the amount of posts from people who really know what they are talking about. The more post from people with different experience the better. So I hope all the lurkers will become posters so this forum can become even more valuable. It took me a while to start posting. I would read a post and think of a response, but I would never bother to post it. I just assumed someone else would. Start clicking the reply button!

Anyway, about me and my game, I am a student and University of Missouri – Rolla. I’m working this summer in the big, bad, real corporate world which gives me inspiration to work on my game. I am currently working on a card game, called Trigone, in the evenings. My goal is to release Trigone in September. I hope some of you all will be willing to play my game and give me some advice it nears release. I plan using a different model than most of you to promote Trigone. The plan is to release a Shockwave demo that is available only on the web, and sell the full version as a download. I am currently programming the full version in c++/SDL.

I don't exactly remember where I found this page but I think it was through gamedev.net.

I'm 21 and I have been wanting to make my own game since I played my first nintendo game when I was five. Then I found my fathers old commadore and began playing around with that, doing the examples in the documentation (which was in english and I didn't know english back then) and experementing, doing simple text-games. I think I was nine or ten when I did that. Now I'm a university dropout trying to get by. Hopefully doing games for myself or some other company in the near future. I've dabbled in C, C++, director, flash, haskell and php.

I've made a few small games (if you can call them that) for different school projects which can be seen on my homepage and I am currently doing a 3D thing which I'm hoping to get done to beta in a few months.

- Richard

OK, maybe it's time I introduce myself.
I'm a CS student at Chalmers in Sweden, going to begin my second year this fall. I've been coding for almost as long as I can remember. From GWBASIC to Qbasic to Visual Basic to DJGPP C++ with Allegro to MSVC with D3D on PC / GAPI on PocketPC. I have also done hobby development on a variety of game consoles and the TI-83 calculator.

I've been and still am involved in the european PC demoscene, mostly writing 64kb intros, and winning some contests with them. Lately I've also gotten involved in the emulation scene a bit, it's incredibly fun writing game console emulators :) Actually it's too much fun, taking away way too much time.

My biggest project so far is my PocketPC program PhoenixStudio, which has been selling from almost no marketing, but quite slowly. I'm trying to change this situation at the moment, with a new release with support for all major PocketPC:s this time. I'm also planning a game or two for the little machines, which may be moved/expanding over to the PC later.

I may be a pretty harsh critic, especially of graphics, at times so take me with a grain of salt ;)

I found this page through the same gamedev link everyone is citing :) I really enjoyed your articles, Steve, and this forum is just great. Thanks!

Hi, gang! I'm Jason McIntosh, 31 years old, long time programmer (I use Visual C++), designer, artist, musician. I was involved with an ambitious Quake II mod project (Dawn of Darkness) and that got me into managing virtual teams, so that's also the route I'm taking this business venture. With so many tools available (many for free) there's no reason not to grab talent from around the world.

It seems to me that the time is ripe for "indie" developers to become the next wave of smash hit producers. The retail sales model is stagnating (like Hollywood) with phobic risk aversion, and with broadband and a good virtual team it won't be hard to make a retail-quality product a fraction of the development cost. My goal is to work up to that gradually, building infrastructure as I go.

This forum is an incredible resource, something we need more of for ideas, feedback, and inspiration. So let me end with this very relevant link that any business owner in any industry will appreciate:

http://pf.fastcompany.com/magazine/12/almanacdeclare.html

Over and out,

Hi!

My name is Thobias Jones. I'm actually a game developer for Human Head Studios (www.humanhead.com), but in my spare time I run Genkisoft (www.genkisoft.com). I discovered Dexterity several months ago through a coworker. Unfortunately, it was really late in the development cycle of my first product, TurboHex (www.genkisoft.com/products.shtml), to really use what I've learned from this board.

I've only been lurking because Genkisoft isn't developing games yet, and I didn't want to accidentally hijack the board for non-game related discussion. However there is a lot of info here that can be applied to other types of shareware. It is my goal to do some games once I work out the bugs in the business. Programming is certainly the easiest of all the tasks I need to do...

TurboHex (www.genkisoft.com/products.shtml) was finally released a week ago, and although its not a game, I'd certainly listen if anyone had feedback on it, the website, or anything else. Thanks much to Steve, and everyone else, as this has been a great resource!

Well, I'm not exactly a new lurker, but I suppose I've never really introduced myself.

I'm 30 (for a just wee while longer), and from the cotswolds in the UK. My real name is Zooey Ball, though almost everyone on and offline has called me Zogs or Zoggles since as far back as I can remember.

I got dragged in here kicking and screaming by Dan MacDonald quite a long time ago now, and seem to have snagged some item of my clothing on the revolving door. I keep drifting in and back out again, occasionally managing to throw a few comments in here and there.

I've been designing games (board games and computer games) since the age of about 8, and some of the creativity I attirbute to having grown up without any brain-destroying inventions like the television. Mostly I've just written small games and utilities for friends and family etc on a variety of different machines (Amstrads/BBCs/Acorn Archimedes/Amigas/Psion Organisers etc and now PCs) but have been involved with a couple of retail software companies in the past.

For the last few years and up until fairly recently, I have been mostly spending my time on the pixel art scene, doing graphics for other people's games, a couple of the most recent being Blastorama (by SatelliteMoon) and CritticAge (online rpg type game). Slowly but surely I've been lured back into writing games and utilities again though, and just this year I've pretty much gone full time at it (save for the occasional bit of freelancing to bring in a bit of desperately needed income).

Anyway, nice to see a whole load of lurkers coming out of the shadows :)

-Z-

i'm 24. Trying to code my first complete game. I've studied physics here in the Netherlands and i\m currently unemployed.

Happily lurking for a couple of weeks.

-Alan

I've been lurking in this excellent forum for a few months too. I'm from Ireland living and working in Dublin as a Vision Engineer. Am currently working on developing games with a friend in my spare time (of which there's not much). Coding using VC++6 and DX 7 and am currently struggling with the graphics. Should have an alpha version finished in the next month or 2.

Scott Campbell, 27, living in Birmingham, England, but originally from Scotland.

Did a CS degree at Glasgow Uni, then spent the last four years in the industry, programming and doing a bit of project management. I won't embarrass myself by naming titles.

Made redundant in Feb, and determined to work from home.

Oh, and an ex-yarozer. Any others about?

Like zoombapup I am also a pro-dever, based near his company too.. working on a short term contract for a company called Gamezlab doing some TV show game. (due to start recording around about now) worked on oodles of titles before but got really into shareware when I discovered this forum and especially the people on it. Escotia I'm not an ex-yarozer but I am an ex ps1-ps2 homebrew dever (www.napalm-x.com) but currently writing engines and what not at home with the view of doing a simple platform game mainly for the sheer hell... if it ever goes to market I look at that as a bonus rather than an aim.

That's me out of the closet so to speak :D


as a side note.. maybe a devers questions/answers would be a good amendment to the dev section here, as I enjoy helping people rather than coding 99% of the time.

Well, I've posted on here a few times, but I'm still fairly new to these forums, and haven't really introduced myself.

