【独立游戏开发宣言2022】《以撒的结合》E胖演讲完整视频（附中英文实录）

由腾讯游戏学堂与GWB腾讯独立游戏孵化器联合举办的2022腾讯游戏开发者大会——独立游戏专场，已于8月15日圆满结束。本届大会邀请了多位海内外知名独立游戏开发者进行分享。

首位登场的嘉宾Edmund McMillen（艾德姆德·麦克米伦）是美国游戏设计师、开发者和艺术家。他以其独特的受Adobe Flash影响的视觉风格而闻名，已成为独立游戏行业最稳定的杀手之一。他最著名的作品包括《超级食肉男孩》、《以撒的结合：忏悔》，以及2017年的《终结将至》。

2009年有人问他“您是否有什么建议，可以给到游戏策划人员？”作为回应，Edmund 写下了他的独立游戏策划宣言。13年后的今天，他受邀回顾这个宣言。（含完整视频及英文原文内容对照）

点击收看完整分享视频

对我来说，首先要诚实，这是我最重视的，而且是所有艺术从业者的第一要务。诚实是艺术的本质，商业化会让艺术变得不再诚实。因此对于艺术家来说，这是个两难的选择，因为在某种程度上，为了卖东西而撒谎，或是工作目的单纯为了销售，是很容易玷污艺术作品的。你可以试图操纵人们去获得某种感受，或者花更多时间玩游戏，充更多值，这样做其实很危险。

如果你是艺术家，有自己的想法，并且要表达出来。为了做到这一点，你必须认清自己，对自己诚实，把自己的个人特色，转化成手头的游戏作品，这是最重要的一点，相比于大公司而言，独立策划更有优势的地方。

但是你对于游戏的愿景，也不必总是诚实坦荡地表达出来，如果你是在一个百人团队的公司，那么你的诚实其实是无关紧要的，或者说毫不重要。

但当你是独立策划时，你的团队里只有几个人，甚至有时只有两人，或只有你自己单打独斗，那么诚实就是作为一个艺术工作者的意义所在，诚实值得尊重，并且诚实在我们的行业里并不多见，我能理解是出于商业化的原因才会这样。

但是需要谨记，不要对自己的作品控制欲太强，以及不要总是居高临下。认清自我是很重要的，为了在你的作品中表现你的诚实，允许自己犯错，并且允许自己有一些古怪的点子（如果有的话），这正是艺术的独特之处。

这是我的第一要务，希望之后我不会像现在这样，对每一点都重复，希望大家不会在这里跌坑头。

第二重要的是，记住你是在进行艺术创作。你作为独立艺术家，与公司相比有着显著的优势。公司对产品进行数百万美元的投资，如果他们迈错一步就会全盘皆输，整个公司就会崩溃。

我希望大家都能打好手里的牌，我也会和大家谈谈如何打好你手里的牌，因为失败并不重要。事实上，你应该能够在失败中继续前进，从失败中吸取教训，成为更好的策划，这也是优秀游戏策划的必备特质。我将继续秉持这样的理念。

《超级食肉男孩》

策划由心而生，这点上也许还有所欠缺。如果你试着看一些不是通过成为爆款而成功的游戏，比如一些经典游戏《洞穴探险》和《见证者》等，你会看到游戏开发者的担忧。不管内容多么稀奇古怪，你可以看到玩家的热捧，游戏作品只要加上由心而生的内容，它就变得不同了。这些能够使你，认识自己，让玩家可以了解你，我认为这是很重要的。

《见证者》

第四点，要能承担巨大的风险。实验和风险是作为艺术家，成长的关键，不要惧怕失败。你不会有多大损失的，只要学会从失败中吸取教训就行。我之前就已经提过这一点。

如果你采取了正确的方法，我不想跳过太多内容，但是如果你采取了正确的方法，即使你的生活贫困、正疲于生计，比如你完成本职工作之余，或许还做着一份兼职，抑或是多个兼职，但当你回到家，利用晚上的时间做独立游戏项目，或者一些其他的事情。那么你就不应该过于担心失败，你更应该关注的是把游戏做出来，并且确保它是与众不同的。这是因为我再重复一次，独立策划的优势就是你可以承担风险，尤其是艺术上的风险。

我敢说下一部《侠盗猎车》游戏和其他系列的套路不会有多大差别，这样做等于自掘坟墓，对吧？相比起来，任天堂就承担了这些风险，但是很多时候大公司是不会承担这些风险的。

然而作为独立策划，你可以做一些更大胆的创新。你可以做一些不同寻常的内容，创造一些全新的东西，虽然这些东西可能会有先天不足，但是创新的元素将会弥补。或许在未来，你或者是其他人可以秉承创新的理念，去策划出更好的下一部游戏，这就是其意义所在，你希望自己能够去承担那些巨大的风险。

我所指的不是那种我要花7000多年来做一款MMO的那种巨大风险，这一点我之后再说。承担巨大的创新风险是很重要的，尤其是当你做一些快速通关的小游戏时，这种小游戏我之后也会提到。

第五点，量力而行。不要一开始就选择做MMO游戏，你最开始做的15个游戏都应该是小游戏，就是那种一抓一把的，而不是动辄耗时3年的那种大型项目。

我认为小游戏的原型具有更大的价值，比如Game Jam游戏，或者是耗时低于1年的游戏，我其实更倾向于说耗时3个月的游戏。

没人愿意陷入那些持续时长4到7年的项目，而且这些项目越往后拖情况越糟，并且你也会陷入一种心态，会觉得“烦躁啊我已经在这个项目上耗费了5年的时间”。因为受众的期望越来越多，我需要投入更多。

关于这一点我已经整整说了五年了，千万别这么做。如果你刚入行，还没有太多游戏制作的经验，就不要尝试去做像《洞窟物语》一样的大作，你应该把尽量把游戏简化，越简单越好。

第六点，练习出真知。即使是一些老练的游戏策划，包括我自己，都会陷入自我感觉良好，不再愿意练习的困境。

当我提到练习时，我指的是制作游戏原型，制作Game Jam游戏，从小想法着手。即使是一些很简单的想法，你都可以试着在脑海里构思一下，特别对很多小游戏的制作而言，练习是很重要的，因为你制作游戏的想法会更强烈，但同时你也可以参考，在这些游戏中哪些是最好的。

我大多数成功的游戏，都是基于Game Jam的游戏原型和flash游戏制作出来的，它们都是些花几周几个月就能做出来的游戏。如果你的某个原型或者这个Game Jam的游戏，并且让你觉得它真是酷毙了，那你就可以将它完善成一个完整的游戏了。

