During a recent Gamasutra Twitch stream, Red Hook Studios co-founder and Darkest Dungeon creative director, Chris Bourassa, gave his take on why working as an indie is a more enticing prospect than being a cog in the triple-A machine.
Recalling a recent chat he had with a potential recruit, Bourassa said he convinced the new hire to choose the indie life at Red Hook over a tantalizing job offer at a triple-A outfit by being brutally honest about the highs and lows of independent development.
“I told him to do what he was gonna do, but I said ‘I’ll tell you this: as an independent dev you feel the seasons of development much more acutely than when you’re buffered at a bigger studio,'” he explained.
“[At an indie], when you’re under pressure and there’s a lot to do it really hits hard. But the elation and the sense of accomplishment and the pride you take in the task, the ownership you feel, is far beyond anything I think you can get as a smaller piece of a bigger machine.”
There’s no denying that you’re exposed to more risk and emotional teardown as an indie, but Bourassa says it’s worth plodding through the bad times and putting yourself out there when the rewards are so enormous.
“It’s hard to read some of the negative comments sometimes. Those hit really hard deep inside you. But then you see posts and tweets and things that are affirming and encouraging, and it takes you to a much better place much more quickly than when you’re, like I said, part of a bigger machine,” continued the co-founder.
“Anyway, he ended up joining us, and he text me and he was like ‘oh I’m having a beer because we shipped the DLC!’ and I was like, ‘how does it feel?’, and he said it was amazing.”
To hear more from Bourassa be sure to check out the full stream right here. After that, go and follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel for even more developer insights and gameplay commentary.