My name is Jerry Frame, and I live in Huntington, West Virginia. I'm 29 years old, and hold a BS in C.S. I work as a software engineer on both full time and part time jobs right now (doing mostly database apps) . I have a good friend that used to work for High Voltage games near Chicago. At one time, he tried to convince me to move out there and join him, but I didn't want to work long hours, for relatively little pay, and end up only doing the grunt work on a game (with no creative input.) Thus, I decided to take what spare time I have, and try my hand at some indie development.

Hello, everyone. I’ve been lurking here for a few months; someone directed me to the site when I mentioned the casual games market at an IGDA chapter meeting. We’re still completing our company’s formation--so our choice of name isn’t finalized--but we’re based in the Phoenix, AZ area. Currently, we have four employees: myself for programming, my brother for audio, and then two friends I met during my college days for art.

We’re using Virtools Dev (www.virtools.com) for our platform: their browser plugin for web versions, and a compiled stand-alone version for downloadable versions. To escape the horrors of endlessly polishing our first product, I post experimental work--along with source, albeit only applicable for other Dev users--at http://dev.flashbangstudios.biz:800/~matthew/devlab/ . Some of the tests there are fairly playable, if you’re bored (make sure to try the content-filled tank test and Smallball).

Hi everyone...I've been lurking around here for around 12 months now, so it's about time I came out of the woodwork.

My name is Peter Butler, and I live in Aberdeen (UK). For the past 11 years I have been designing instrumentation systems for the offshore drilling industry. I have been trying to develop games/screensavers for several years now, but have never really had the time due to work commitments.

So, I recently quit my job and set up a company called 'Event Horizon Systems' to allow me to develop full-time. I have two current projects, and hope to release them next year.

I also must thank Steve for his great articles, they have certainly pointed me in the right direction the past couple of months!

To JerryF: I can recommend for sure Blitz3D. I am NOT a great programmer, but managed to almost finish a complex game in 5 months (working in my spare time!).
For 3D games should be even more powerful.
Take a look at: www.blitzbasic.com and see the forum and the links with examples.
If you can save your 3d models either in X, 3DS, MDS and so on you can use them in Blitz, even if would be better to convert them in B3D (proprietary format of Blitz) with various tools.
You can found all info in the forums and in the official website (the URL above).

hi,
I have been lurkering here for about 3 months, but before that I had read many articles written by Steve, they are very helpful .... thanx Steve.
here is my info:
I'm 23 , I studied CS for 4 years, but I started game programming many years ago .... I started with Basic then C and C++ and then found DirectX then I started developing real things.... I developed three games and one educational program that has won a prize somewhere in my country.
about the games I started with a breakout "jumping ball 1" (also won a prize in my college) and released it for free , then thought about selling it, so I released "Jumping Ball 2" .... I felt so happy when I got my first sale (she refunded later:() ... then I got about 70 sales from this game in about 2 years (not bad for my first game:rolleyes: )
then I released my second game "final forces" ,I made it in a hurry so it has just got about 20 sales only (although it is technically better and got hot game of the day at ZDnet and about 10000 downloads)
My current game which I released today (2 hours ago) is "Bumpex" I hope I can get enough money from it (I've been working on it for about 14 month).

http://www.ehbgamer.com

Hi everybody,

My name is Erkin Tunca. I am 26. I live in Ankara - Turkey. I graduated from physics department of METU and work on physical simulation development in a firm at the moment. I am interested in game development and found this forum and site great. I am planning to be an indie game developer therefore I follow the discussions. Hopefully one day I will save enough money to take the risk of being independent and will develop games.

The Lurker

What a strange man, she thought. Her several attempts at drawing his attention went unnoticed and she started to feel a little nervous. It was her first day on the job and Amy wanted to make a good impression. 'Go out,' they had said, 'and interview the people who frequent the Dexterity forums.' It didn’t turn out to be quite as easy as her boss had made it sound.

The room was dark except for the glow of a monitor. The silence broken only by the hum of the computer's fan and the occasional tap of a key. Behind the desk, bent over his keyboard, sat a young man. He stared intently at the screen. Its flashing content absorbed him completely.

The man appeared to be in his mid twenties, slightly overweight. There was something strangely attractive about him. Maybe it was his refusal to wear anything but black clothes, or the way he nodded his head to the beat of the music that played in his headphones. Punk rock, Amy guessed. If you waited long enough, he would probably start singing along.

Amy tries again. ‘Hello!’ she hollers, but the man does not react. His gaze remains frozen on the phosphorous pixel matrix. In a last attempt to make contact, Amy reaches over and takes off his headphones.

‘Hey!’ The man jumps up from his chair. For a moment he is startled, confused by this abrupt disconnection from The Zone, but it wears off quickly. Still shocked, he performs a pre-emptive karate move in Amy’s direction. The execution lacks in effectiveness and, well, grace. Apparently he hasn't practiced in years. He falls over, but recovers quickly.

‘What do you want, intruder?’ he demands, picking up the computer keyboard for lack of a better weapon.

‘Don’t hit me,’ shrieks Amy, ‘I am a reporter and I’m here to interview you!’

The man is taken aback. ‘Oh, sorry about that,’ he responds. His voice has a vaguely European accent to it, Dutch most likely. He lowers the keyboard and invites Amy to sit on the chair next to him.

‘So, what is it that you want to know?’ he asks, still breathing heavily from his recent attempt at physical activity.

‘Tell me about your business.’

‘A little over a year ago I started my own company,’ he begins. ‘The initial plan was to become rich selling shareware utilities, but I have changed my mind about that.’ He grins, ‘now I want to get rich selling shareware games.’

‘Is this a full-time job?’

The man nods in agreement. ‘Yes. Right now my company is selling a programmer's utility, Compare and Merge. The past six months I have been rewriting it from the ground up, and this new version is up for release soon.’ He sits straight up, gestures wildly. ‘After that, I want to focus on games again because they are much more fun to write than serious software.’

This tickles Amy’s curiosity. ‘How did you get into all of this?’

Now she got him started. ‘I have been programming for as long as I can remember. Mostly games or game-related things. Started on the C64, then the Amiga. In the late nineties I managed to release a few freeware games, Evil Insects, Overdose, and Zero Gravity. I am kinda proud of those, actually. They aren't the best games ever, but having finished them is very rewarding.’

‘Cool.’

He smiles. ‘Thanks. You know, I have already made a lot of mistakes running my business, and still have a lot to learn, but I definitely don't want to go back to a regular job.’

Amy knows all that she needs to. She would have liked to stay longer, but there are other programmers to interview too. They say their goodbyes. When she reaches the door, Amy turns around to take one more look at this mysterious young man. But he is already staring at his monitor again; sucked back into whatever it is he was doing, oblivious to the world around him. With a sigh, she steps outside and closes the door behind her.

The end

Hello all,

I'm Oli Norwell and discovered the Dexterity articles in April of this year, I'd like to say thanks to Steve for writing some amazing thought provoking stuff.

I got my big break in 2001, my first game 'Michael Vaughan's Cricket Manager' was published by Midas Interactive (a european publisher), I began writing the game in 1999 whilst still at school and approached literally every publisher on the planet, I got a few offers and signed a royalty based deal with Midas in June 2001.