但在你学习，或者按部就班时，我个人是相当推荐尽可能多练习游戏制作的。Game Jam就是个练习的好去处，Game Jam在很多地方都有，你要做的就是投身其中。即使你不是正式参与，只要跟着Game Jam的主题去制作游戏，跟进发挥。你练的越多，能学到的也就越多。当然不要花费数年时间去做一款游戏。

第七点，遵循本心，做你想做的游戏。这更像是追随创意，乘风破浪。有时候会有这样一种情况，甚至我自己也碰到过，我正在一个很棒的想法上投入，当然这也和我之前提到的商业和诚实的部分有关。我就会心想，人们会喜欢我这个想法的。

这时候我就会意识到，我把自己陷进去了。因为我越来越在意他人的想法时，我就越发努力去迎合他人的需求，而不是遵循本心做我自己想做的。因为如果项目不是我想做的，我会很难全情投入，这样的经历会很煎熬。

你需要能够在项目中追随创意，乘风破浪，顺势而为，否则你会筋疲力竭，你会爆炸的，或者项目压根做不下去。所以一定要确保你正在做的东西是你真正热爱的，是你自己发自本心愿意做的。你可以在你的项目中发挥创意，顺势而行而不是自找苦吃。

第八点，让你的作品出众。各位小伙伴，我至今没看到多少，能够称得上出众的游戏。这其实是很奇怪的，也许我得说说具体什么是出众。其实就是制作吸引眼球的东西，不仅是视觉上的出众，而且是游戏机制上的与众不同。

别去制作一些玩法上抄袭，仅在题材上换成猫咪、忍者或者恐龙的游戏。尽量别去做平庸的游戏，试着做一些独特的东西。如果你正在做一款猫咪题材的游戏，要确保你的游戏玩法是创新的，比如我正在做一款猫咪题材的游戏，但是玩法是选择性繁育猫从而让他们发生基因突变，与我而言，这种游戏机制才是出众。

我还没发现有类似的游戏，我一直努力使自己做的游戏都能出众，这对我而言非常重要，我不希望你在玩我制作的任何一款游戏时，你认为别的公司也可以做出这样的作品。比如说我不会让人觉得任何公司都能做出《以撒的结合》，就是说，这不止我可以做得出来，任何人都可以做到。

你需要去突破自己创意的界限，要做到超出预期，适应承担风险，并能够适应，犯错和走错路，做一些有胆量的事才能脱颖而出。

 《以撒的结合》

第九，批判性思考。百分之九十九的游戏策划都具有批判性思维，这是真的。游戏策划是艺术与逻辑的结合，通常也是程序员和艺术家的碰撞，这也是我经常做的事。

无论如何，你要试着去考虑每一件小事，思考一下你目前策划中的漏洞，想想其他游戏策划中的漏洞，思考其他游戏应该如何改进，思考别的游戏为什么能取得成功，你会从中学到很多。

我认为对自己的作品保持批判性思考是非常有益的，所以当你用批判的眼光去看待所有事物，那你对自己的作品才能具有更多批判性的思考。只要你对自己的作品保持诚实，那么你应该能在工作中取得很大的进步。

第十，玩游戏。这一点我一直都保持，从未改变，我知道自己应该玩更多的游戏。具体来说，玩更多电子游戏，如果你做游戏，那么你也需要打游戏，你要知道什么是最高水准，你要知道玩家都会期待些什么，你需要超越预期，并提高上限。

人们通常会误解，认为这个标准是难以企及的，这种标准只有大规模的工作室才能搞得定，其实并非如此。比如你一开始只在最高标准徘徊，然后通过自己努力提高了这个最高标准。在这方面有很多方法，你可以通过上手实践来实现，去制作一些别人没接触过的、自己喜欢的东西。

真正了解最高水准的唯一途径是了解受众到底期望什么，并且激发自己的创造力。玩游戏不能断，玩到不记得多少次为止。我读过关于某款游戏的报道，了解到这款游戏酷毙了，但实际游戏内容与报道大相径庭。我认为，我会通过玩其他的游戏，来创造出和自己想法贴合的游戏。我个人更多时候是玩桌游。相较于电子游戏，我最近玩弹球机更多，我这么做没什么理由，也不知道是否合适，但这就是我的习惯吧。

最近一段时间我比较沉迷于电子游戏，我敢肯定其他人也和我一样喜欢玩两把。但不一定非要是电子游戏，可以是任何与游戏有关的东西，也可以是《龙与地下城》。我自己一直钟情于《龙与地下城》和《万智牌》，弹球机和桌游。

我也希望自己可以多玩电子游戏，但是基于各种原因吧，现在我自己玩电子游戏玩的也不多，其实我应该玩的更多。我的内心也有点儿愧疚，我也承认自己不清楚电子游戏的最高标准在哪里，自己会不会在开发途中遭遇失败？希望不会吧。

第十一点，学会剖析。所有游戏品类都有套路，这个观点其实挺好的，我认为如今很多独立游戏策划，都做得很好。大家应该都可以看到，在很多成功的游戏中比如《杀戮尖塔》，任何卡牌构筑的游戏都是如此，这个品类的套路都是来自于对《万智牌》的剖析，比如它的轮抽玩法套路。也有很多rogue-like游戏的套路，都被行业剖析过和重组过，然后被引入《洞窟探险》和《以撒的结合》和其他上千种游戏中。

剖析现有游戏的套路，对于策划来说很重要，你也可以上手做出《足球2》，是可行的，只需要现有《足球1》游戏，转化成肉鸽游戏就行，大家都懂我的意思吧？确实你可以解构这些游戏品类，将它们混在一起，这时你就多多少少可以理解，为什么这些套路能行得通，以及它们是如何联动的，你可以从现有的游戏品类下手进行创新。

大家都知道，想找到一个新品类很难，对吧，唯一可以帮助我们抵达新品类彼岸的方法，就是在现有品类的基础上进行跨越。拆解现有的游戏，摸清这些游戏的规则，带上这些已有的品类规则，再加入些新的规则，一个新游戏品类就诞生了。

所以剖析现有品类的套路，不仅有利于游戏策划，对原型设计以及其他方面有裨益，同时启发策划的头脑。剖析套路也能让人时刻保持警醒，让你明白，为什么有些事行得通，有些事会失败，所以我推荐大家去剖析套路。

《终结将至》

第十二点，学会成长。这是什么意思呢？我之前的文章里有这么一句话，“大家早就不是小屁孩了，所以多做些成年人的游戏吧”。我想在大多数情况下，很多人制作的游戏，都是面向成年人的。

