One wonderful thing about what I’ve experienced of the games industry so far is that developers are happy to help one another.

From the very beginning of learning to develop games, I have had others offer advice and help me avoid making so many mistakes over the years. Without this process of passing information on, I wouldn’t have found out about visual scripting back in 2011 and we might not have this article to read or any of my games to play.

In turn, I’ve also given my fair share of advice and help to students and teams building their first games. It’s incredibly rewarding to see people you’ve helped flourish and succeed.

Whilst this cooperative environment is a pleasure to be a part of, this system has a major flaw:

Video games is not only the fastest changing medium on the planet, but the number of variables that change the outcome of a project is just insane - Economic, social, mental, physical to name a few.

With the above in mind, should we be more careful about what
advice we share with one another?

A developer giving advice on budgeting to independant developers but having the financial backing of a publisher/investor could lead to gross miscalculations and misinformation if developers don’t identify their differences.

So out of this discussion, what are the key things that we can do to avoid these problems?

Ask more than one person their opinion - I’ve come across teams who’ve either shown their projects to someone working at a well known studio or to a renowned developer and based on the opinion given they’ve completely changed the direction of their project.
Whilst this individual might have some genuinely valid information to share, people have different tastes in games and the projects they’ve worked on are different in a million ways.

A great example from my own experience was at EGX Rezzed 2014. At the very end of exhibiting the event, a well known Independant developer came over. They checked out Narcissus, said how much they loved the project, gave me a hug and handed me their business card. This was particularly inspiring as I’d been following their projects for some time so the event finished on a high. I followed up contact and asked some questions about Steam and Greenlight for Narcissus, and I was suggested to wait till it was on Steam before releasing. Now whilst this is sound advice, the main issue with this was the game was stuck on Greenlight for around a year, so by the time Narcissus was Greenlit, all buzz from the events I’d taken it to was gone and I was weary of the project. This was also ignoring the fact that the game is better suited to phone and tablet, but because of the reputation of the individual, I

Whilst this is

Don’t be afraid to tell someone you don’t know:
It seems like something basic, but having the strength of character to tell someone you don’t know is more worthwhile than a guess that might cost them in the long run and in turn damage your relationship. Try to keep the information you share to what you know from your own experience and direct them to others you know who might be able to offer further insight.

Just because someone knows one element of games doesn’t mean they know everything
To look at the other end of the spectrum, if something a developer suggests something actually works out E.g. “Apply to exhibit at this show and you’ll have a useful event” it doesn’t mean everything they are going to tell you is always going to be correct. To believe or follow this is risky without getting advice from other people on the same subject.