Since then I've earnt a healthy sum from that game and have formed Rockingham Software Ltd, I'm on this forum as Rockingham Games because that's the name I intend to link with my games.

I released a business app earlier this year that's been selling in moderate amounts and has helped boost my income. I intend to use this as my main provider until I've enough quality games selling.

I started programming in 1992, creating small QBasic games, in 1996 I learnt Visual Basic but didn't really like that. Finally in 1998 I discovered the DJGPP compiler and the Allegro game library, in 1999 I purchased Visual C++ and have continued to use that every since.

I was born in 1982 (now aged 21), I'm at university and have given myself 3 years to create a succesful indie business. Currently its just me working on the games, and I intend to contract an artist to work on some gfx over the next few months.

I'll be checking the forum daily and want to contribute whatever I can to this little community.

----------------------------------------------
Oli Norwell
Michael Vaughan's Cricket Manager (http://www.rockingham-software.com/cricket)
Rockingham Games (http://www.rockingham-software.com)

To join the trend or de-lurking.....

I have been here for about a year or so now. Not too many posts made but a lot of reading done.

I currently work full time in the games industry working for a big name publisher doing both PC and console games. Mostly in the field of Sports.

My side project actually isn't a game but the threads here about being an indie actually apply alot to non-game developers too. But I do also have plans of doing games in the future.

Thanks for the great forum.

-j

I am Erkin Tunca. I am 26 and live in Ankara - Turkey. I started programming when I was about 13 and have always been interested in game development, but I had never thought of getting into a professional kind of game development until I visited this site. I had been dreaming of becoming a professinal footballer, but I somehow found myself in the physics department of METU university. I have been working professinally for about 3 years on physical simulation development. I sometimes develop small games just to play with friends. Nowadays I look more seriously on this topic and I plan to gradually learn more on game development and game bussiness to be an indie game developer.

ergas

Lurker, hiding in the dark
Registers just for a lark
Hacking code at daytime job
Midnight gamedev (what a slob!)
Done it once, and then burned out
Write more games? No! But a doubt
Woke him up, and code he will
Artwork, graphics, what a thrill!
Write design, check middleware
My! The cost just isn't fair!
One man shop, but never fear
First release ain't till next year!

And there you have it. ;p

I'm John Colgrove. I'm 16 years old. I was influenced mostly by Spiderweb Software actually, but it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I found dexterity, and thats when I really wanted to make a career out of indie development. So I started a company with my cousin and we're developing shareware RPG and strategy games. I've ran into a big pothole so development has been rather slow. I feel that a lot of the indie games out there are too original, and I believe my company can change that. In the future, I'm planning on making a career out of game development.

All right then... I'm from New Zealand but currently living in Tokyo. My background is in stop-motion animation, I have a fine arts degree in film, specialising in stop-motion, and have been a commercial stop-motion animator for a while. Being that there isn't really much of a market for commercial stop-motion animation in New Zealand, I decided to see if I could apply these techniques to making games instead. I have one commercial game published, and I am currently working on my first self-published game, which, with any luck, should eventually generate some financial returns at long last.

Apart from that, I'm really into playing in original rock bands - a pasttime that tends to generate far more expenses than paycheques.

My name's Dave Hodgson, I live in the UK an I'm in the process of making a go of Shareware game development on the side while busily trying to hunt down a job (I'm a 3d level artist by trade). I always had a side interest in programming and taught myself C/C++ when I was around 16. It was only in the last few months that I started thinking to myself that I know enough to write some small scale games, and that developed into the idea that maybe I could flog a few :)

I just established New Delta Games and my first game is out (Sliders). Currently working on number 2 but am meeting with major headaches as this will be my first 3D game (and me and 3D have never seen eye to eye).

Hello everyone! I recently found this forum. My name is Mike Wiering, I live in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. My company is Wiering Software (http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/) (founded in 2001).

I started programming when I was in high school, first in GWBasic, then assembly language (which I learned mainly from experimenting with Debug) and finally I bought Turbo Pascal, which is the language I’ve always enjoyed most (now I primarily use Delphi).

One of the reasons for me to start writing games (about 10 years ago) was the lack of quality I saw in other PC games, compared to console games. So I wrote a Mario clone with smooth parallax scrolling. Next, I wrote my first shareware game: SUPER WORMS, a 3D racing game, coded entirely in assembly (only 80 Kb – I love tiny programs!). Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to spread the shareware version around, so hardly anyone registered.

Later I changed my Mario clone into SUPER ANGELO and also used the engine to write CHARLIE THE DUCK, which became my first successful shareware game. I gave copies to shareware sellers at a local computer fair and soon registrations started coming in from people all over the country. This went for years while I was studying (I studied computer science), so I didn’t have to find work like most other students did.

As a final project at the university, I wrote a game library for the language Clean (a functional language, developed at the University of Nijmegen). After that, I was offered a job for a year, in which I could finish this library, make some example games and create promotional CD-ROMS for future students. Although this was a really nice job, I hated having to be at work all day and never having time to finish my own projects. At a certain point, I even decided to make CHARLIE THE DUCK free, because handling registrations (sending disks) was costing me too much of my valuable spare time!

Finally, I decided to start as an indie. Soon I finished CHARLIE II for DOS and later ported the game to Windows. I love all aspects of creating games (programming, drawing graphics, level design and composing music), as long as I can work in my own way and take all the time I need.

I also love playing music; I play the cello in several orchestras. That way I can meet lots of people and sometimes even go on concert tours to other countries (so far, I’ve played in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and even Japan)!

Hello everyone.
My name is George Markou, i live in Athens (Greece) and i'm trying to start an indy gamedev company (and improve my English, but this is another story...:) ).

See you all around...

Hello, my name is Andrew Wooldridge and I run the blog CogWorks (http://cogworks.manilasites.com). I currently work at AOL in the personalization group, though I am a former employee of Netscape where I helped create the im/chat client built into Netscape. I also created some fun skins for that browser. I've been on the web since '94 and my first machine was a Ti99/4a. I used to poke around with BASIC way back then, hoping to create the next great adventure game. I've always carried that desire with me through Atari, PC, console, etc. game playing, and I think that finally I'm going to be able to do something like that on my own. I love indie gaming and I hope to start a foundation of sorts to help children learn to program - since anything child would create I think I'd love to use too !

Hello Everyone!

My name is Graeme Sweet and I'm from the east coast of Canada. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Steve on putting together such a great forum. I've been reading for a while and have learned a lot.

I have a small company right now called SweetScape (http://www.sweetscape.com/) which is mainly focused on developing applications, but I'd like to write a game in the coming year. I've been meaning to post for a while now, but I've been working hard on getting our latest product, 010 Editor (http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/) completed. (/insert shameless plug) By the way, 010 Editor is a hex editor that can parse a binary file into a data structure and is a great tool for development (/end shameless plug).

I did a computer science degree in Hamilton, Ontario, and finished my masters a few years ago in Fredericton. Currently I work for a high-end visualization company which I enjoy quite a bit (we work for big oil companies, governments, navys, etc).

