Week 2: a brief update and a view to planning

This past week was not very different from the last. It consisted mostly of:

• More organising, cleaning up and de-cluttering of the office. Donated a fair bit of our unnecessary items to St. Vincent de Paul this evening. It'll get rid of the clutter and maybe help in a small way.
• I have a plant spectra experiment I'm working on (more details to come) and have put it in it's own little room away from my work area.
• Organise bookmarks, folders & files and did a general clean-up of computer related stuff.
• Added a lot of tech events to my Google Calendar. I have little intention of attending them all, but I think in the coming year I should really be more present in local tech meetups.
• Did some preliminary research on advertising opportunities, mobile development platforms etc.
• Working on the last reminents of an app that has overflowed into this year, but I hope to finish soon. I know I keep saying it, but I mean it!
• Unsuccessful attempts to get my sleep habbit back on track. Its currently fixated at 6am-2pm, which is taking it's toll. This is becoming a priority for me as I honestly think its starting to wear me a bit thin, sleeping during the day and being awake during the night is no way to live.

Although I'm coming around to the fact that daily updates aren't necessary and are perhaps more of a distraction than warranted, I feel guilty for not updating this blog with something a little more substantial so I have pasted below a reply I gave on Reddit to a post to /r/gamedev asking about how other independant game developers plan themselves. I believe it gives an accurate account of my current approach to life as a one man startup.

Q. Every indie developer's dream: making it big and securing your position as an indie dev. What's your plan?

A. I am working on building up a business myself, starting from the 1st of this year I've been blogging about the process of getting started being an "one man startup".

Game development for me is just one of many possible roads which may bear fruit, I will also be working on a Web App and some more utilitarian mobile apps.

I suppose my "road plan" is exclusively not to tie myself down by notions of there being one best way. Experimenting with what works and what does not will be a crucial element of how I do business. I will be designing all the games I work on in Unity specifically because it broadens the potential customer base enormously (no platform dependance) and spreads the risk dramatically. When you are the sole person working on this kind of thing, reducing risk is an incredibly important factor.

One thing I have started doing that I could not recommend more highly is to accept that you never stop needing to learn. As much as possible, read all the advice you can, buy or loan books on entrepreneurism and business management (I am currently reading "The Lean Startup" by Eric Reiss). Never for once think to yourself that you know everything and take every opportunity as a potential to learn.

Arrogance is something that I've found is apparent throughout the software industry, it's an easy trap to fall into, thinking that because you know one thing that you know more than anyone else. I must admit I fall into it a fair bit, but I remind myself that humility is a much more important requirement to success than the drive one gets from thinking they know it all. because when you start thinking like that, you start blocking out the possibility of learning something vitally important.

My final little bit of advice is that if you really want to do this, if you want to see success, you must work hard and treat it like a serious occupation. I wasted a year by not taking it too seriously, I took on odd jobs and contracts that distracted me from what I really wanted to do. If what you really want to do with your life is be your own boss, don't do as I did and go for job interviews when you know deep down you'll never be satisfied until you are your own boss.

It's still early days for me too, but these are the things I try to keep in mind, always:

• Don't tie yourself down to one idea, process, or technology, it's all a means to an end. There is no one best way.

• Experiment with what works and what does not. Try to analyze and understand your successes and failures.

• Reduce risk wherever you can.

• Learn all you can, all the time. Never stop learning.

• Arrogance can be a driver and a motivator but humility is a much more important attribute.

• Make time for fun. It can be a hard slog working for yourself, so it's more important than ever to make time for you to chill out, relax. Try not to get too stressed out.