Play Fight 2013

This year I'll be competing against some friends in a new yearlong game competition called Play Fight 2013. The goal of the competition is to see who can make as much money as possible off indie games, while being open about the entire process. So I'll be sharing progress updates regularly on the Play Fight site, as well as my earnings, marketing strategies, and of course development decisions.

The competition started January 1st so there's not much to see yet. But I have created my first post which outlines my strategy, as well as an initial prototype. I haven't heard much from my opponents, but I do know they are starting off with more ambitious projects that will likely involve server-side functionality.

This is the competition's first year running. We envision by the end of this year we'll have pages on the site containing revenue leaderboards, code commit histories, and possibly even awards for milestones such as being reviewed by a well known source. We hope that by having so much transparency we can help other developers get a better perspective into what it means to be an indie developer, and hopefully how to be successful at the same time.

For me I hope this competition will really test my limits. Although I'm starting off a little weak, the ideas I have for later this year will showcase complex tech with innovative game design. But I suspect what myself and everyone else involved or watching this competition will learn most are the deep dark and depressing secrets and strategies to marketing an indie game.

Be sure to follow @PlayFight2013 for the latest progress and posts on the participants.