我想，对于这一点，在过去13年，整个环境已经发生了很大的变化，现在也有很多的游戏，都是面向全年龄段的，可能较之以前，现在成年人游戏更多了。但我仍然推荐大家去做成年人的游戏，我愿意看到，更多昆汀·塔伦蒂诺和罗布·赞比类的成年人的游戏内容，大家懂我的意思吧？我希望看到更多这种风格的作品。

第十三是，去外面的世界看看。走出去很重要，我之前就提到过这一点，原话是，外面的世界很精彩，请不要宅在家里，搬砖到底。

千万别宅家，非常不健康。从心理上看，这会让你陷入螺旋式下行的抑郁，从创意的角度来看，也会阻碍你的发挥。你应该走出门，去体验外面的世界。走出去或者我应该说，强迫自己出去逛逛，做些其他的事，体验下生活，这不仅是一种健康的生活方式，也能给你带来灵感启发，它会让你去意识到一些事情。

就像大家常说的当你尝试去解决一些事情的时候，应该站起来，出去走走，溜达溜达。散散步，出门晃悠一下，和别人互动一下。和你的朋友出去玩一玩，只要不是在家对着电脑就行，否则光靠这样坐在电脑前，你是找不到问题答案的。很多人额头冒青筋整天盯着电脑屏幕，这时候就需要出门走走，放松放松，开心一下，远离工作，以便用更好的状态迎接之后的工作。

第十四，保持平衡。很多游戏策划容易患上抑郁症和精神障碍，要照顾好你自己，以及你的大脑，和过去相比当下尤其如此。过去这几年，我们失去了很多策划，一定记得要与人交流，多聊天，了解自己的极限在哪里。

多出门，和朋友出去玩，结交新朋友，强迫自己去交朋友，强迫自己与别人交谈，强迫自己不要只是敲键盘。这些社交，看起来是在抬高标准，但事实并非如此，你真的需要在现实中与人进行互动从而充实自己。如果你需要与人交流就去与人交流，这本身不会对你造成任何伤害。就像生病的时候，就该好好吃药一样。或者我应该说，何必因为生病吃药就背负什么羞耻感，我希望更多人能想开点。

第十五，保持谦虚。不管你认为自己有多优秀，山外有山，人外有人，要谦虚，大家其实都明白这一点。市面上游戏那么多，平均来说每天都有32款游戏上线Steam平台。所以我认为，在当下，每个人都要保持谦虚，每个人都从谦虚中受益，但是最好不要太自负，虽然现在估计没有多少人是这样。

在2009年，那时候大概只有28个独立游戏开发商，那会儿人很容易就非常自负，认为自己很优秀，其他人都不行，绝不会犯错。但万一你恰好就是那种自负型的人，又刚好才意识到山外有山，人外有人，这样的话其实会伤害自己更深。假设你和别人在聊天，你其实懂的比对方多，但是不管对方是谁、有什么样的背景，你依然要保持谦虚，因为别人身上总有长处，总有你可以向他学习的地方。

第十六点，保持开放心态、接纳反馈。这是个比较重要的话题，这个话题几乎是当下对于游戏策划人不接受反馈的态度的刻板印象。

早些时候，在Newgrounds网站，我曾经上传过一个电子游戏，这款游戏的评论都在不断重复说，“你太差了，你太差了”。这游戏本身也是很糟糕，操控感很差，这不好、那不好、啥啥都不好。你读完所有评价，最后你会意识到你的游戏就是很糟糕，糟糕就在于游戏中的操控感做得不好。我当然可以对这些差评置之不理，觉得那些差评“你就是嫉妒心作祟，你做出来的东西谁会看得上”或者“你知道自己在说什么吗，论经验，你们怎么可以和我相提并论？”。

但现实是我知道，一旦有一个差评，就会有更多差评，或者会有一些掺杂在差评间的关于操控感不佳的评论。那这时候我就得针对性做修改，或者审视一下自己在做的项目，试着从字里行间，找到问题所在。

 《超级食肉男孩》

我教你一个技巧，这是一个高阶技巧，也是我历经多年的工作学到的，这是约翰·布洛（吹哥，《见证者》和《时空幻境》开发者）也使用的技巧。

如果你不是在制作游戏原型，如果你是在测试阶段，邀请一群人来试玩，就不要告诉他们你需要反馈，千万不要告诉他们你需要反馈。你要做的就是观察他们玩你策划的游戏，保持安静，边观察、边记笔记，然后看一下，玩家是否对游戏什么有疑惑，然后你要弄清楚其中的原因。

如果在最后他们想要点评几句，或者你想问具体的问题，比如“哪些部分是你无法理解的，为什么你当时没那么做，哪些没做？”，这个时候你问受试者要反馈，有些人就会认为他们应该给你反馈。因为这是你要求的，对吧？所以他们就会为了给你反馈而给你反馈。

我的建议是：不要这么做。我认为如果想要不出错的话，应该让受试者玩你的游戏，让他们玩游戏，他们边玩你边在旁边观看，邀请尽可能多的人一起参与，你将会收获很多关于这款游戏的反馈，了解到为什么某部分不如预期以及如何改进。如今我每周都在《Mew-Genics》如此实践，确实对我的工作很有帮助。

《Mew-Genics》

第十七点，与人合作。大家都很乐意帮忙，他山之石，可以攻玉，与人合作是很重要的。有很多游戏策划想自己干完所有的活，千万别这样，因为你没有理由这么做的，和别人一起工作时也不会那么孤独，还能惺惺相惜。

这些小互动是很棒、很友好的，你会从他人的经验中学到很多，比如他们提出的宝贵意见，所以我强烈建议你这样做。我认为如今大多数人都会协作，我认为那种自己完成一切，不与他人合作的态度是比较老派的。

第十八点，人脉。与其他策划交流、与粉丝交流、与媒体交流讨论你正在做的事情，你会从中收获一些观点，了解他人是如何看待你的工作的。

比如我曾经遇到过人生中一些最重要的机会，我得到这个机会，仅仅是因为我对待他人很友好。这就是一个完美的例子，Cliff B (《机器战争》之父)买了一张我的游戏盘，这是一张包含了我所有作品的汇编盘，当时是07或者08年的样子，他买下了这张盘，然后好像是在一场采访中，他提到了这张盘，我非常震惊。

