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[JP (@JTown_)]

Y Combintor is a startup accelerator that's helped companies like Twitch, Reddit, Dropbox, and Disqus.  Their president is going to be teaching a class at Stanford about how to start and run a startup.  For indie devs that want to turn their games into a sustainable business, I think there's going to be a lot to learn from the lectures.  

The first one will go up on sept 23rd and they'll continue through early december.  

Schedule and links to lectures will be here: http://startupclass.samaltman.com/

It obviously won't be directed exclusively to indie game developers, but I'm sure a lot of it will still be applicable -- and we can discuss what is different with gamdev.  

[oodavid]

1,000 minutes of Y-Combinator videos? Yeah why not.

[Omiya Games]

I'm watching Lecture 3, and it's pretty awesome.  I'm glad they're posting these.  Many are definitely relevant to us indie developers.

[Muz]

Personally, I hate videos. They can't really be viewed on the train or in parties and so on.

So here's some other alternate stuff from YC for those interested:
https://www.ycombinator.com/resources/

I did sign up for the course and joined the FB group and all though.

[interrupting cow]

Personally, I hate videos. They can't really be viewed on the train or in parties and so on.

I did sign up for the course and joined the FB group and all though.

Yeah videos I can't speed up or read annoy me. I can't load a video in Pocket or Instapaper, and I have one less thing to look at when I'm at a party. But they post interactive transcripts with each one, which is great:

Here's lecture one.
And part two. The rest are out there somewhere.

[JP (@JTown_)]

I usually put the videos on while I'm cleaning around the house. 

I've watched up to video 8 -- overall, I think these have been awesome. 

[oodavid]

Ah they come in thick and fast, I watched the first 4 as that's all there was at the time, I'll have to get on the next lot - agree completely, they're good videos if a bit heavy on the ego stroking...

[Muz]

Aw hell. Just noticed the transcripts, thanks.

This stuff is awesome. I've actually spent tens of thousands on entrepreneur classes by some top speakers. And this Startup Class is worth way more than most of those. Just because it's free doesn't make it bad.

Much of it does apply directly to indie game developers. It's still iteration in the end. You build a level, you test it with people, ask them if it's fun. See how they're doing. I remember way back... some folks made a few levels, released a demo, watched people play, and decided that they messed up the mechanics because people weren't playing it as expected and had to redo the whole thing. The whole building feedback into design thing can really apply to game dev too.

The first bit has really good advice on why you'd want to start a startup. It applies a lot to people quitting their jobs to make games too.