After doing a lot of promotion and updates for 010 Editor, I'm going to start writing a game that I've got planned out now. I've registered the domain name 'smartmelon.com' and I plan to use that to publish the game.

Besides programming, I enjoy playing the guitar a lot and occasionally play at my church. I also have a great wife who I enjoy spending time with most of all.

Cheers!
Graeme

Hi! I'm... Felix!

I'm the prez of Cheeky Monkey Software, located in the nation's capital! Of Canada.

I have a Bachelors of Computer Science from the University of Ottawa. I'v been making video games for as long as I can remember. I've a video game nut. I used to work at SirTech (now defunct), working on Wizardry 8.

Cheeky Monkey Software released it's first game in 2001. We just released our latest game a few months ago, and it looks like we may have a winnah on our hands.

In my spare time (Hahahaha! what spare time?) I train. I'm an exercise nut. I enjoy competitive... er, individual combat sports. If you're ever in town and wish to spar, let me know.


Felix

I have been lurking these message boards for almost a year, and they have definitely proven to be beneficial.

I'm a 21 year-old senior in college double majoring in computer science and information technology. I spend a lot of my free time programming games and 3D modeling. I am currently working on a shareware project that I started in December '02 that I hope to have available by the end of the year. My web site is currently down, but it will be up and running in a couple weeks, so I can show off some screenshots.

Suppose I should introduce myself =)

I'm Phil "Ty" Newton, a 20 year old (21 in 2 weeks!) Software Engineering student from the East Midlands in England. Currently taking a year out of university to get my life on the path I wish to take. I recently joined the ASP to try and kick start things, and I'm learning a lot on a daily basis.

Working on my first shareware game, which will be ready by November 1st this year. It's a turn based, space strategy game. At the moment I'm trying to get the balance of complexity right, but I think I've got it right. I'll find out once the demo is released.

I will have a website up by November 1st too, once I've found a decent name for my company. Would have been "Smash Software", but that's taken so I'm having to think of something else. "Shining Software" is the current favourite, though anything can change.

(On a side note, I'm trying to me more positive about what I want these days - ie writing "I will" instead of "I hope to"...amazing what a difference it can make!)

Hi, I'm Mattias Brynervall, and I guess it's time to introduce myself after months of lurking around this great forum!

I'm 25 years old, living in Sweden, and I've been programming games for over 10 years now. Some of these games are released as freeware together with a group of friends (Brainchild Design (http://www.brainchilddesign.com)). I also worked a year as a programmer at UDS (http://www.uds.se). Right now I'm studying for an MD in computer science and engineering, with only one year to go.

I've known for years that I want to make games for a living, but it wasn't that long ago I decided to go indie. Driven by my own dreams, and inspired by great articles and forums like Steve's, I went ahead and started my own company (http://www.bitbliss.com) this summer. The first game will hopefully be ready within a couple of months! It's a puzzle game (big surprise!) with a somewhat unique gameplay, mostly to keep things simple at the start. I'll post more info on the game soon.. :)

Oh well, that'll have to do for now.. Cheers!

Okee-dokee, the lurking has to stop sometime!

I'm John Fletcher, a 34 year old software developer. Currently banging out fairly horrific VB and C# solutions and being generally horrified at the thought of having to do this for another 25 years, I've decided to try Plan B - set-up my own software development company writing innovative software.

I've started off small, just writing some Java utilities for web-developers, but am intending to ramp up my product list with some games and other products.

This is just done in my spare time at the moment, and I'm finding it kinda difficult to juggle two lives. Especially when I much prefer my out-of-hours development so much more!

All time heroes for me are..here comes a history lesson for the script kiddies...Jeff Minter (met him once at Olympia - great bloke) and Andrew Braybrook (whatever happened to him?).

If I can make a game half as addictive as these guys could all those years ago, I'll be happy.

I've decided to go with BlitzPlus to speed up my game development idea (that's a whole different topic) and am just 'playing' with Blitz at the mo. Very impressed with it, so far.

Ok, I'll introduce myself as I have just signed up.

My name is Julien and I'm 15 years old. I've been programming for a year now, and my best achievement so far is a Tetris clone written in C++ and using DirectX, which can be found here (http://www.geocities.com/julien_chacha).

My goal is to create video games for a living, whether as a professional or as an indie. I will be taking a degree in Computer Science after I finish high school to help me on my way.

I spend a lot of my free time programming games and reading programming books. In the near future I hope to create my own 3D engine, and write a full 3D game with it which I could use to break into the games industry. Or perhaps I will even start my own company, who knows.

My name is Bill Goetz and I am the Vice President of Stellar Odyssey Interactive.

Stellar Odyssey Interactive is a new game development and publishing firm based in Madison, Wisconsin. Our mission is to produce games that deliver a fun and interactive gaming experience, while building an online community.

Right now my partner and I are assembling some teams to develop our own games. We really want to strive to bring some fun and innovative games to the table.

We intend to sell games created by other independent developers from our site as well. The best part about my job is talking with other developers and playing their games!

We hope to have our site complete with games and project listings by the end of the month. It's taken us about 7 months to get to this point, but it has been the best experience ever.

I'm Edward, like it says to left here, and I'm trying to get my own shareware game company going, as is the thing to do 'round here. I did the Computer Science thing back in College, got a programming job after graduation, realized in one month how much I hated programming, then was lucky enough to find a job as a 3d-animator, which I had been messing around with on the side.

Did the animation thing for about four years and then did graphics/animation for a few budget games - only one of which I feel ok about mentioning - Miniverse Minigolf (aka Minigolf Master). After quitting my full-time job, I've been freelancing around as a graphic designer/animator for the past few years. Earlier this year I discovered the shareware game scene and realized programming is quite ok when the end result is a game that you actually want your name on. So I started Tate's Colony and worked 5 months on Crystal Wizard... it took that long because:
1) It's my first game I've programmed...learned lots.
2) I had to do everything in it...code, graphics, music... sure would like to alter this arrangement.
3) Had to take other jobs to pay bills.

So that's where I am. Now comes the learning of marketing...and all of the other scary things I know nothing of...

I'll bite. My name is Gabriel (Gabe) Krupa and I dropped out of the coroporate software world two years ago after working for one too many messed up start-up over the last decade. I'm now back in school getting a degree in something nice and completely different from software (Liberal Arts? Art History? Female Anatomy? Beer? Time will tell).

I'd toyed with the idea of a game for years, and after reading Steve's articles it seemed like it might just be possible. After all, someone had to be doing it for a living, right?

I'm currently working on my first game, which is a knock-off of a Game House game, only because one of the articles I read (elsewhere) entitled: "So, you want to write a game?" (or something similar) basically said: Write a clone of Tetris, then Pac-man, then Mario Brothers, and THEN the game everyone seems to want to write first (3D MMORPG, blah blah). I don't really like Tetris myself, so I chose another, roughly equal game. I also have no interest in a fully 3D game at this point.

redglyph.com will be a full-fledged company (with a decent web page, too) some point in the future, right after all those other little things, like graphics, sound and polished game play. I sometimes work with others on my projects, but mostly they're research oriented and for my own edification.