我想，好吧，他知道我是谁，我可以和他说得上话，然后我给他发邮件。我说，非常感谢你提到我的作品，并且还买了我的盘，太感激了。如果你有这方面的门路，我其实很愿意做主机游戏的，如果你有这方面的人脉和公司资源会愿意做独立游戏这样的项目，请随时联系我。他说，我认识的一个人，他也认识你，我觉得他会很乐意和你合作的。

正是这些点点滴滴让人与人产生交集，你会有意想不到的收获。如果我在克里夫提到我的作品之后，不曾去联系他，那也无法把握住这个机会的。但是我联系了他，这对我的未来有极大的意义。所以有时你会惊讶的是仅仅靠与他人交谈，尽可能多的交谈就有可能获得机会。

第十九点，要对你的工作充满激情。当你和媒体对话、与任何人对话，包括与其他策划沟通时，如果你在讲述自己的游戏时不能面，带笑容讲述你的游戏有多么的棒，那么别人根本就不会想玩你的游戏。

开发者就应该是最燃的那一个，你开发的游戏应该让你充满快乐，你会觉得，天了噜，我正在进行的工作的确是很艰苦的，可以说是拼命地肝，使我筋疲力尽，但我也乐在其中。玩自己的游戏时，根本停不下来，我会一直谈论我的游戏。如果你自己都对某样东西提不起兴趣，那更别指望别人会喜欢这样东西了。

我知道很多人会觉得这样很尴尬，因为他们不想表现出他们所认为的，看似很自我的行为，也就是对自己作品表现得很兴奋，并且高度评价自己的作品，或者他们可能就是不在意而已觉得这就只是工作罢了。

但是我认为，对自己的作品充满激情，尤其是与媒体，与其他策划交谈时你要展现出对自己作品的在乎。对自己的作品保持激情是很重要的，事实上，两者是相辅相成的，我会建议你在这一点上对自己的作品保持激情，你所制作的游戏都应该是能让自己为之兴奋的。

如果你是独立策划，你不应该仅仅在意工作，而应该视其为自己的心之所爱，它应该是能让你感到兴奋的东西，我期待明天的到来，我期待起床后继续打磨《Mew-Genics》。这是事实，我喜欢为之工作，对于我明天要做的工作我也是非常兴奋的，这种感觉很棒，你也应该这样。你应该找到一些能让你为之兴奋的东西，你愿意为其彻夜难眠，为其辗转反侧，为其起身，记录下点滴，以便第二天醒来还能记住这些灵感。

第二十条，加入相关社区。我敢肯定现在你可以找到很多的社区，早些时候社区的数量是很少的，我不知道这些社区现在如何了，我不是那种喜欢打听的人。毕竟年纪大了，这些社区也不欢迎我这种老头子。

但是之前，这些社区比如TIGSource和Newgrounds.com是我之前经常去逛的两个游戏社区。这些社区会让你觉得，你不是在做一些无意义的事情，他们让你感觉到，作为集体的一分子，彼此之间可以交换意见，可以拓展人脉，可以在这交到朋友，认识同事，你会为你的工作感到很上头，愿意去畅谈自己的作品。在社区里剖析那些大家提炼出来的游戏套路，这些都是相辅相成的，你需要加入这些社区，跟他们说嘿，看看我做的玩意儿，我真的觉得很赞。

《Fingered》

第二十一点，学一些商业知识。商业很无趣，的确如此，就是很无趣。我确信有一些人，对商业感兴趣的人，并且只是喜欢赚钱。仅此而已，没有别的了。但是包括我自己在内，有很多人，在商业方面的事情做得并不好。不管我和谁工作，我总是被迫这么做，也许我可能更善于社交吧。

这也不好说，但是了解一点商业知识还是很重要的，这样你就不会被糊弄了，因为有时别人可能会为难你。这是千真万确的，他们会把你耍得团团转，而你自己却一无所知。最后你可能得到最不公道地待遇，这些人在离开时还会在背后嘲笑你。

所以能够知悉事情的全貌，是件好事。知道业内平均水平如何，你应得的部分是多少，知道怎么算x、y、z？你需要要知道这个零售交易，我到手的是净利抽成吗？还是毛利抽成？是销售完成之后才能拿到钱吗？在我报酬到手之前，要垫付多少呢？

这都是经验之谈。有几次我也搞砸了，我从中汲取了教训。如果有人当时能够告诉我这些，那就太好了，比如说要确保可以提前拿到钱，否则的话是永远无法真正赚到钱的。因为百分之20听起来很多，但是如果你得不到这笔钱，那就毫无意义，因为一些日常开支，可能都是些虚构的数字，会让你永远都拿不到这笔钱。

第二十二，别怕穷。可能情况已经改变了一些，因为比起以前，现在人们更穷了。我从小就很穷，在2010年之前，我一直很穷，处于贫困线，入不敷出的状态。当处于这种情况时不要担心，要接受现状，你总能挺过去的。

很少人会买你的游戏，不要倾其所有，都投资在这一件事上，因为极有可能不会产生任何你认为会有的回报。我的意思是，如果你是独立艺术家，那么你可能要多做一份工作，可以是兼职，也可以是一些副业。比如为他人编程，以及一些艺术工作。

我就做了很多插画类的工作，以及其他一些有佣金的兼职工作。我一直这么做，直到2010年《超级食肉男孩》问世，这些就是我为补充收入而做的事情。然后在我痴迷于项目工作时，我的手头就紧了，整晚都在工作，几乎所有的时间都在做，无论我有多少剩余的时间，都是如此，并且忽略了我的妻子。

别担心，你会找到解决之道的，不要让你正在做的游戏成为你首要的赚钱工具。要知道，游戏它不会为你赚很多的钱，它没办法做到的。但是如果制作了10款、15款游戏，并为自己赢得了声誉，渐渐有了粉丝团，你会赚钱的。我花了十年时间，才从我的工作中挣到钱。

如果你能坚持，继续做你所做的，并为自己赢得名声，你就会脱颖而出，并拥有人脉，你会对自己的工作感到兴奋，你再加入社区，保持诚信，并且制作出优秀的游戏，因为你对自己的作品的批判性的态度，你对所有事情都能分析得很透彻。

