As a new indie game developer it’s important to have inspiration. When you are just starting out a lot of what you are doing may feel archaic, boring even. Looking out into the world of video games however you start to see things in a new light. You start a new game and see the Unity logo and realize these are the same tools your using! What used to be an annoyance has now become an inspiration.

Seeing is Believing

There is little doubt that as an indie developer we now have access to amazing tools. Early on there was a great disconnect between what hobbyists had to work with compared to game developers. Sitting down at the computer for the first time and looking at a blank Unity screen is daunting. You’ll probably ask yourself is this really what the professionals use? Then you boot up a game like Hollow Knight or Cuphead and realize the potential!

Hollow Knight is often labeled the Unity 2D showcase playing it you know why. Of course there have been plenty of amazing 2D games designed with Unity, Ori and the Blind Forest anyone? Recently I’ve played two games by Thomas Brush (Pinstripe and Neversong) that I discovered as a result of this journey.

These games make me believe and inspire me to keep going, to keep learning and the work on my craft.

Inspiration from Fellow Developers

Knowing that games can be made with “free” tools is great, but what is realistic from a one person team? To find out you need look no further than the great indie game communities. Visit Indie Games on reddit, or Indie Games Developer on Facebook and you’ll discover many amazing games. Two games I’ve discovered recently Crazy Warriors by Laurent Bakowski and Penguin Slide: Meet Ollie by Roman Svistel have become major inspirations to me. While I have my long-term ambitions, my goal now is to release one or two small, solid looking, quality games. What I see from the community awes me and it makes me strive to get better.

A Treasure Trove of New Games

This past holiday brought with it a TON of new games to my collection. Epic Games gave out over 15 games FREE games this holiday. No Gravity Games had a holiday promotion on Switch giving out 18 titles. On top of all that I added a few more games to my Steam library including A Short Hike. I cannot wait to play A Short Hike (designed in Unity of course).

As I continue to learn more and develop my own games; I hope to find inspiration from these games throughout the year.