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[Chris Bischoff]

I recently posed this question in a thread of mine in the devblog section, and it was suggested that I make a new thread here.

I watched Indie Game: The Movie, and while I thought it was a touch on the touchy-feely-side (I've never cried when thinking of the story of my game), I really related to the creative pressure those guys are under.
 
As a company in an art field, with HIGH pressure deadlines, that kind of stuff can really mess a person up. I have enough of that pressure in my work, and would hate for it to spill over into my 'after hours' passion.
I think the reason that people are really connecting with my game, is that I can spend the extra time adding in smaller details...details that, if I had 10 000 people breathing down my neck, or a large publisher, I would possibly be hesitant to spend the time to add.

I would be really interested in hearing from devs who have crowd sourced their games, or have publishers, if this has changed their games in any way? Is the pressure good? Does it compromise what you are trying to do?

[sublinimal]

I thrive under pressure. It makes me focus on what's important and actually do all that, rather than daydreaming about what the game could become.

[Chris Koźmik]

I have not crowdfunded not have an extrnal publisher but I work under deadlines in a very similar fashion (since if I fail to make games successfull and on time I will run out of food and I don't like running out of food ).

This pressure definitely improved my games (both speed and quality). If I have unlimited time I end up adding stuff endlessly and rewriting/redesigning things. In the end I have an inconsistent overlycomplicated game that is not fur nor playable. Definitely, I prefer to work under "not enough time" than "too much time" Contrary to logic it's less stressful in the long run (because you made games fun and people want to play them, even if you haven't included everything you wanted).


Also these sentences rised an alarm in my mind "as a company in an art field" and "the creative pressure". Making games is not art, it's craft (I guess there is a horde of people that completely disagree with that statement :D).

[Chris Bischoff]

Also these sentences rised an alarm in my mind "as a company in an art field" and "the creative pressure". Making games is not art, it's craft (I guess there is a horde of people that completely disagree with that statement :D).

I suppose therein lies the difference for me personally. I have a full time 'creative' job which puts me under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform (Architectural Illustration).
 
I view my game as a 'pure' creative outlet. If I was reliant on it for food and boarding, it would become less about the art, and more about the (as you put it) craft. I think that's what I'm afraid of in terms of publishing deals, and crowd sourcing.

[Gunhead]

I think it depends on what you mean pressure to publish. Has the game overrun in development, management not been good, or did it lack an sort of design.

There are many many articles about how limitations and constraints make you more creative. 37Signals has written alot about them, and even Jack White (White Stripes) has talked about how he only books a studio for a small amount of time when recording an album, as lengthy recording sessions take creativity away not add to it.

In terms of pressure/stress that generally comes from not having a good work/life balance. Crunching doesn't really make the game faster (I am unsure why the games industry loves it so). Again I point you to 37Signals "Fire the Workaholics", and why Ford motors factories have a 40 hour week.

Managing game development is really hard because people suck at estimating how long a task will take, and if a game doesn't have a clear design that adds to the issues.

imo compromises generally come around because of moving goalposts, unclear design, and or bad management.

[Shine Klevit]

What pressure to publish? I mean, if you want to make a living, sell crack, not videogames. If you want to get something out the world will like enough to spend money on it, sure, put a price tag on it. But, there's no reason why you should ever put yourself in a situation where releasing a project is pressure.

As for Jack White, he just rearranges blues chords anyway. If he had to fabricate his guitar from scratch, and write a new vocabulary every song, he'd change his tune immediately.

[Muz]

Having absolutely no pressure is worse. Feature creep is a major killer.

Idk, it depends on what kind of pressure. Sometimes, they just want to ship it in their lifetime. Sometimes they sit next to you and comment on the position of every pixel (I've literally had someone do this to me).

It's much less pressure in programming, because you learn to prioritize your little details and design it in such a way for "extra stuff if you have time to fix".