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    Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way

    GDC Festival of Gaming

    11 HN recommenders · recommended in 11 months, 2018–2025

    YouTube

    59:47 · 570K views · Oct 8, 2018

    Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software gives a GDC 2018 retrospective on surviving as an indie game maker since 1994, from shareware days through Steam. It covers business realities, costs and sustaining a comfortable living without chasing riches.

    HN keeps recommending it as an inspirational, funny talk on running a long-lived indie studio and what Steam provides for its 30% cut.

    Games & Game DevelopmentIndie game developmentGame design
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    18 comments from Hacker News

    1. @hu3May 2023· in “1999 Game Developers Conference (GDC) Recordings Archive”

      Speaking about GDC, if you're into game development or just curious, this talk is legendary and inspirational to aspiring game devs (and very intertaining to boot): this video "In this GDC 2018 talk, Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel presents a retrospective on his company's history and how they've managed to stay in the game-making business since 1994."

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    2. @cpetersoDec 2018· in “Ask HN: Best talks of 2018?”

      Jeff Vogel from Spiderweb Software gave an awesome retrospective on 24 years of creating old-school-style fantasy RPGs at GDC 2018: "Failing to Fill: The Spiderweb Software Way" this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    3. @cpetersoDec 2018· in “How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG”

      Jeff Vogel from Spiderweb Software have an awesome retrospective on his games and company at GDC 2018: "Failing to Fill: The Spiderweb Software Way" this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    4. @hartrorAug 2019· in “Why All of Our Games Look Like Crap”

      Jeff is an enjoyable speaker, his latest GDC talk is fantastic (and a better version of this blog post). this video

      Strongly recommendsView on HN
    5. @eroppleAug 2019· in “Why All of Our Games Look Like Crap”

      I recall that post (I've been a fan of JV's work, and his blog, for a long time!) but that's ten years old now and the market has gotten more competitive. I think that post is actually pre-Steam, though might push it the other way--I recall that he did really well for himself early on after going to Steam. He has a really good GDC talk that goes into more detail and might shed light on why he operates the way he does: this video

      RecommendsView on HN