Living the Dream!
As I recall the story, Clark Peterson heard about the "Open Gaming License" of the latest version of Dungeons & Dragons in 2000. As an old-school gaming geek (now turned lawyer), he thought it would be really cool to start a company creating role-playing game modules like TSR (the original makers of Dungeons & Dragons) did in the "good old days." He managed to contact his old college gaming buddy, Bill Webb, and as partners they formed Necromancer Games. Their goals were modest: They'd create game modules and expansions as a hobby, and hoped to cover their expenses and maybe have enough profit for a case of beer to split between them.

They did significantly better than that. And so far, they've managed to weather the storm of the industry downturn, in spite of the fact that many of their competitors (the majority, by most counts) have called it quits. And besides making a bit of cash on the side by doing what they love, Clark and Bill and the numerous authors who have published through Necromancer Games have had the chance to do something really cool, learn a lot, meet some childhood geek-heroes, work with licenses of beloved classic properties, and otherwise have a great time doing something they love.

It was a childhood dream. As adults, they realized the opportunity was there to make it a reality. There really was nothing stopping them.

A friend of mine, Jana, always wanted to be a writer. She did a stint as an editor for a college science fiction magazine, but after school she found herself doing Quality Assurance and tech writing. Not exactly what she'd envisioned. She had some early attempts to get published met with the traditional rejection slips, and for a while it looked like the dream was gone forever.

Then, a few months ago, facing the usual job volatility of high-tech industry, she decided to take it as an opportunity to work on writing as a 'side' career. In fact, she told me she came to a bit of a crisis of self, and reached the realization that it was time to either make something of her dream, or to put it away forever.

Rather than an all-or-nothing approach, she started seeking out opportunities to do what she loved doing and make a few bucks at it. And she she succeeded.

The bucks were certainly few. But besides the money, she got practice, experience, contacts, and a reputation. Now she's getting people contacting HER to ask her to write for them. She's finding herself surrounded by better and better opporunities (and better and better pay). Moonlighting in this side-career certainly has its challenges and is a lot of hard work, but she's doing what she loves. And profiting from it.

These aren't rags-to-riches stories. Neither of these stories end with the individuals becoming rich and famous and living happily ever after. In fact, none of these stories actually END. They are still ongoing, because the people involved still love what they are doing and are seeing success - either monetarily or in some other level of satisfaction. And there are tons of more stories like this. This is pretty much the common story of most indie videogame developers!

It's SCARY taking the plunge and committing the effort (and, usually, money) to living the dream and doing "what you always wanted to do." It involves a metric butt-load of work, and often some outlay of money, with often very little to show for it at first. There's the tremendous risk to your delicate ego to do something new that you might suck at. It's hard making a commitment to something that your brain tells you is just a dream, and therefore couldn't ever be real. You are supposed to be grown-up now.

But there's nothing stopping you. In many cases, it's very possible to start small and minimize your risk - as Bill, Clark, and Jana did. That may mean slow rewards at the beginning, but that could be considered all part of "paying your dues." But it doesn't have to stay there. What I've found is that success tends to breed success. Just as doing nothing tends to result in more of nothing getting done.

The Necromancer Games story was actually one of the inspirations for me starting Rampant Games. And we just had a pizza party last week to celebrate actual profitability (and squander what meager profitability we had). And I have been amazed at the number of opportunities that have resulted from my efforts with Rampant Games and Void War. Nothing earth-shattering, but very cool nonetheless. Really, my current full-time job is a direct result of my indie game efforts.

Yeah, this is a scary thing to do. It's a TON of hard work. But is it worth it?

I can only speak for myself and say: TOTALLY!!!!!! Though I expect Jana, Clark, and Bill would say the same thing.

I mean looking back over the last few years and what I've been doing, even my minor accomplishments and successes are things I can look back and be proud of, and say, "Cool, look what I did!" It sure beats the heck out of thinking back on all the television I might have watched.

I'd rather keep trying to live the dream.

Labels: Indie Evangelism

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:47 PM (Permalink)