"Breaking Bad" or the harsh realities of the indie development of Dark Forester

I want to say at once that in the first part there will be little about the development itself, and more precisely stories, difficulties, social aspects, problems that an indie developer may face, and also I cannot fail to mention Moscow, poker and sports - without which this story would not be complete. So, before I start with the legend, in order to interest the reader a little, during the development from 2013 to 2015, I gained 22kg and turned from a sports guy into a man who hardly recognized himself in the mirror, I drank a year about a thousand cans of red bull, it all started with one or two, now rarely happens, so I drank less than three. I slept for five or even four hours. Within two years, I got up on weekdays at five in the morning and went to work in another city by train, so that in the evening there was time to work on the game. I foolishly refused an offer of 250,000 euros to develop the game. Probably the result of such a life was severe pneumonia, a trial with a former employer, as well as serious back problems due to a constantly sedentary lifestyle. Ah well, and if this is not enough, then I left the university and quit my job!

Well let's go ...

“You can be more than just a man” - Do you remember the famous phrase from Batman Begins?
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So this phrase is not about me. And now a little about yourself. For the past five years I have been working as a Java software developer in Germany. Throughout my adult life, namely fifteen years old, I was engaged in semi-professional sports, played poker, read and wrote books, sat in Blizzard games, and also studied aimlessly, getting into German debt scholarships, until my girlfriend once told me that is pregnant.

From here and start counting this story.

The main things that are needed to get into indie development. This is a great optimism, an unlimited share of boyish maximalism, self-confidence turning into self-confidence, faith in one’s own business and, of course, will, because we want to do something great in the basement.

2013 has just begun. I was just inspecting “Breaking Bad” - and something after the news about the child clicked in my head, no motivation, speeches, cheerful music was needed, awareness just came, the time came, there should be an apartment ahead, the child should be provided your business, your own empire. I just opened a book about developing games for android and decided that I would become a millionaire. After re-reading it 4 times, I programmed for a couple of months, something in between a snake and tanchiki for Dandy. But something was wrong, the game had poor graphics, and where would it come from? I began to look for options - artists, as it turned out, were worth a fortune. I scoured the expanses of the Internet, searched for some pixels, looked through the works of freelancers, like ...

... now there should be epic music, I clicked on the link leading to the asset store on Unity 3d.

Unity 3d

Unity reinforced my opinion that you can reach heaven alone and make a millionth project. Of course, even there it was not without errors, without thinking twice, I chose UnityScript for programming. It is terrible that nowhere on the Internet there are not described the main reasons why this should not be done. It was possible to understand me, besides Java, I mainly dealt with various JS libraries and frameworks, I even wrote an application for Bachelor in Java and JQueryMobile. At that time, I was unaware that C # syntax is very similar to Java. But this is naturally not the main reason why it would be worth taking C #.

The first and in my opinion the most important! UnityScript code is compiled into C #, and if you have a large project, then you will spend a lot of time waiting. C # compiles in a second.

The second reason is related to the professional point of view. If you ever want to change your hobby work, then you can be sure Ubisoft or Nival are not looking for guys with UnityScript knowledge.

The third reason also leaves the professional environment, so for a small project it may not play a big role, but for a large one it plays an important role! C # as a language and microsoft libraries just simply beat UnityScript like Argentina Jamaica.
What is it worth at least that I had to write for the Dark Forester A * Algorithm in UnityScript without this phrase here, taken from the official Unity page:

// JavaScript doesn’t allow generics to be defined. To utilize
// this functionality you will need to use C #

In general, Unity3d is certainly a brilliant creation. In my opinion, Unity has only one major drawback. At the moment, on Steam, the Dark Forester weighs one and a half gigabytes, but this is only its small, cast part. The project weighs a little more than twenty gigabytes. So try the project made under Unity 4.6 to run under Unity 5.1. You tell, well it is clear, well then try to start the project made under Unity 5.1 under Unity 5.4. In the case of switching from the fourth version to the fifth, your API changes, well, in general, it is always and everywhere and you just need to correct the code in a thousand places. But this is only a small part of the problem, the physics, the shaders are changing, just everything in the world - which we couldn’t even imagine. In my opinion, maybe I demand the impossible, but there is a lack of some kind of soft automatism that could cope with such problems. And it would be nice if Unity was updated, and not recorded as a new version.