最终你会有所成就的，并且会有希望，通过你的作品赚到钱，然后你就可以为自己的下个项目提供资金，有可能是更大的项目，从那开始你就不穷了。

但是现在先别担心这些，别担心缺钱，因为总会经历囊中羞涩的阶段，你懂的，作为一名艺术从业者，生活拮据乃行业惯例。

然后是第二十三点，试着去赚些钱。你也不想一辈子都囊中羞涩，你不想穷得叮当响，你不想因为缺钱，网络都被断掉，所以你需要赚一定量的钱。

我认识《蔚蓝》的制作者，让我凡尔赛一下，我认识这个制作团队，我告诉她们，我说“为什么你们的游戏要免费，这款游戏比现有的大多数游戏要更好”。她们说，“我不知道”，我担心钱的问题。你应该赚些钱，我会帮你找赞助。我会给你介绍合适的人，然后帮你拿到赞助。之后她们制作了名为《MoneySeize》的游戏，这个游戏是关于赚钱的。然后接着推出《放弃吧，机器人2》，这些游戏的开发得拉到了赞助，并最终为，《塔倒：升天》和《蔚蓝》的制作提供了资金支持，赚一些钱还是很重要的

你要努力一点赚钱，同时也要学习一些商业知识。但是你就应该赚些钱，当然，卖自己的作品，可能会有些奇怪，有些困难，但是必须要在工作之余赚到一些钱才行。

《蔚蓝》

第二十四点，也是最后一点，最后一点是，要获得开心。如果你觉得这很没意思，那就别干了。人只活一次，没有理由一直做一些，不能让你开心的事。这是绝对正确的，我也坚持这个观点。

如果如果创作的都是大家都深恶痛绝的东西，因为你明显可以看得出大家的厌恶，那工作就没意思了，因为他们讨厌自己所做的事情，这不是说，在你的项目的某个阶段会觉得我都经历了，这些心态上的起起伏伏，这很棒，然后继续工作，勇攀高峰，也很棒，这些都有可能会发生。

但我指的不是这个意思，有时工作，的确不是有趣的，但如果你感觉自己是在勉为其难，如果你觉得“嗨呀我要再做一款游戏，才能再赚一笔”，“我要苦心钻研，并且迫使自己坐下工作，或者干一些其他的事情”，那么你不是在做自己喜欢的事情，这是不应该的，尤其是身为一名艺术从业者。

如果你觉得如此别扭，并不能让自己开心，你就应该尝试一些别的东西。不是说一定要离开这个行业，但是你需要尝试一些不一样的东西，不然就会踩坑。但是你会在做游戏的时候也收获快乐，这将会使你的游戏变得更好，这绝对不是夸夸其谈，你在制作游戏时的好情绪会在你的游戏中显现出来的。

以上这就是我的24个建议，这就是我认为的独立游戏策划和美术，应该采取的行为准则。在大多数情况下，都是站得住脚的。也许我可以把这些建议缩短为10条要点，但是今天就先分享这么多吧。

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附英文原文内容对照

My No. 1 is be honest and it is the No. 1 for me, and I think it's the No. 1 for all artists. I think honesty is what art is. And you know, business makes it dishonest. So it's a difficult field as an artist to be in, because, to some degree, the dishonesty of selling something or being a salesperson can easily taint your work. And you could attempt to manipulate people into feeling a certain way, playing more, putting more money into the machine, and it's a dangerous thing.

Like if you're an artist, you are a voice and you've got to find your voice.And in order to do that, you have to know who you are, and be honest about who you are in order to translate who you are into what you're doing. That's the major thing that an independent designer has over a large company. 

But you can't be brutally honest about this visionthat you have for a game, if you're in a company of 100 people, like your honesty matters not, you know, It doesn't matter at all. But when you're independent, and you know, you're in a handful of people team, or even just two people or one, being honest is what being an artist is about, and it's not only very respectable to see overall, but it's also, I think it's not done enough in our industry, and I understand that's because of business.

But when you're independent, and you know, you're in a handful of people team, or even just two people or one, being honest is what being an artist is about, and it's not only very respectable to see overall, but it's also, I think it's not done enough in our industry, and I understand that's because of business. 

But not being manipulative and condescending with your work is important. Knowing who you are is important. And allowing your flaws and eccentricities, if you will to show in your work is honest, that's what makes art special.

That's my No. 1. And hopefully, I won't rattle on like that for every one,because we'll never get through it.

Number 2 is realize that you're making art. You, as an independent, have major advantages over an industry that invests millions and millions of dollars in products. If they make one misstep and they fail, you know, the whole company can crumble.

If you play your cards right, which is, hopefully, what I will explain in here, and how to play your cards right, a failure shouldn't matter. In fact, you should be able to fail forward, and you should be able to fail and learn and become a better designer overall, which is an important piece of the puzzle. So I wouldn't change that either.

Super Meat Boy

Number 3 - Design from the heart. I don't see this enough, but if you just look at a lot of the games that didn't just go viral and become successful. Look at, like the harder hitting constants, like Spelunky or The Witness or whatever, andyou'll see a piece of that person. You'll see fears of the person who's writing it. You could see the likes, no matter how weird they are. Adding that, just adds a little bit of like, "oh that's different", and I'm seeing that more in their work. And there's just certain things that, you know, it allows you to understand who you are and allows the audience to understand who you are. And I think it's important.

The Witness

No. 4 - take big risks. Experimentation and risks are the key to growing as an artist. Don't be scared of failure. You don't have much to lose, and you'll only learn from your mistakes. I mentioned this before.

If you are doing this right, I don't want to skip too far ahead, but if you're doing this right, and you're just living poor and you're surviving, and you're able to get the job done, maybe have a part time job, or multiple part time jobs, and you know, you come home and spend the night working on your indie project, or whatever else, you shouldn't be caring so much about failure. You should be caring more about just getting stuff out, and making sure that it's different, than other stuff that you're seeing, because once again, the advantages of being an independent means you can take risks, especially artistically, you know.

I can guarantee that the next Grand Theft Auto is not going to stray from its formula. That would mean suicide, right? I mean, Nintendo takes those risks. But a lot of times, those risks will never be taken by a large company.

But as an independent, you can do something way more ballsy than that. You can come out of completely left field and make something totally new that may be inherently flawed, but the innovation factor will make up for the flawed aspect. You know, maybe in the future, you'll be able to take that and design an even better version of whatever it is or maybe somebody else will. But that's what it's about. You want to be able to take those kinds of big risks.

So I'm not talking about "I'm going to make an MMO that I spend 7,000 years on", and I'm sure I'll get to that. But big innovative risks are important, especially when you're doing quick, small games, which I'm sure I will also get to on here.

No. 5, don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't start an MMO. Your first fifteen games should be very small, little bite-sized games. Your first fifteen games should be very small, little bite-sized games. They shouldn't be this grand 3-year project.

I think there's a lot more value in small prototypes, Game Jam games, or just less than a year, you know, I want to say, 3-month projects.

