{"id":181,"date":"2014-05-28T22:48:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T22:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iterativegames.com\/reiterated\/?p=181"},"modified":"2014-05-30T00:43:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T00:43:06","slug":"being-the-best-unsuccessful-indie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iterativegames.com\/reiterated\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Being the Best Unsuccessful Indie"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you want to go only by\u00a0the numbers, stop reading this post. My company, Iterative Games, ran a $5,000 Kickstarter that was barely funded (thank you again backers) and then sold only 3 copies of that Kickstarted title ‘Contract Work’. Mistakes were made.<\/a>\u00a0I had to go back to a day job in the cubes and took a 6 month hiatus to recover from burnout<\/a>. You’d be better off reading about the one guy who\u00a0made a bunch of money<\/a>, right? As it turns out, maybe not – allow\u00a0me a couple paragraphs to explain why:<\/p>\n

I recently discovered this article on\u00a0Survivorship Bias<\/a> (thanks Jay Margalus<\/a>), examining logical errors we make when we focus only<\/em> on successes. The famous example goes like this – during WW2, allied brass wanted to\u00a0know\u00a0where to add armor on\u00a0bombers to improve\u00a0survivability. They examined bombers that survived\u00a0combat and decided to\u00a0add armor where those bombers had been shot. Logical, right? It took brilliant\u00a0statistician Abraham Wald to point out\u00a0their error;\u00a0they were examining survivors, not victims. The areas\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0shot in the surviving\u00a0bombers should be armored. A\u00a0simple yet important\u00a0example\u00a0of the danger of survivorship bias.<\/p>\n

I’ve also been considering\u00a0“The Myth of Lone Genius”, as explained\u00a0Austin Kleon<\/a>\u00a0in his book “Show Your Work”.\u00a0The myth is\u00a0that a few individuals appear with superhuman talents and without any outside influences, create masterpieces released with great fanfare. “The rest of us are left to stand around and gawk in awe at their achievements”. <\/em>The problem? The ‘Lone Genius’\u00a0teaches\u00a0us nothing – you either have it or you don’t. Kleon supports instead the concept of ‘scenius’, a model where great ideas are birthed by a group\u00a0<\/em>of creative individuals who develop\u00a0an ecology of talent.<\/p>\n

Thanks for sticking around. Now you’re familiar with survivorship bias and scenius, here’s why I think it’s important for unsuccessful indies like myself to share our experiences: by contributing information about our failures, we can increase the chances of others in our\u00a0scenius succeeding. With todays tech, it’s\u00a0never been easier\u00a0or\u00a0faster\u00a0to share &\u00a0collaborate. And those of us yet to succeed have the best\u00a0perspective on how to help our peers; the\u00a0fellow student can be\u00a0a better teacher than the\u00a0professor because they relate to our situation.<\/p>\n

Don’t underestimate the power of sharing your experience. Consider the 4 minute mile, a feat once\u00a0considered physically impossible. For 9 years, the record stands\u00a0at 4:01.4. On May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister finally breaks it with a time of 3:59.4…and within 2 months<\/em>\u00a0his record is broken, at 3:58! Within 5 years, two other runners will break\u00a0that<\/em> mark. The task did not become easier, but\u00a0once it was done, it became\u00a0easier to repeat. “Once we can actually see ourselves doing the impossible, our chances of pulling it off increase significantly”<\/em> (Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman). By simply telling the story of overcoming your obstacles, you increase the chance for\u00a0others to do the same, and vice versa.\u00a0If you’re willing to be honest, you don’t have to sell a million copies of your game before you can contribute. You’re not a genius, exactly\u00a0like the rest of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And while we’re being\u00a0honest – openly sharing and receiving is HARD\u00a0to do. It can be scary to tell everyone that you spent over $1,500 in marketing to sell 3 copies. But sharing that information helps everyone else, a\u00a0little ‘Demon’s Souls’ type marker that warns other developers ‘Here, there be dragons’. I know the indie game scene\u00a0can feel like\u00a0a\u00a0zero sum game\u00a0where you ‘lose’ sales to your fellow indies. But when we view\u00a0it as a co-operative ecology, successes increase the pie for everyone. The latin root of Competition (competere)\u00a0<\/i>means to strive together<\/em>. We compete\u00a0to bring the best out in all of us.<\/p>\n

So let’s help ourselves out. Don’t let the numbers discourage you from sharing – we’re\u00a0right there with you, and we’re all striving together to build better games and better lives in our scenius. Let’s all be the best ‘unsuccessful’ indies we can be.<\/p>\n

To wrap it up, here’s a few small things that have been working for me:<\/p>\n