"An idea is like a virus"

Have you ever thought that the gaming market is far from exhausted? I have repeatedly heard the opinion that there is nothing to develop - everything is already there. Is it so? I grew up on the third heroes, Warcraft, Dungeon Keeper, Carmageddon, after those times many other cool hits appeared, which I read about, but did not catch, I was stuck for fifteen years in the world of Blizzard. But I knew for sure that no one had been able to push Heroes of Might and Magic 3 from the throne in the last almost twenty years. I knew that despite some attempts, no one there could even come close to Dungeon Keeper 2. I I could mention Carmageddon, but his resurrection did begin recently. There is no point in talking about warcraft and developing a pure strategy, it is impossible to kill Starcraft 2, even in my opinion, with billions - this is the actual funeral of any real-time strategy for another 5 years, until Blizzard starts developing Warcraft 4. I still cannot understand why companies with money can not make normal heroes, maybe you just do not need to invent anything? Chess 64 cells ... 52 cards in poker ... There were more than just heroes and she was brilliant. We need only a new shell and Esport, but we will leave these thoughts to those who own the license for the heroes.

One by one, ideas flew into my head and, like in poker on 12 tables, I sifted out everything that did not fit in a split second. In the end, I settled on a clone of Dungeon Keeper and The Horde, moving the scene of events to the forest - Finally, I will say that at this stage there are not so many left in the Dark Forester from Dungeon Keeper, the game really resembles the good old The Horde - but they know about this game , perhaps only people who once had the prefix Panasonic 3do.

Also note that I played a cruel joke that I have not played in anything other than Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 for the last 15 years, I have lagged behind and have not even imagined that they are making history on Steam and almost not every day there are new ideas for games.

Crusade

I briefly mentioned the qualities that are necessary in my opinion to get into this reckless thing and the main one is faith, it should be even more reckless than the inquisitors of the times of the Crusades.

When I told my acquaintances, friends, and wife about my undertaking, no one naturally took it seriously, for everyone it was a crazy and simply unbearable undertaking. Then I actually swore to myself that for the next two years I would not miss a single day of development. And I kept my word, even when my wife gave birth, after almost 40 hours spent in the hospital, I came home, did not go to bed, but began to program the game further.

The project quickly moved from its place, somewhere in three months I already dashed off a semblance of some kind of game in a beautiful shell. At the beginning of the project, I was still working and studying, or rather I was registered at the university, having written a bachelor’s degree I didn’t have much, but in the end I decided that I no longer have the time for this and simply don’t have enough strength to study for another year. I note that I already had a job for 40 hours a week, a good salary and an indefinite contract, which I will shortly drop into the toilet. The child was born, there were weeks, months, I became less involved in sports, practically ceased, I became very much due to stress, I worked on the game in the evenings and nights. 2014 came up and rushed forward with a new force, two banks of the red bull changed to three banks a day, they refused to give me a promotion at work due to the fact that I hadn’t graduated from the university, in fact I was taken hostage by the situation. The year was tough, when I fell asleep at 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning, I woke up at five in the morning and felt as if I had just gone to bed - I could not believe that 5 hours had passed. In essence, the project had no return, I spent money, spent time, I gave up physically, spent little time with my wife and child, dropped out of school after so many years, yes, and my parents were from those who always talked about it. But somewhere should have been a plus?

I was in the business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the empire business.

