Why “Starving Artist Syndrome” as a Indie Game Developer Is Bad, but Sometimes Good

But please, do not actually starve yourself. Your game won’t magically sell more copies.

Photo by Amauri Mejía on Unsplash

Before I get into this discussion, I want to start with a disclaimer. Please, please do not neglect your physical and mental needs in order to become a better game developer. Don’t do it to become a better anything. I think we can all agree that 2020 has been quite a tough year, and given the current state of society the last thing I want is for someone to take on undue burden.

If you are a game developer or even slightly interested in the video game industry, you are already aware of the state of the industry. Independent game developers (otherwise known as “indies”) are a dime-a-dozen. Tons of new games, of vary degrees of quality, are produced every single day, many of which are buried under the next batch of games. The market is saturated with indie developers that make low quality clones or model swaps of purchase assets.

It is not all gloom and despair however. Indie developers can make a living, albeit an often arduous and irregular living, and I’ve outlined how that’s done in a different article. But if you are not part of a triple-A studio, and are flying solo, there’s likely a reason for that…