Student loans are wonderful things. One day, I hope to have enough residual income to pay them off. Otherwise, I'll be the guy at Denny's washing your dishes. Hey, it's better than another start-up.

Oh, and only the guy(s) at Wiering Studio can claim to use a funkier programming language than me.

Well, I've popped in a few threads but I ain't properly introduced myself so I suppose I should stick a message on here.

Anyhow, I'm a lead designer at a British softco called Zed Two based in Manchester, however in my spare time I like designing and programming my own games. So far the only things I've really completed are a remake of Cybernoid 2 which I programmed in Blitz BASIC (and did a few graphics for it, too) and the graphics for the Head Over Heels remake.

The main problem is just concentrating on one thing for long enough and writing it in a good expandable way, although now I've swapped over to Allegro & C it's helped no end with doing things properly.

I'm currently working on a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up (which is built on top of a generic shoot 'em up construction package kinda' thing I'm writing) called Kitty Hawk. I'm trying to put as much power in the hands of the designer as possible via dedicated scripting languages which are tailored to each genre of game.

If you don't like to read, just scroll straight to the links and check those out to see the fruits of my labor.

I've been exposed to programming since I was about 10, but until I got a TI-85 I couldn't do much more than print colored text in certain positions on the screen and pause execution in QBasic. Throughout all science and math classes over the next few years, I taught myself how to do a lot of text or character (i.e. single text character) games, including adventure, fighting, rpgs, and action games (I made a text Tetris, text Breakout, and a game I called Ant, where you avoid other characters on the screen and try to get as much food as you can without dying).... I had several fans who got calculators just so they could play my games, and I got my first wedding proposal in 8th grade from a hottie who was grateful I made a simple tic-tac-toe game for us to play during a particularly boring class (she was convinced I was going to become a millionare someday and she wanted to marry me so she could divorce me a month later and take half my money... her words, I swear... how early do women learn these things?!?!) ...but I hadn't discovered the TI Graph Link yet, and so I lost everything :(. That Ant game was damn fun too.

I took a QBasic class in high school and learned some more formal programming techniques, and started experimenting with Flash 4 (and later, 5) and majored in Computer Science for a couple years in college before their piss poor compilers frustrated me enough that I thought I didn't want to program anymore, so I lost interest and took a break from life.

A year later some moron in a Newgrounds clan called the Clock Crew was asking me for help with some platformer code since I periodically answered Flash questions on a couple forums for a contest he was in, and I pretty much started writing it for him. Eventually I said, "Dude, he hasn't done an ounce of work on this thing, I'll work on it myself and enter the contest." and happened to enlist the help of an artist friend to do some art for the game. We got a basic platformer done in three weeks and submitted it. And won :). We got a whopping $50, which we split (whoo hoo!) and we decided to keep working on it since it wasn't too polished. Well, 9 months later, after a four month hiatus, we decided to put an end to a project which was getting too big for us to handle, and released Clock Legends (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=116067) to Newgrounds. It got Daily Feature and was on the Front Page for about a month. It's an excellent (but hard) Flash game, give it a go.

Squarez (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=91933) -
A quick game I made in about twelve hours, based on the rules of the classic (but relatively unknown) puzzle game. This included design, implementation, and graphics.

Fight Club Demo (http://www.omnipen.net/fun/ccfightcurrent.html) -
A simple fight engine I eventually abandoned due to lack of motivation (and poor design and excessive feature creep and etc.)

I've got some other games I've started but are left incomplete due to bugs I haven't figured out yet. And I want to move on to something I can actually sell, so I'm thinking about finding a good C++ graphics/sound/network wrapper and start learning that. I'm tired of working shit jobs and would like to get paid doing something I already enjoy doing, and I've seen enough of the corporate world to know I don't belong there.

Most of my focus is going into the design of an online political rpg right now. I merely have basic PHP/MySQL skills, but my brother and a couple friends have extensive knowledge in it and are eager to work on the project. I know enough to know what can and can't be done, and that'll help tremendously. I'm just trying to keep the project from becoming too huge like a few of my early ambitious projects (remember the "I'm going to create the next biggest best RPG?" phase that a lot of people go through? Yeah, I went through that too.) After that, I'll start making some simple puzzlers, strategy, and platformers, since those are my favorite genres anyway. I have a huge interest in Physics and AI, so that will hopefully be one of the things that make my games unique, since a lot of 2D games don't have very extensive physics. I just need to get better at the subjects myself first :D.

Looks like I haven't properly introduced myself around here yet either. I am currently a computer programming, and e-commerce professor. I have some experience programming commercial, as well as millitary, and independent games. I have also been working on a number of efforts to build support for game developers in the midwest (US), particularily in and around Minneapolis. I'm most interested in designing and developing new game creation games. That is to say I'm interested in games that allow their players to create parts of the game as they go. 'Parts' is intentionally vague here, because everything that goes into a game could potentially be designed, controlled, or in some way influenced by the player. I think I'll leave my introduction at that for now. I look forward to getting to know many of you through these great forms. Cheers.

We'll I've been on these forums for a while now but I was waiting until I graduated school and left my job before I did this.

So anyways, my Names Andrew McTeer and I'm running Bitporters.net (http://www.bitporters.net), I started off in the summer writing .Net portal framework components, but I plan on releasing my first retail Indie game (Zombie House) on my birthday (April 10th 2004).

The only game i've written so far (well completed anyways) is Direct Quest (http://www.bitporters.net/games/directquest_selfinstaller.exe), this was for my final school project and it was mainly a test for myself to see if I really liked making games.

needless to say I had a blast doing it, and now I want to see if I can make a living out of it:D

Hello everyone!
My name is Nuno Correia, I'm 26 years old and I'm from sunny southwest Europe.
I made my first games (in BASIC) with my awesome Spectrum 48K about 14 years ago, they were all a complete rubbish I must say...
Although I've always loved playing games and programming as well, I didn't pursue a career in the gaming industry, I work in finance/accounting. :D
These days I've what I call a "professional hobby", which is making retro style games in my spare time. Although it's only a hobby I do try to make my games look as professional as possible. I hope to have my first game ready for distribution in about a month, it's another Arkanoid clone, but it's really cool (well, that's only my opinion... :rolleyes: )

My name is Gianfranco Berardi, and since I get this a lot, the GB in GBGames stands for my name.
I am 22 years old and from a suburb of Chicago, IL called Melrose Park.

I have been into game development since I first taught myself to program in Applesoft BASIC. I got my first PC in 1996/1997, running Windows 95. I got a copy of QBasic and made my first full quality (relative to my older work) game, a Pac-man clone, in 1998.

I then tried to make an RPG, and considering I was self taught and didn't know about the resources available on the WWW, the walking demo I finished was quite cool. I even reinvented scripting systems on my own.

Fast forward: Now I am currently finishing my fifth year as a computer science major at university. I am a big Gnu/Linux fan, and my general goal is to develop games that port to different platforms well.

I recently set a goal for myself to formally become an Indie (almost sounds like a cult thing!) and came across Dexterity while doing research on the subject. I quickly read the articles that are here and read a few of the forums. Then I went and got the book, "Getting Things Done".

