I can't believe I didn't say anything about this yet, these are usually my favorite threads
. I think my number one problem with being an independent developer, and this bothers me more than anything, is that everyone always expects us to make stupid cookie-cutter web games. I can't stand it when I tell people I make indie games and the first word off their lips is "Bejeweled." It drives me absolutely mad. Like we're not capable of doing anything else.
The worst part is that it isn't the consumer public's fault that they view us that way, it's our own fault. I don't think it would be outlandish to estimate that 80% or more independent developers are making games like these and trying to turn a profit from them. Some of us do have really great ideas (and no, I'm not talking about the MMORPG people), and some of us are actually developing those ideas and hoping to one day find a public audience.
But even in the most helpful cliques on the internet, where most of us indies form our groups and meet other developers, there's always an air of negativity lofting over every single project. If you don't see that dark cloud, then you're one of the people exausting it. There's always someone, and often a group of people, telling you that this can't be done or that can't be done, and more often than not, these people projecting these negative forecasts are people who have absolutely no idea if something is or isn't possible, because they've never tried it. They only have a guess, and maybe sometimes it's an educated one, but no one will ever know until that certain something is tried, and usually these creative detractors prevent people from trying new things. And I think that circles us right back to the cookie-cutter problem. Either we need to weed out the negative people, or those who want to try something original need to just give it a go and ignore the pessimism. If they try and they fail, then fine, they've created an example for others to learn from. But if they try and succeed... well, if that happens, then they would have proven those detractors to be incapable of making wild predictions, and in turn they'd discredit them in the future. Either way, the problem would be solved, but either would take people to be braver than usual in one way or another.
"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
