You don’t need an investor to make a game

People still at university or fresh out of it repeat the same line constantly, chewed over like gum:

“Man, there’s no investment in the games industry, we can’t make games.”

That is an excuse, unfortunately.

You need 5 things to make a game. A desk, a chair, a computer that can run Unity, an internet connection and, most important of all, discipline. Producing something for the game every single day matters, because that is how a game gets finished. You have to sit down and work every day without waiting for bursts like motivation or inspiration. Whether the team sits at a kitchen table or in a million dollar office does not change the quality of the work. This holds for mobile, Steam, web, every platform.

We agree that the economy is bad, but if your situation is so bad that you cannot make a game, do not try to make money by making games either. This “job” starts as a hobby and only turns full time once it succeeds and can keep going. Every game has to do well enough to carry you through the next fail. Until you reach that point, treat it as a “side job”.

Thanks to schools and incubators, a nonsense term like “Game Entrepreneurship” got invented in the last 5 years. Yes, making a game is a venture, but if you keep the venture part up front you end up a failed entrepreneur. A game feeds off the craft, not off business development. The venture part only comes after there is a success you can hold in your hand.