You don't want to snowball into this 4, 5, 6, 7-year project. It's going to get worse, and you're going to get in the situation where you're like, oh, s***, I've been working on this for five years.

I need to add more, because people will expect more.

I've been talking about it for five years. Don't do that. If you're just starting out, and you don't have a bunch of games under your belt already. Don't attempt to make the next Cave Story, like keep it super simple, like keep things easy peasy.

6, practice. I see even some of the most skilled designers, including myself, fall into this trap of not allowing themselves to practice.

And when I say practice, making prototypes, making Game Jam games, making small bite-sized ideas. Even if it's sketching down ideas to just flesh them out in your head a little bit, it's important to make lots of little games because not only will you get into the flow of making games even more, but you'll also be able to reference what's best in those games.

The majority of the games that have become very successful were all based on Game Jam prototypes and flash games, games that I made in a few weeks to a few months. If this prototype or if this Game Jam game is just, oh it's haunting you, and it's the greatest thing ever, you can go and make that game a full-fledged game later on.

But while you're learning or when you get into a rut, I think it's very important to practice, as much as you possibly can. And I highly recommend it. Game Jam are where it’s at. There's lots of them happening all over the place. Just throw yourself into it. Even if you're not doing it officially, just take whatever the suggestion is, and you just run with it. You'll learn a lot more by practicing, than by working on a game, the same game, for years. Don't do that.

No. 7 is, make the games you want to make. Yeah. This is more of like ride the creative wave. There are sometimes where, even I will get in situations where I'm working on something, and it seemed like a good idea. And this also goes back to the business and honesty part.

And I'll think to myself, people will buy this. And then I realized I'm myself here, because the more I'm thinking about that, the more I lean towards just doing something that other people would want, not what I would want necessarily. And I know that it will suffer, because I won't put myself as much into it, as it was something that was personal that I was passionate about.

You need to be able to ride that creative wave through the project or you'll peter out or you'll burn out, or you know, you'll explode, or it just won't happen. So it's really important to make sure that whatever you're working on is something that you are super passionate about and something that you're really, really feeling, so you can ride that creative wave all the way through the project and not just shoot yourself in the foot.

No. 8 is standout. Man I still don't see a lot of games that stand out. It's kind of a weird situation, and maybe, I could be more specific about what that means. Make stuff that catches the eye, not only visually, but mechanically. Make stuff that isn't like“ this game, but cats”, isn't like this game, but you know, ninjas or dinosaurs. Try not to do that.

Make stuff that isn't like“ this game, but cats”, isn't like this game, but you know, ninjas or dinosaurs. Try not to do that. Try to do something that is unique. And if you are doing that, make sure that the theme isn't just... So like I'm doing a game of cats, right? But it's about mutating in selectively breeding cats. So I mean, to me, that stands out.

I don't see anything else like that out there. I try to make everything that I work on stand out. That's just super important to me. I don't want it... I don't think you could pick up any of the games that I've ever made, and be like, oh yeah, another company totally could have made that. It's like, you think any company could have made The Binding of Isaac, it's like there's absolutely no way. Like and it's not just me that can do this, anybody can do this.

You just got to push out of your creative bounds, and push out of expectations, and be comfortable with taking risks, and be comfortable with, you know, making mistakes, making missteps, and do something ballsy and stand out.

The Binding of Isaac

No. 9, think critically. 99% of game design is critical thinking. It is true. And there's the marriage of like, art and logic that go together. And it's usually like programmer and an artist. That's what I do. This is the thing I do.

Anyway, you just try to think about every little thing, think about holes in your current design. Think about holes in other game’s design. Think about how other games could be improved. Think about why other games work. You'll learn a lot and you'll retain a lot from that.

And I mean, I think it's really good to be very critical of your own work. So the more critical of everything you are, the more critical you can be towards your own stuff. As long as you're being honest about it, you should be able to improve greatly as you go.

No. 10, play games. This is one that I've been in a rut with and I know I should be doing more of. Well, I guess it's, specifically, video games. if you are making games, you need to be playing games. You need to know where the bar is. You need to know where expectations are. You need to be able to exceed expectations, and raise the bar.

People misunderstand, they think that this bar is just like impossible feat, that's been put there by, a multimillion-dollar studio. Well, that's not true. Like you just go around the bar and go up. There're ways around this playing field, and you can do that by, you know, making something, somebody doesn't know that they want, making something that you like.

And the only way to really understand where the bars are, understand where expectations lie, and also, fuel your own creative juices, play games. I don't know how many times I played. I've actually read something about a game, that sounded really cool, and it was not remotely that, and I'm like, I've gotta make that idea, that I had that I thought that other game was, because that sounds cool, and that in itself is, I think, super inspiring. I personally have been playing more board games, and more recently, pinball machines than video games these days. I don't know what that is. I don't know if it's just. I'm sure it's just a rut.

I'm in with video games these days, and I'm sure other people, are right there with me, but it doesn't have to be video games. It could be anything game related. It could be D&D. I mean, I play D&D, Magic: The Gathering, pinball machines and board games forever.

I wish I could play more video games, but for whatever reason, I'm not doing that right now outside of my own. But I should. And I'm guilty of it. and I will admit I don't know where the bar is. Am I going to crash and burn? Hope not.

Dissect existing formulas is No. 11. All game genres have formulas. This is a really good one that I think that a lot of independent designers are doing very well these days. I think you can see a lot in a lot of successful games, like Slay the Spire, I mean, any kind of deck building games. That's a dissected formula of Magic: The Gathering, like it's a draft formula. There are so many rogue-like formulas that have been dissected and rejiggered, back into Spelunky and Binding of Isaac, and you know, 1,000 others.

Dissecting existing formulas is very important as a designer, because you could make “Football 2.” It is feasible, you just have to take Football 1, and turn it into a rogue like. You know what I mean? Yes. You can dissect the genres, mash genres together, and you can kind of figure out why the formulas work and how they could work together, what you would do to innovate off an existing genre.

You know that it's hard to find a new genre, right? But the only way we're going to get there is by leapfrogging off existing genres. You know, you strip something apart, you take the rules. You take rules away, you add some rules, you know. It becomes a different game.

So dissecting existing formulas is not only good for cool game design, for prototyping and for whatever else, but it also stimulates your mind. It keeps you on your toes. It lets you understand, why things work and why things don't. So it should be done, and I recommend it.