I am 44 years old. I have been a gamer most of my adult life and enjoy complexity a lot. I am a self taught programmer and even though I know multiple languages, I am a proponent of using what works.

I am currently in the middle of a quick little project to get my feet wet and am working on the design documents for two other games. One is the first episode of a trilogy. The other will be a FPS.

So far, this forum feels like home and I want to say hey to all you Indies! :)

Hello, All.

My name is Dan Royer, and I'm currently living in Vancouver, Canada. In the last four years I have lived in or visited israel, south australia, switzerland, amsterdam, bangkok, and new zealand. Before these I was living in my home town of Ottawa, Canada.
I am fluent in english and french, and I plan to learn at least two more languages.
I have been programming for...11 years? 12 years? and the last 4 years have been in a professional environment. I have worked on medical training simulators, crazy japanese windows UI replacements, and (most recently) video games for PC, PS2, and XBox.
I have recently made available on the web my first game, Freakout, through my webpage @ http://aggrav8d.cfxweb.net/ It is free at this time. I wrote it because, after years of mucking about, I needed to know just how hard it would be to just do it. As it turns out, it was pretty easy going. Long story short it led me to new contacts who told me about this site.

My goals, at the time that I write this, are:
- to create a company for myself (or at least fill out a DBA form).
- to register a domain for that company, put together a professional page, and maybe begin a blog as I work to create professional titles.
- to research local organizations that I should probably be a member of (illuminati, etc... ;)).
- to create my next title.
- to implement a system for online payment.
- to market everywhere I can.
- to keep refactoring the weaker points of the product, the site, and (most importantly) myself.

One thing that I think might set me apart a little is that I am begining to attempt living according to the polyphasic sleep system, in the hopes that it will give me more time per day. That in turn will mean that I will be able to proportionally increase both the time I work and time I play, resulting in a competitive advantage.

Hi

Seeing that I just spent the last hour reading practically all the rollcall entries its only fitting I add in some info about myself..

My name is Marcus Lynn, 33, married,kid (+1 brewing)

I've been at it ,games that is, for what seems an eternity, started wayback in early 80s with a G7000 (a what!!) , wrote apps/games etc. on Speccy,Vic20,64,C128 , spent a good 5 years in demo crews on ST/Amiga (New Dimension/Dynamic Duo) winning a fair amount of compos in the process..

My first 5 years of employment was in writing and eventually project management on pension systems, gives a good software engineering grounding but exceptionally boring..

Since then (1995) I've been a professional games developer across a variety of roles (programmer,team lead,technical lead,technical producer,producer,technical director) on a number of major products on various platforms (Sub Culture,Deep Fighter,Airblade,Assimilation,Red Ace Squadron, Shaun Murray Wakeboarding GBA,Sinbad PC and now The Movies) for various companies (Criterion,Small Rockets,Lionhead..)

Also co-designed first version of Rendeware (3.0)

I've recently just setup ItsAllAGame (www.itsallagame.com) , on it is 2DG, a free to use 2D games engine , Panic my little puzzle game I wrote to test 2DG and get a general 'feel' for doing the e-commerce thing for myself and some info about 3DG , the 3DG component to complement 2DG and Apartments info, my current 3D game which uses 3DG.

I like both the indie and the larger team side of games development, having been leading teams of 20-30 people for over 7 years I see great opportunities on both sides, its just unfortunate that mainstream games development is becoming alot like the 'cog-in-the-machine' approach of most other software businesses.

But, like almost everyone here, I just love the whole process of game design/writing and ultimate realization.. even though without it I'd probrably be better off.. :p

More info at

http://www.itsallagame.com
http://website.lineone.net/~marcusl/

Hi, my name is Colin Vella, 29, from Malta - Europe. I've been into hobbyist game programming ever since I was 13 years when I started out learning standard BASIC and AMOS Basic on my first computer, a Commodore Amiga. I eventually moved on to a PC environment where I learned Pascal and 8086 assembly. In the meantime I also learnt Java and C++, amongst othe rlanguages.

Like most hobbyists my efforts were mostly of an experimental nature and I have only released one public domain game (Revolution) with a friend on Amiga Format, a UK magazine. Another notable effort was Androboy, a game similar to the original Sonic The Hedgehog featuring parallax scrolling and a lot of the "physics" i.e. loops and curved surfaces. Sadly, I never completed it due to other personal commitments.

I went through an extended stint without pursuing this interest and only last year I teamed up again with my old friend and with two other friends to work on a 3D shoot-them-up (Perihelion (http://colinvella.no-ip.com/perihelion/005.jpg)).

The game has been in production for over a year and we hope to finish and market it independently in about 6 months time.

Hi. My name is Paul Johnson and I'm an alcoholic.

I've been in commercial game development practically since the beginning, having occupied lead programming and managerial roles for the last several. After two years contract games programming in the PDA sector I've decided to chance my arm at my first of hopefully many Indie games.

First one out is called Nutty Putting (http://www.nuttyputting.com) but there's nothing on the site for a few more days yet.

Don't ask me what I've worked on recently in the mainstream arena, as because I was in the mainstream arena everything I ever touched seemed to be canned after six months. Maybe I'm just crap!

Last publisher-released thing I worked on was Carmageddon, though sadly not as lead.

Welcome :)
Ah, the first Carmageddon was one of my favourite games ever!!

Mine too. I think that game was probably one of very few that the developers actually played on for fun after it was released.

I wish I could claim some merit for its innovation but I'd only just started at Stainless then, and my role on that project was one of "grunt", whilst starting as lead on something else in the background. :(

Ditto : played Carmaggedon 1 on my good old mac in software for the longest time, in 320 res, because it couldn't run in 640 :)
Then, I got a MacMagic Voodoo 1 (an 8 megs V1 !!!), and replayed the game about 5 more times with hw acceleration in full 640 resolution...
Among the best physics ever...
Carmaggedon 2 (on the same old mac, but with a V3) was never as fun.
and TDR 2000 sucked big time, as the spectacular physics weren't there anymore...
Paul, you've been on the GG forums also, right, and you mentioned carmaggedon there too, or is another of your team mates on that project ?

lol - I had more involvement in the sequel than the first :S I actually thought it was better because we concentrated more on the multiplayer aspect, but wasted waaaaaay too much polishing time on the animated pedestrians - publisher required USP (at the time).

The third one wasn't done by us and I glad you agree it sucked. SCi placed it with another company as by that time we weren't being fooled anymore over their embarrassing "royalty" arrangements. Stainless Software Ltd made operating expenses for 2 years plus about 20 grand in profit from those two titles, so I've been reliably told.

Nope, that's me over at GG also, though I don't go there much anymore as if you don't use Torque there's little useful content. I keep mentioning Carmageddon as emphasis that that was many many years ago and still the last thing I got released through a publisher. Nowadays commercial "game development" seems to be an excerise in closing developers for the fun of it.

Do I seem bitter at all ? lol Actually, I'm loving every minute of my new life but of course my savings haven't ran out yet....

Note: Dunno why I keep missing the sticky topics. Must be the ADHD. :) I've deleted my original post and reposted it here as a reply..

