Category Archives: Game Dev

Finding Motivation When You’re Overwhelmed as F#&*

Finding Motivation When You’re Overwhelmed as F#&*
  “Oh great, another one of those overly perky motivational blog posts!” That might’ve been what you were thinking. It DOES get kinda tiring seeing the same old points reiterated, doesn’t it? Inspiration can be easy, but finding motivation is more difficult. Often we have the same answers for why we’re not getting things done:…
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Why Indie Game Developers Are the New Face of Change Management

Why Indie Game Developers Are the New Face of Change Management
Yikes, I did a pretty bad job at resurrecting this blog like I promised I would after GDC this year! Well, life more or less happened: I spoke at a lot of amazing events in 2017 ranging from my usual tour of game dev conventions to the first full-day business workshop with Playcrafting out in…
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The Rule of Seven and the Indie Developer

The Rule of Seven and the Indie Developer
I've had all sorts of interesting clients over the past few years, ranging from fellow indie developers to other industries like publishing, e-commerce, product design, jewelry, and more since I've done a lot of content marketing, business planning, and crowdfunding advisory in addition to working with game developers. Ergo, I can honestly say that I've…
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What They’ve Drilled in Your Head: The Evils of Crunch & Live to Work Redux

What They’ve Drilled in Your Head: The Evils of Crunch & Live to Work Redux
The title is a reference to my favorite Crumbsuckers song "Live to Work", which I referenced in this post about relationships being strained by the pursuit of entrepreneurship. I not only feel that this song still embodies the incredibly toxic culture of the same moniker that has utterly permeated Americans' brains, but also pockets of the…
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Thoughts on Financial Freedom: The Art and Science of Fuck You Funds

Thoughts on Financial Freedom: The Art and Science of Fuck You Funds
Greetings, Toadlets! Nice to return from a post-GDC blackout on social media and my own fiefdom. I chronicled GDC 2016 exclusively at Gamasutra and can't wait to have many more. It's been busy busy busy getting back in the swing of things: current gigs, working on the game, following up on opportunities from GDC, never-ending…
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How the R&D Tax Credit Usually Works for Indie Game Developers

How the R&D Tax Credit Usually Works for Indie Game Developers
Another tax season is on and March Madness is coming, along with GDC. You've got less than two months to file your individual tax return, and if you run your studio as a corporation, less than three weeks! Have you sat down with a tax professional yet, or figured out what to do if you…
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How do you put yourself out there?

How do you put yourself out there?
I'm sure you've been told to do just that to grow your following, find better gigs, or going beyond work stuff: finding love and happiness, or that perfect taco. But well, how do you actually put yourself out there? If you're just starting to break into the entrepreneurial mindset, you may have a lot of…
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Where’s the voice of the single indie game developer?

Where’s the voice of the single indie game developer?
It's V-Day week. So this week at Sonic Toad, I'll be posting all about singledom and relationships in the game development and self-employment contexts! And if you're an indie developer who’s single, it probably feels like every dev diary, postmortem, or Gamasutra piece about the vagaries of the indie life is virtually always centered around married/coupled up…
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Becoming More Receptive to Inspiration

Becoming More Receptive to Inspiration
Every creative person needs a muse, right? What if you were surrounded by muses but simply had no idea what to do with them? When you’re in a really shitty and stressful time of your life, sometimes that distress can wind up inspiring you (see: a vast majority of punk songs) but too much distress…
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Hey! Do you want to totally kill it at owning a game studio or another creative business but are struggling? Or you just don’t know where to start?

Yes! I want to know all the secrets to totally crushing this!

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