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[voidSkipper]

I just love programming. I don't even care if the project in question gets abandoned, it probably means I've already had my fun.

Of course it also means I don't get paid...

I'd like to get into professional game dev one day, but we shall see.

[Accidental Rebel]

I got my developer career pretty much planned out.

1. Finish the game I'm currently working which uses Construct
2. Start learning Flixel
3. Create a game using Flixel
4. Start learning Unity3d
5. Create a game using Unity3d
6. Create my very own game without any development tool or libraby help. I'm thinking C++.

After I've finished all of those, I could now call myself as a developer. Of course, it's just my personal preference.

[Dualnames]

Well, I worked on a game for 2.5 years of my life, so now my expectations are to see if my new graphic style that people seem to like, and my previous experiments on creating solid atmosphere, will finally pull through my vision.

[RCIX]

I just recently started, and am working in my spare time. My dream is to become a fairly successful indie dev renowned for his innovative gameplay mechanics and unique vision, but that's just my dream My short-term hope is that the game I'm making doesn't bomb and in fact gets going well enough so that i can keep working as an indie dev!

[gunswordfist]

-Make small games to learn off of
-Make small games for sell online (Arcade Wave games, small platformers and shoot em ups..)
-Make bigger games to sell online (beat em ups, Metroidvanias, bigger platformers and shoot em ups, Zelda rip offs...)
-Make games for XBLA

Once I start making games for profit, it'll be a small, side job that I'll actually enjoy.

[mindtoygames]

Nothing wrong with any of these expectations. I enjoy programming (to a point anyway) and have enjoyed moderate success with my previous indie ventures to know how satisfying it is to earn money with your games and make games people really enjoy.

I too struggled early on with graphics and the like; the key is to get to a point where you can find someone who shares your vision to take care of this, or make enough money from your early efforts to pay someone good to provide art/sound (the latter route is what I did).

[Fallsburg]

My goals (roughly on a logarithmic time scale are)

Polish my game and submit it to the PAX Boston Indie Showcase

Polish my game more and sell it in the way that makes the most sense

Start heavy duty work on next project

Quit day job, become indie dev

[Blodyavenger]

My goal since I was a very small boy was to be a game developer.
Big goal, I know but it's achievable by small steps:

1.) Beat the last bit of lazyness out of me
2.) Complete my big project
3.) Put my project on sale (for budget money more or less)
4.) Start new project (for some more than budget)
5.) Get game-seller liscence or something
6.) On this step...I don't know, I'll be closer to my goal I guess
7.)...
8.)...
X.) Full time game developer 



There are steps among all which are - lerning

[Paul Eres]

i've already accomplished more than i could ever have hoped for with immortal defense, it succeeded far beyond what i anticipated, both in sales (which weren't the greatest in the world, but i expected it to make less than $2000, not $20,000+), in critical acclaim, and in fan acclaim (see this list of quotes about the game).

i can't really expect that all my future games will do as well in terms of reception, but that doesn't really matter to me, only that i keep roughly meeting or exceeding the quality of my previous games with each new one (in terms of how good i think the games are). it's also important to me that each game continues to have major innovations within its particular genre, and to do something that no other game really did before (at least as strongly).

i've a long list of games designed that i intend to make, each of which will probably take a year or more, so i've some idea of the games i'll be making for the next 30-50 years (or however long i live). certainly i've more designs for games that i want to make than i have time to make in a lifetime.

aside from that, it's also important to me to help indie games grow and eventually displace the previous game development model (of multi-million dollar games being funded by publishers in clockwork fashion). i've a lot of projects related to that that i want to do as well: posting more on the frontpage, giving feedback to other indie developers about their games (my new year's resolution was to give new feedback to an indie game in the feedback forum every day), working on the tigswiki and other projects, starting a contest for indie games that gives small prizes for dozens of tiny little categories (like best villain / best monster design) to bring more recognition to them, things like that.

i often don't have enough time to do all of that simultaneously, so improving my working efficiency is also important. i'm at the point where i do work on my game every day without missing a day, but even if i reach the point that i can't improve how much i work on things i can always improve how well i do those things (do more in less time -- work smarter, not harder).

i'd also like to expand the radical poesis games & creations team so that we're up to our previous strength: five years ago or so we had a team of ~10 members, but gradually over time most of us drifted off to do other things, so now we only have two people working on games consistently (me and orchard-l), with the rest still helping out rarely but not consistently. i'm not quite sure who would be interested in joining, but it'd help a lot to bring the team back up to full strength again (so if anyone is a big fan of our games and has some talents and would like to join us let me know).

