Rami Ismail's top ten tips on surviving the indiepocalypse
The indiepocalypse has been discussed at length over the last few years. It's the idea that there are so many indie games available on the market that it becomes unsustainable.
Indie consultant Rami Ismail (co-founder of the late Vlambeer) discussed this at length during a talk at this year's Reboot Develop Blue conference in Croatia.
Ismail observed that the number of indie games has drastically increased in recent years, making it also incredibly difficult to get published.
"[The indiepocalypse] is the belief that if this trend continues, with the increased amount of supply, eventually indie games as a market segment will just die," he explained. "I've seen some segments of the industry die – Flash games, Facebook games – but here's the thing: the bad news is that you kind of don't stand a chance of making a hit game if you're an indie. The chances of making an Among Us, a Minecraft or a Hades are fairly small.
"So what can we do? What's the solution? You stand out, you survive and thrive. How do you do that in 2023?"
Ismail observed that there are primarily two ways of running any business : you either minimise your risk or maximise your opportunity. Even if you do both, one will be more prominent than the other.
"If you have an infinite amount of money, please go and maximise your opportunities. You can take risks. But if you're just starting out, your biggest obstacles are probably that you haven't shipped anything, you have no money, and you have no experience. At that point, you should figure out how to minimise your risks."
"The best way to minimise your risk is just to get to the point where you can ship something"
Ismail advised that studios start by making a game that's not expensive. He shared that
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