Minami Lane Devs Talk Getting Started in Indie Game…

When deciding to make a game, an indie developer knows one thing: success is not guaranteed. With more and more games coming out every year, making a small game can be a daunting process, but the developer duo behind the wholesome management game Minami Lane love indie games and chose to make Minami Lane a true passion project. The game's positive reviews and success on Steam were unexpected, but the team is thrilled that their "tiny project" has had such a huge impact.

The Best War Games had a fascinating conversation with Doot and Blibloop, the duo who developed Minami Lane. Doot is currently in his second year of working as a self-employed indie developer, a role he transitioned into after several years of making Game Jam projects. He admitted that the journey has not been an easy one, but he loves Minami Lane and what he and Blibloop have created. Doot shared with The Best War Games what getting started in indie game development has been like, his favorite and least favorite parts of the job, and more.

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Getting Started With Game Jams

Doot and Blibloop participated in a number of Game Jam events over the years, creating tiny games over the course of just a few days. Doot's Game Jam projects have included the cute letter-writing title Welcome Googoo, the hilarious "anti-sushi" game Flippy Fish, the downright addictive Stuck in a Soup Loop, and the adorable management game Poda Wants a Statue. After the success of Poda, which placed 11th in a field of several hundred, Doot and Blibloop wanted to make a larger game in which they had more than a few days to create their final product.

Becoming a full-time indie developer, for Doot, involved quitting his job and relying on the financial aid provided by the French government. Realistically, Doot explained, he knew that he might run out of money as soon as two years in. He described his plans as such,

I planned for my first years to be learning, completing trials, and doing a lot of different projects. My idea was, "Okay, I have this money, I can do whatever I want." For the next two years, "whatever I want" is making video games, so let's try and let's do a lot of very small games to learn fast.

Doot Learned Something From Every Game

With his plan of creating several tiny games, Doot started out with the fast-paced roguelike action title Froggy's Battle, which was released via Steam. After that, he moved on to Minami Lane, which was a collaboration with Blibloop and a composer, Zakku, who created the game's music. He described Minami Lane as both fascinating and frustrating. He learned a lot about himself as a developer and expanded his skills greatly, but he also experienced many moments of frustration when the game took longer than planned and the team wasn't able to implement everything they wanted.

Doot did feel that things got easier with each game, as he could take what he learned from Froggy's Battle and apply it to Minami Lane. He said that the most valuable skill he gained from Froggy's Battle was an understanding of how long each step of the development process took.

"For Froggy's Battle, I was absolutely panicked because, with every single task on my backlog, I didn't know how much time it would take me. It could be ten minutes or it could be three days, and I had to do them all before the game released."

Ultimately, Doot applied what he learned successfully, and Minami Lane released to positive reviews on Steam. When asked if he plans to continue as an indie developer, Doot responded with an enthusiastic yes. He hasn't figured out just what he's going to work on next, though, so Minami Lane fans eager for his next project will just have to wait and see.