Once many years ago, before the USSR broke up, my father arranged an underground casino in our apartment. There were going to quite intelligent people to play for money in preference, fool, chess, siku, backgammon and other games. Why am I at all? Not surprisingly, at 6 years old I already knew how to play 5 Card Draw Poker. No, it's not about that at all. After moving to Germany, my parents completely disappeared from life, it turned into some kind of depressive endless stream of years. Then my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in an advanced stage. The operation went well and unexpectedly it brought him back to life, he began to engage in antiques.
Now, however, I will explain from where I came from some strange corner.

Being engaged in antiques, my father met people from the former USSR who wanted to diversify their business and invest free money in a project. In general, it all came down to the fact that 250,000 euros for development for 50% of the game. I will not go into the details of the "negotiations". Frankly, I would naturally agree now. But then my inadequate maximalism was not ready to share such a part of the project, and I wanted 250.000 euros for 20% of the project, naturally this was all over. I note that mentally, looking back - I was absolutely not ready.

So where is the casino in the USSR, the attentive reader will ask me.

One of those most old friends of his father, having large investments in real estate, also became interested in the project and also wanted to diversify his business. I knew this acquaintance from Moscow and after conducting a couple of negotiations, we stopped at the fact that if he manages to sell some real estate in a short time, he will enter 50 to 50 for about 500,000 dollars. Unfortunately, the real estate point wasn’t sold, real estate problems in Moscow are now known, and maybe he himself lost faith in such a risky business.

Kickstarter, Greenlight, Facebook and Co

Total. 2014 was coming to an end. I got on the scales - 102 kilograms. But, not everything should have been unsuccessful, I put the game in Greenlight on Steam and on December 30th I received a gift - the game was selected in a short time. I think the funny fact of my backwardness in games is that when I started developing the Dark Forester in 2013, I didn’t know much about Steam and I’m not even sure if I had an account at that time.

Naturally, apart from Greenlight, there were completely unsuccessful campaigns in Kickstarter and Indiegogo, as well as a waste of money on advertising on Facebook. Yes, and in the same Kickstarter, I managed to pay a couple hundred dollars to put my game on some unknown and godly forgotten sites.

And now briefly about each platform.

Kickstarter - you need to come prepared here, fans have to wait and be ready when you start the project. If you come and think that there are a lot of people who are thumbing through the pages and waiting for where to throw money, then you are mistaken. After the first unsuccessful day, your project will leave the radar and that’s it, there will be no comeback. Also, the first days will be filled with spam emails by people who have databases of alien users and they are ready to bring you an influx of such clicks for a hundred bucks, which will finally make you a happy owner of countless treasures.

Facebook likes, this is a fake, I have about 2000 likes on facebook in the Dark Forester group. I'm sure none of these people bought my game. I am even almost certain that these people do not exist. Do not waste your money.

Indiegogo is funny. If you have not projected a time machine or you have a teleportation apparatus ready, then there is nothing to catch.

Greenlight - Here he is the winner, but no, not because they paid attention to my project. Steam has a player base of 100,000,000. How do you think how many people looked at my project on Indiegogo? 50 people. And how much is Kickstarter? 500 people! And how much on the Steam Greenlight? 100,000 people !!!

But still, you have to naturally push your project on Indiegogo, and Kickstarter, and of course on Steam Greenlight, and even create a group on Facebook, just don’t waste money.

And then everything got really bad.

The first two months after the approval of Steam are in great euphoria, I add more strength. And I make the next big mistake - I launch the game in Early Access, like the Alpha version. I earned about $ 3,000 in a week, but not $ 1,600, the rest was spent on taxes and Steam, but the damage caused by this decision is much greater than this finally sweet money, at least some return in two years. The game falls in the rankings, at first everything is not clear to me, as it is, because the game is mine, and it’s not clear to you, fellow Americans, that this is an early alpha and then everything cannot work! But, in fact, the game is terribly cheese. The game resembles the games of the late nineties, when you bought the discs along with the second warcraft, there were a dozen strategic games that you turned off right after the first bug.

But I do not give up, I promise a bunch of patches and start working on the bugs, although I was very far from the essence of what I really had to do.