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to post a brief introduction to myself here.

My name is Jeff Thompson and I'm a startup-aholic. I have spent the last eight years working for two different startups. The first was a computer security company called Argus Systems Group where I went from lowly engineer modifying TCP/IP network stacks to Software Evangelist and Visionary where invented an entirely new operating system security technology that targetted practical use in the commercial sector as the new domain security models being promoted by MoD research and some within the DoD.

Score 1 for my professional career.

The other part was I watched a company with a compelling technology and amazing support fail to turn out a product and fail to communicate with its customers to learn what they wanted. I watched over $20 million in funding vanish like sand between your fingers. Then the really nasty stuff started. In the end bankrupcy insued, I was out five thousand dollars, everyone lost their jobs and much more money, my stock became toilet paper and I learned a thing or two about what happens to people when things get tough.

Score -1 for not leaving earlier when I readily saw the signs of decay.

Thankfully I left somewhat earlier than others (and received the ire of many for abandoning ship), and started a new company with Argus' former in house consul. We decided to target a niche market where we could quickly build a reputation and brand recognition. We chose the Mac OS X market and we have done a good job with this. The only problem we are facing is building up our revenue stream fast enough to meet our burn rate. Since we are still an operating company, I'll just leave it at that (if we pull out I'll post, and if we don't I'll post mortem).

I've been interested in games development, or more truthfully developing and being involved in a community for a long long time. I've always been a big fan of muds, was on the old multi-line BBS chat dialups, and loved multi-player bbs games. When I was in 8th grade I even wrote my own D&D style bbs/mud game on my Apple //e. It ran on four floppy drives and a modem. A few years ago I ran a serial connection between my Apple and a linux box and put it on the internet for fun. All very nastalgic. Interestingly, I looked through old logs and found out that one of the people on my residence hall floor in college had actually played on my BBS game so many years before.

So, what I am really aiming to do is to start up a games company where I can build a strong interactive community with my customers and enjoy myself. I'd like to start with single player casual games (for all the obvious reasons), but eventually move into multiplayer gaming. Tournament style casual gaming is quite a bit of fun as well. I suspect that in the end I'll wind up spinning off something new (or selling my company) and making a go at the MMO market since for me that goes right back to my roots and my love. But first I need a bankroll

Oh, and I love speculating in the stock market and playing poker. I've found that business, the market, poker, and life itself are all pretty similar things.

I guess thats enough rambling (I love to tell stories),

Cheers!

Jeff

Jeff Thompson
personal: www.everythingmacosx.com
work: www.codetek.com

Jeez, so many ex-pros here! I am not worthy!

Hi, my name is Martin Rennix and I live in Perth, Australia, although I am originally from Northern Ireland. I am a hobbyist programmer, although I did a Computer Science degree way back in the dawn of time (late 80's). I have been on and off messing about with "projects" for the past 10 years but it is only recently that I am trying to make more of an effort. Alas, with a wife and 2 kids my time is not my own anymore! Actually, that's made me ditch C++ as I cannot waste anymore evenings tying my brain in knots with its cruftiness. I use Java now and I am finding my brain hurts a lot less. This is an exciting time for Java with the availability of good gaming libraries at last becoming a reality.

Anyway, this site is a great resource and I hope to learn a lot from all you ex-pros!

Martin

I guess I should introduce myself - even though this isn't my first post! :)

My name's Gary. I'm a programmer from Phoenix, AZ. (I don't know why I'm in the kitchen, I can't stand the heat.) Ahem, anyway... A little about myself, I'm 21 and just got married back on April 17th. It's been the best month of my life, I never realized how wonderful it could be (I've been blessed with wonderful parents who have stayed together their entire lives). My wife stands beside me 100% in everything I do... Including game programming! Fortunately for me she enjoys playing video games so she can help me test. :)

Here's a picture of us at the wedding: http://www.garythellama.com/images/wedding/019.html

Yes, yes, I know, wtf is she doing with me? ;)

Right now I work full-time, unfortunately it's not doing programming but at least it's computer related. (I would explain what I do but I don't even know myself, haha. It's mostly admin type stuff.) Oh yeah, and I work for a major Online school. So I get my schooling for free. I'm currently working on my BSIT.

I've never published a game before only made a few unreleased demos and such (Pong, Pac-man, etc.) Unfortunately, that was a few years ago and I don't have the code or executables anymore. After I made them I got fed up with the industry as a whole - lost a great job thanks to some bastard employers - and basically took a break from all things computer related. Well, that didn't last long and I was back at in within 2 months. :)

So now I'm looking to create my own games and sell them... I have one project in the works right now along with two more ideas for my next project. Development is slow right now since I just got married and we're still settling into the routine of married life. :) I would like to have some screenshots ready to show off in the next couple of months but that all depends on how much work I get done. I'm not a very good pixel artist so we'll see how that turns out.

Okay, that's enough rambling for now. I think this is a great community. It's probably the first game development board I've been on where everyone seems pretty nice. I don't see a lot of flame wars and discouraging talk. Very cool!

Well, I hope to be an integral part of the community. I'm always willing to chat or check out your latest demo/game so don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for the great forum and opportunity, Dexterity!

My name is Brian Kramer...

Currently a Indie/ Student with a lot to learn and a lot of ambitians.. I have a few projects on the go, this year I started Subsoap (http://subsoap.com) and soon will be publishing a few games ( at some point I wish to publish a game a week, and every other one free )

I also publish Graphic Novels localy as a minor source of income. I am also a member of my local FBLA chapter. (maybe you have heard of us? :) )

My current project is a game called "Blue Medic" but... I really don't want to talk about it, because I find that it's best to get an entire game 'done' and then it is ok to talk about the details (as in polishing up the game for the market)

I'm also a member of sorts at the CGDC (hint: C is not Computer), or at least I am, and have the other guys support for what I am doing :p

Also I have an certain agenda for my games, of that I think you will see soon. Of the people I already talk to already know :D

If anyone wants to talk my aim is pkeod, and my private forum is http://subsoap.com/bbs

You also may be surprised that I am only 15 :) (but certainly not the youngest indie)

Hi all,

My name is Ralph Brorsen, and I am an Indie Game Developer (depending on your definition of that ;).

Back in the day I was a part of the demoscene, contributing code (2D effects, mostly) to around 8-10 releases (some Amiga demos, some 40kb intros). Although interest in the the scene faded, my passion for realtime 2D did not.

I've always been learning and growing, and this Christmas I finally realised that I could set goals for myself and actually reach them. So now I'm an Indie Game Developer.

I finished my first game in March (a Tetris clone), and the second one is well underway (a Breakout clone). Both of these are intended as learning experiences, and will be released as freeware (well, the Breakout clone at least). After that I'll start thinking about earnings. While writing game #2, I'm trying to learn how to register and run a business, which is a complex thing here (Denmark) when I want to sell globally (taxes, VATs, EU vs. non-EU countries.. blablabla). Meanwhile I am also trying to up my focus, my creativity, inspiration, passion, and general quality of life. Already I've learned so much since applying myself to my goals.