[Triplefox]

Last year I think my expectations were: "Release a largish commercial indie title and hope it works, business-wise." I did exactly that; hoping doesn't work, but you don't know that's what you're doing, going into it. Anyway, I needed to do the learning of shipping all by myself to "get my bearings" as an indie. I was still a bit stuck in the studio mindset.

This year I've changed to "Make the most successful(fun, popularity, money) game I can possibly conceive, and don't indulge myself too much with it(already did that on the last one), but also don't stoop to low gimmicks or haphazard quality." It's a great galvanizing force and I think I've got some strategy to make it happen.

[Riley Adams]

I'm hoping to actually finish a game, polish and all, I've worked on tons of different games, but i always lose interest after all the interesting programming bits are done (so I usually end up with a cool mechanic, with a couple tech demo levels, but no will to do level design or content creation on the rest...).

In the further future:
-Graduate with a comp sci degree
-Work in some sort of programming for a while (ideally game dev, but anything that puts food on the table..), making indie games on the side.
-(hopefully/maybe) go full time indie when financial/etc conditions permit.

[HyperNexus]

Great topic. I'm hoping that everyone comes back to this thread in a few years to see how things have changed.

Last year I read the book Revolutionaries at Sony, in the last chapter of that book Ken Kutaragi left some advice for readers. One bit of advice that stuck with me was to only tell people the next step of your plan in order for their expectations not to rise too high. Since I get a great deal of anonymity over the internet I'm going to break that rule.

Currently I'm hoping to release the game that I'm working on by the time the next IGF submissions come around. The IGF itself doesn't tickle my fancy, however the deadline drives me to work harder. I'm hoping that throughout its developing that I'll be able to learn lots about myself as this game is intended to be a personal game. I'm quite opinionated so I'm looking forward to pushing myself in expressing my ideas through game mechanics.

After making that game I'd like to start making something that is a bit more commercially viable as in a year or two I'll be forced to get a job of some sort. Over the past few months I've taken an interests in political theory and persuasive games. I'd love to work on something that is commercial but also greatly benefits or informs the players about important issues.

Through this process I'd love to meet some great people to work with. I'm really picky about choosing people to work with and so would love to find someone, preferably someone who has some art skills and lives nearby.

[Bones]

My expectations of game development has fluctuated over the years.
- When I first started "coming up" with games, I had no programming skill to make the games in my head
- I made full animation sets, mock-ups, and story lines for my games
- And during this time I had the expectation that someone out there would want to make games with me
- Learned that no one for the most part wants to make "your games" everyone has their own ideas
- Began working in Game Maker
- Expectations of doing anything with Game Maker was very low.
- Now two years later, my expectations of where I'm going next are fairly unclear.
- I'd like to finish my game Demolish which has been under production for the last two years
- Never planned to sell it, as I've never intended to make money off of my video games and for the most part Game Maker games are nearly impossible to sell
- Learn to develop with Flashpunk or Flixel
- Perhaps meet more people who want to help make awesome games with me
- For the most part my problem with working on other people's games is personal interest in the game it's self and the art style hopefully I can break past that.

[nihilocrat]

I just want to finish a game that a lot of people like.

Eventually it would be cool to sell my own games, but I don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

Earlier my expectations were "finish a game" and then "finish several games".

[tsameti]

Team building. We've got too many lone wolves out there, all scrabbling away, and half of them on projects which are fundamentally the same.

I want to work together with a small, talented group of people on a mid-size project, participate in a vigorous discussion of game design, and accomplish something we can all be collectively proud of. My best ideas aren't full games, they're themes, set pieces, events, and components. They'd be just as at home incorporated into the vision of someone else's work.

So, yea. My expectation is to hunt down a trustworthy circle of folks and make goddamn magic happen. Will we be profitable? Ehhhhh... but amazing? Yes.