But at the beginning of the year it happens, which eventually knocks me down and takes me to the path of war. Now I will tell you how it all got really bad and I started a crusade in the name of my game.

In May 2015, I was completely dumped by the strongest pneumonia for five weeks, after the first week I looked like a zombie from The Walking Dead. I don’t know if it was a lack of sleep in two years, a red bull pouring through my veins instead of blood, probably all together or just an accident that a sick person might be sitting next to me on the train. Anyway, all this accompanies a series of unpleasant events. From work after the third week of illness, two letters are received, initiated by my boss: “Abmahnung” and “Ermahnung” - this is something like you are put on the job account, if you make at least one mistake, you can be dismissed for any reason. And now what was in these letters. The first of them was that, under the fear of being fired, I was forbidden to engage in the development of the game in my spare time. The second letter was that during my illness I promised to release a patch on Steam, and accordingly, if I can write in the chat on the incentive, I could probably work.

Nobody fucks with blowfish

But I am not a fish hedgehog. My company was a subsidiary of a well-known Swiss company. That night I wrote to work that I quit.

At work, I was quite a valuable employee due to the quick completion of tasks. working in Scrum, each employee received for about two weeks 10 Storypoints, I performed mostly no less than 20, it was just boring for me to sit idle. After completing tasks, many workers head over to social networks or other pages.

But I didn’t just write that I’m quitting, I also threatened to condemn the company for ridiculous incidents of privacy and pressure on a person during a sick leave, and also drove to the full extent according to my boss. As a result, my boss was fired 6 days after these events. They asked me to stay, but I was adamant, I needed a war, so I could motivate myself even more. Three weeks after my dismissal, I sued the former firm.

Of course I won’t be cunning, losing my plan, take a private loan of € 12,000 from the same father’s acquaintances and work all summer on the game, rolling along to Poker in Stuttgart. Unfortunately, having played in a good plus 3.200 €. My partner, with whom we played as a student, played without brakes. As a result, he was very competently at the table a couple of times, and a couple of times he was just a fool and, since we had a total bankroll, the month went to zero. I had to start playing with poker, because I just needed money to simply exist in the coming months.

The fourth month was coming to an end. The final game was not even on the horizon. The court stood pending, while I and the other side were scribbling accusatory letters against each other.

The money came to an end and, in addition to the student loans, I had another loan with payments of 650 euros per month.

Finally, in the computer that I took for 3,000 euros in installments, it was my fault that the motherboard and processor broke down (it’s better not to describe how such a thing could happen to a person working as a programmer). In the fifth month, the situation became critical - the money disappeared. At that time, Unity was worth $ 75, and I also had a license for Android Pro. Without money, I could not pay for Unity. As a result, I was left devoid of the Unity Pro engine and the main computer for the next 6 months, and accordingly the development of the game hung in the air.

My family and I had to urgently refuse a rented apartment and move into an apartment with my parents (yes, this is all with a small child and wife).

The empire strikes back

This is the first part of the story. I have a plan to write 5 parts of this “fascinating” literature. For those who are upset and indignant over a careless developer, I just mention that they will wait for you to continue, in 2016 I won the trial without a lawyer in a foreign country on three points, the fourth was annulled. I still found a job pretty quickly and the Dark Forester already played a role in the interviews! It turned out that the game on Steam still has some weight. My salary increased by 10,000 euros per year compared to my former job. Leaving university was the best decision in my life, but I do not advise anyone on this, wherever you live, you live in the system. I paid not only the last loan taken, but also in the amount of about 30.000 euros for the year. I again entered into excellent sports form, and also released Betka Dark Forester, which still tupit A * Algorithm, and which I still hope no one will buy before the release. And of course this is a story about how I changed myself. Well, and how it all happened, I will tell in the continuation of this story, if there is any interest.

Part One: "Breaking Bad" or the harsh realities of the development of Dark Forester.
Part Two: "Breaking Bad 2", Dark Forester - a game at a distance of a small plus.