The End is Nigh

No. 12 is, grow up. What did I mean by this? What did I mean by this? It says “chances are you're not a kid anymore, so start making more adult games.” I think for the most part, this is happening. I think a lot of people are making games for adults and not so much just kids.

I think, for that, this climate has changed a lot in the past 13 years and I think there's a wide range of games for everybody for all ages, probably, more adult games than there were then. So yeah, but I still recommend it. I would still love to see, you know, more Quentin Tarantino and Rob Zombies.

No. 13 is, go outside. This is important. I think I even said it was. It says the world outside your room is important. Do not stay inside and work all day.

Don't. It's horribly unhealthy. Mentally, it will send you into a total downward spiral and depression, and creatively, it will stunt you. You know, you need to experience life outside of this. Going outside, forcing yourself outside, as I should say, to do other things and experience life is not only healthy, but it will inspire you, it will make you realize something.

Like basically, what people say about, you know, when you're trying to figure out something out - get up, walk around. It's that sort of thing, too. Like go walk, go take a walk outside, go interact with random people, you know. Go hang out with your friends, just anything that's not sitting at a computer, because you're not going to find the answer behind there. You know, the idea is not going to come to you, you know, popping veins out of your forehead, staring at a computer screen all day. You got to go out there, relax, have fun, get away from work in order for work to come to you sometimes.

14 is stay balanced. Many designers are prone to depression and mental disorders. Take care of your brain and yourself. Yeah. I think this is more true now than it ever has been. We have lost so many designers over the years and it's important to talk to people. Talk to people. Know your limits.

And going outside, hang out with your friends, making friends, forcing yourself to make friends, forcing yourself to talk to people, forcing yourself to not just be typing, you know, those kinds of social interactions, may seem like they're filling that bar up, but they're not. You've got to actually interact with real people in real life in order to fill it back up. And you know, there's no harm in talking to somebody. If you need to talk to somebody, and there's no harm in taking medication if you need it, or shame, I should say. I wish more people did.

No. 15 is stay grounded. No matter how good you think you are, there will always be somebody better. Be humble. I think people get this now. There are so many, what is it like, on the average, 32 games come out on Steam every day? Yeah. I think everybody is staying grounded at this point. Everybody's getting a piece of that humble pie. Yeah, but it's good, not to get ahead of yourself. But I don't think many people are doing that now.

Back in 2009, when there were like, 28 of us, it was easy for somebody to get a big ego and think they were the shit and they could do no wrong. But you know, in case you're that type of person, just realize there's always somebody better, and you will hurt yourself more. Assuming that you know better than whoever you're talking to, because you probably have something to learn from whoever you're speaking to, no matter who they are and what their background is.

No. 16 is, be open to feedback. This is a big one, and this is something that is, you know, I think is just the almost stereotype of a game designer's folly at this point in time.

Back in the day on Newgrounds, I used to upload a video game and it would just say, "You suck. You suck" over and over. The game sucks. Control sucks. This sucks. This sucks. This sucks. And you'd read through it all. And eventually, you'd get to the point. There was a point to “your game sucks, and it was there, you know, it didn't control too well. And it's like, oh. It's like I could just write this all off as like “you guys are jealous assholes who wish you could be making this game." Or “you don't know what you're talking about, you don't have the experience I do."

But the reality was, I knew that if there's a negative comment and there's another negative comment and there's something between those two that has something to do with controls that maybe I should be doing something, maybe I should be looking at what I'm doing and trying to read between the lines, and figure out exactly what is being said.

Super Meat Boy

I'll give you a tip. This is a protip here that I learned over the years, and this is a technique that John Blow also uses.

If you are not prototyping, if you are testing your game on a group of people, do not say you want feedback, though. Don't tell them you want feedback. What you do is you watch them play your game and you say nothing. You watch it with your notepad and you see what they don't understand and you figure out why.

If at the end, they want to say something or you want to ask specific questions about what didn’t you understand about that, how come you didn't do that, what didn’t you do. The moment you do ask for feedback, somebody's going to always feel like they need to. It's a request, right? So they're going to find something, they're going to move to it, and they're just going to say it.

My recommendation is not to do that. I think it's a foolproof plan. Sit somebody in front of your game, let them play it, and then just watch. Do that with as many people as you possibly can. You will learn an astounding amount about your game and why it doesn't work and how to improve. I do it weekly currently with Mew-Genics. It has been so helpful.

Mew-Genics

NO.17 Work with people. People are nice. People are good at things that you aren't. Working with others is important. There's a lot of designers out there who want to do it all. Don't. You know, there's no reason to. It's also less lonely when you're working with somebody else. You can commiserate together. It's a cool little fun, friendly interaction to have. And you will learn from the experiences of the other person what they bring to the table.

It's a cool little fun, friendly interaction to have. And you will learn from the experiences of the other person what they bring to the table. And I highly recommend you do that. I think most people will work together these days, though. I think that was definitely like more of an old-school, I want to do it all myself type.

No. 18 is network. Talk to other designers, talk to fans, talk to media about what you're doing. You might gain some perspective on how others view your work.

Like some of the most significant opportunities I've ever had in my life came from just the fact that I was nice to somebody else. It's like, oh. Or like, okay, perfect example. Cliff Bleszinski, Bought one of my CDs once, it was a compilation disk of all of my work in like 2007, 2008. He bought it. And I think he just mentioned it in an interview or something, and I was like, what？

And I was like, okay. This guy knows who I am. I can talk to him. And I emailed him. And I was like, thank you so much for, you know, mentioning my work and it’s so awesome that you bought my CD. If you know anybody, I'd love to make a console game. If you know anybody at any company, that would be down with an indie game and whatever else, feel free to share. And he's like, oh yeah, I know this guy who knows you and I think he'd love to work with you.

So it was just that little bit and piece, just these crossing paths and whatever else, and you'd be surprised. And if I never reached out to Cliff after he had mentioned that, there would have been no opportunity there. But the fact that I did, you know, was hugely significant in my future. So you'd be surprised, just talk to people as much as possible, and then it also goes into this.

No. 19, which is be excited about your work. When you're talking to the media, when you're talking to anybody, other designers and whatever else, if you can't have a smile on your face when you are explaining what your game is and how cool it is, I'm not going to want to play your game.

Like you should be the most excited. It should fill you with joy to be like, Oh my god, this game that I'm working on right now, yes, it's grueling. Oh, my god, I'm working my ass off. It's killing me, but I love it. I can't stop playing it. I can't stop talking about it. You can't expect other people to be excited about something you're not excited about.

