The Curse of the Indie Game Developer

<p>When it comes to great feats of coding, it&rsquo;s hard to match the difficulty, creativity, and sheer audacity of building a modern computer game entirely on your own. Ambitious, yes. Lonely, definitely. Crazy &mdash; well, let&rsquo;s just say that you won&rsquo;t get far unless you manage to ignore the obvious impossibility of the task.</p> <p>I started reflecting on single-developer games again after some controversy with a neat little project called&nbsp;<a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/867660/NYKRA/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Nykra</a>. At first glance, Nykra seems to be a rare indie game unicorn. The game has plenty to boast about &mdash; gorgeous pixelated landscapes, atmospheric music, and an enigmatic sci-fi story. From the outside looking in, Nykra inspires that irresistible curiosity that makes the pre-orders line up.</p> <p>After a multiyear development process, Nykra crossed the hardest barrier of all, going from intriguing demo to actual released product. But it didn&rsquo;t take long for the rough edges to appear. Almost immediately upon release, players started reporting a litany of bugs, crashes, corrupted save files, and &mdash; worst of all &mdash; a final level that was left deliberately half-finished. The developer responded with&nbsp;<a href="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/867660/view/3060751829368207461" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">meandering</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ENDESGA/status/1506797384801521668" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">apologies</a>&nbsp;that left the most important question &mdash; is this ever getting fixed? &mdash; floating in the air. (The final answer appears to be &ldquo;partly, but some problems will be there forever.&rdquo;)</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/young-coder/the-curse-of-the-indie-game-developer-9473f6cba5a2"><strong>Visit Now</strong></a></p>
Tags: Curse