The technical side of things (including business) is definitely my strong point. Skills in art and game ideas and concepts escape me, at the moment. I'll be working on that, though.

As for the more physical side of things, I am based in Odense, Denmark, 23 years old. I'm currently cashiering in a discount grocery store, waiting to attend college (Computer Science or Electrical Engineering) this fall. It's my plan to build the business for the 5 years it'll take to earn my degree, and live happily ever after that (with the option of quitting school if I'm not learning enough, or I feel it's seriously holding the business back).

I've been lurking for a while. Here's to giving a bit back!

Cheers,

S'pose I should make myself known, although it's extremely early days for me as I'm only just delving into the indie development malarky.

I'm Sausage, aka Roy Fielding. Currently a Maya artist working for a UK games developer. I'm hoping to take some time out and leave my job in the next couple of months, allowing me time and freedom to dive into my first indie game (nothing too ambitious at first).

I'm not really a programmer, hence my decision to ease things by going for Blitz, but have experience with c64 coding (6510) back in the old days. My main discipline is computer art (3d and 2d) and FMV experience.

You could say I am not really a total virgin to indie development, as I did do a couple or so games of my own, as a bedroom coder, on the C64 and made some money at it Not a lot, but some. Very simple games indeed. One was called Hektic II. I did do a stint of modelling\texturing for Argentum too (Pocket PC game), as a favour to help a friend.

Currently, my only programming (if u can call it that) has been confined to mel scripting for Maya. However, that will change imminently...when I get the chance to "break free" (just like in the Queen song...although, more macho like). Currently, my work contract dictates that I don't do any projects of my own (so to speak).

Some titles worked on (professionally) are:

Star trek - Invasion - Playstation
Silver - PC, Dreamcast
Starlancer - PC
Jurassic Park II - SNES
Colony Wars - Red Sun - Playstation
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Gamecube, Xbox, PS2) - more of a technical role.

Much of my time as an artist (for the last 11 years or so) has been spent working on prototypes and pitches that never matured. I'm sure that's not uncommon.

Er... that's 'bout it.

It would be nice to team up with a "proper" programmer at some point to form an ickle team.

Roy (aka Sausage, aka Toy)

P.S. My daftest ever job: Drilling the dimples on the top of snooker\pool chalk cubes. Can anyone beat that?

P.S. My daftest ever job: Drilling the dimples on the top of snooker\pool chalk cubes. Can anyone beat that?

I can offer up two contenders to that throne...

I once worked in a factory that made frozen airline meals, and there was a conveyor belt with a row of people, each placing a solitary item into the tray. It was my job to place a single cocktail sausage into the tray.

Another time I worked in a factory producing incontinence pads for the elderly. While the work itself wasn't that daft, there was a quality assurance room. Not so bad, except that it had no windows and the glass pane on the door had blinds! I never dared ask.

I'm Rod Hyde, a nascent Indie games developer. (nascent is a polite way of saying wannabe)

In my day job I am a UNIX sysadmin. I've been doing that almost exclusively for the last 8 or 9 years despite starting my career as a C programmer, first working on oil terminal automation software, then writing software to connect ATMs to networks such as Visa and Mastercard. ATMs and oil terminals are surprisingly similar, although tanker drivers are scarier than bank managers. Some of the guys in the ATM company had been games programmers (ex Palace and Titus) which made for some interesting conversations.

I started programming at the tender age of 12 back in 1980. My dad bought a TRS-80 just after I'd discovered Galaxian, so that was the first game I cloned. Later, I wrote a number of Hunchback style games for the BBC Model B. My only customers were some kids that I used to babysit for.

Around 6 years ago I got the urge to play an old TRS-80 game called Galactic Firebird (or something similar), but I couldn't find it anywhere so I wrote my own version which I named Corvids. This was programmed using Delphi-2 and something called the Delphi Games Creator which, if I recall correctly, was essentially some handy components for accessing DirectX 3. Corvids looked very retro, even at the time, but I had a laugh writing it and I was pleasantly surprised when people would request a copy when they saw me playing it on my laptop.

Earlier this year I started a rewrite of Corvids using Java and LWJGL after being impressed / inspired by Alien Flux. However, in March, I had a fairly original idea for a game and so Parking Panic was born. My goal, which I'm stating in public for the first time, is to have Parking Panic in a publishable state by the end of August. So far so good.

--- Rod

Bucks eh? Just along the road from me, I'm in south beds. There seems to be a quite a large number of UK indies coming onto the scene recently. Good luck with Parking Panic.

Probably closer than you think. I work in sunny Luton.

--- Rod

Much closer than I thought, I live/work in Dunstable. Small world.

Hi youall!

My name is Andy Jurko.
I've been into the indie development for 2 years.

Before that I'd work on my freeware othello game on and off, but
when one company wanted to license my game engine, I thought maybe I could try making shareware.

Now I've made a bunch of poker software and also what I think is the weirdest manager game.

I'm probably the only developer here who never had a formal
education in computer science ;-)


www.aisoftware.spb.ru

Hi,
My name is Louis Reingold, i've been lurking around this board for a while now, so I figured I should reigster. I've programmed for 3 years, and currently, i'm trying to make a little money with adware. I'm trying to get www.freegamesvault.com on the first page in google for "free games", but I just started it yesterday, so I've got a long way to go. I've seen quite a few sites selling shareware games, but they have almost no traffic. Their alexa ranks are 1 million and up. Do these sites actually make money? It seems that sites like GameTunnel.com don't get very many hits either. But I guess they get enough.

-Louis

Greetings,

I am Zackary T CastleFree. I went to school in fine art and computer science so I know how to draw and code (some say I'm bad at both, but still, you get the idea).

I once worked at Ubi Soft for a year before being recruited by Atari (the company formely known as Infogrames, as Prince would say) where I worked for a year before I cracked and realized how limiting these big companies are. I've started the Dragon Claw Studio about 3 years ago after I left Atari.

We released FaitH, a massively web-based kingdom management/RPG game about 2 years ago and we're now working on our second project.

After 3 years, I've finally decided to come out of my shell a little. About time, I'd say.

Nice to meet all of you guys. :)

Hello everybody!

My name is David York. I have been working full-time for a very large (massive) development house in Redmond for the last 2 years. As a developer, I was helping to develop the scanner and digital camera device driver infrastructure for the next version of said company's operating system.

I recently resigned to become a full-time Indie Games Developer. Game development has always been my passion, and it is about time I got into it professionally. I've been an amateur game developer since age ten, with a hiatus during the time I was working for the Gatesmaster.

I live in Seattle, WA USA. I've met some of the guys who attend the Indie Pizza meet at Round Table (Hi Mark! Hi Dan!). I'm super-psyched to have found this community - thanks for setting it up Steve!

There are a lot of very driven, very talented people here. I'm honored to enter your community.

I am George Bakhtadze.
Our company Avalanche Team (http://www.avagames.net) has started its shareware business a few months ago with AirHockey 3D (http://www.avagames.net/airhockey/index.htm) (ex 3D Hockey).
To be an indie game developer today is not so easy, but I like it. :)
So we'll continue to make high quality games. :)