And I know a lot of people who are just like, either they're embarrassed, because they don't want to be, you know, they feel like it's self-serving, to be excited about something that they're working on and talk about it in high regard or maybe they're just like over it and it feels like work.

But I think being excited about your work, especially when talking to the press or other designers, you got to show that you care. And being excited about your work is important. I guess it goes hand-in-hand with actually, being excited about your work which, you know, I think at this point, I've kind of pushed you down to this point. You should be only working on the games that you're excited to work about.

If you're independent, you should not be just working. It should be something that you love. It should be something that you are excited about. It should be something that you are excited about. I look forward to waking up and coming down here and working on Mew-Genics. It's the truth. I love working on it, and I'm excited about what I'm working on tomorrow. That's cool. You should be, too, and you should try to find the things that you're that excited about, that you want to wake up, that haunt you at night, keep you up, you got to write stuff down, so you can remember the next morning or whatever.

Join communities is No. 20. I am sure that there're many communities out there. Back in the day, there were handful of them. I don't know what they are anymore. I'm not the guy to ask. I'm old. I'm old and they don't want me around anymore.

But back in the day, the communities that was, you know, TIGSource and Newgrounds.com were two communities that I frequented, and I think that they were, they give you, they make you feel like you're not doing something for no reason. You know, they make you feel like, you know, you're part of this collective. You get to bounce ideas off each other, and you get to network, you get to make friends. you get to make colleagues, you know, you get to be excited about your work and talk about it. And dissect the formulas that they have placed out into their community. It all goes hand in hand. You need to go into these communities and say, hey, look at this dumb crap I'm working on. I'm really excited about it.

Fingered

No. 21 is learn a little about business. Business sucks. It does. It sucks. Now, I'm sure there's some people out there who are excited about business and just love the idea of just making money. And that's it. That's the end game for all this stuff. But a lot of people, myself included, the business aspect of things sucks. And I was always forced into this position，whenever I was working with somebody else, because I guess I was the more social.

I don't know. But it's important to know a little about business, so you don't get fooled, because people will fool you. It's the truth. They will totally screw you over and you won't know what's going on. You will get the shittiest deal and they will laugh behind your back as they leave.

So it's good to know what's going on. You want to know what the average percentage is that you should be getting from, you know, x, y, z. You want to know of this retail deal: Am I getting a percentage of net? Am I getting a percentage of gross, you know? Is this after this? And you know, how much money is coming out before I get paid?

And I learned. I got screwed over a few times. I learned from that. But it would have been nice to have somebody tell me, like make sure you get that money upfront, because you're never going to see a dime. You know, because 20% sounds like a lot, except you're never going to get it, because the overhead is a made-up number that goes on forever.

No. 22 is don't worry about being poor. This might have changed a bit, because people are more poor now than they were before. I grew up poor. I was very poor until 2010, poverty line. Make ends meet, you know. Don't worry about being this money-making situation. Be okay with the fact that you're going to just, hopefully, just get by.

Few people are going to buy your game. Don't invest everything in this one thing that you're doing, because, you know, there's a high probability, It's just not going to pay off in the way that you assume. So I guess what I'm saying is if you're doing this independent artist life, you're probably going to be working another job. You probably may be doing part time work. Probably, maybe you're doing some side work, like programming work for other people, or art.

You know, I did a bunch of illustrations and stuff, commissions and stuff like that. I did that all the way until 2010, until Super Meat Boy came out. That's what I was doing to supplement my income. And then I was being poor and working on projects obsessively all night long with the rest of the time, whatever rest of the time I had, ignoring my wife.

Don't worry about it. You will figure it out. Don't make this game that you're working on be this thing that's like your first and foremost financial. you know, this is the game that's going to make me all this money and it's going to be super profitable, because it's not. But if you made like 10, 15 of these, and you made a name for yourself, and you built this fanbase over time, you will see money. It took me ten years to make money off of my work. Period.

And if you stick it out and keep doing what you're doing, and you make a name for yourself, and you stand out and you network, you are excited about your work, and you join the communities, and you're honest and you make good games, because you're so critical of your own work, and you're so analytical about everything, eventually, you will make something great. And hopefully, that thing will make some money, and then you'll fund your next project, hopefully, be even greater. And you just kind of go from there.

But don't worry about it now. Don't worry about being poor, because you're going to be poor. You know, you're an artist. It just goes with this territory.

And then there's No. 23, which is try to make some money. You know, you don't want to be poor forever. You don't want to be super poor. You don't want to have your internet cut out. You don't want that. So you need to make some amount of money.

I knew the person who made Celeste, and I will brag about this. And they said, I don't know. I feel worried about the money. Well, you have to make some money. I will help you get a sponsorship. I'll hook you up the right person and I'll get you sponsorship and then they made a game called MoneySeize, which was on topic to make you know, about making money, and then Give up, Robot. And Give up Robot 2 and all those things got sponsored, and eventually, funded, you know, TowerFall and Celeste in the future.

You've got to try to hustle a little bit. It goes with the learning a little bit about business. But you need to make some amount of money. You know, selling your workcan be weird, difficult, but you have to do something to make some amount of money off your work.

Celeste

No. 24, which is the final, the final of the manifesto is have fun. If you're not having fun, then quit. You only live once. There's no reason to keep doing something if it doesn't make you happy. And it is 100% true and I stand by it.

That was, I think, when I put this stuff, that was the one that people hated the most, because I think they were so unhappy. It's just like not having fun, because they hate what they're doing, and it's not to say that. It's just like not having fun, because they hate what they're doing, and it's not to say that. So at a certain point in your project, it's going to feel like work. I go through these, you know, hills and valleys of like, oh, this is so great. And then it's just like, oh, now it's just work to get back up this hill again. Oh, it's great, and then it's, you know, that's going to happen.

And I'm not talking about that. It's like, sometimes, working isn't that fun at all. But if you feel like you're begrudgingly working, if you feel like, it's like, oh yeah, I got to come up with another game,so I can make another dollar. You know, I got to figure out what it is, and, oh, like, you know, I'm going to sit down and work and blah, blah. Like you're not doing something that you enjoy and you shouldn't be, especially as an artist.

If you're feeling that drag, and it's not making you happy, you got to try something else, you know. You don't have to leave the industry, but you got to try something different, because you're just going to drop into a pit. And then having fun making games will make your game better and it is 100% fact. You know, it will show, you have fun making that game will show in your game.

And that's it. That's my 24 tips, my dos and don'ts manifesto for independent game designers and artists. And for the most part, I think, it pretty much stands up. I could probably shorten this down to 10 bullet points, but that's it.