[Survey] Indie Game Developers: What Are Your Biggest Development Challenges?

RPG Maker Chat
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Hello everyone,

I would like to share here a small survey intended for RPG Maker creators and users.

The goal is to better understand the difficulties that makers encounter when they try to create, progress, finalize, or publish a game: lack of time, motivation, budget, external feedback, visibility, project abandonment, technical difficulties, etc.

Like many independent and passionate video game creators, I have personally faced several of these difficulties while trying to create and finalize projects on RPG Maker.

For this reason, with a friend, we are seriously thinking about creating a new tool intended to help independent creators find concrete solutions to some of the problems encountered during the development of a game.

Before fully launching into this project, we need to gather as many opinions as possible from creators: those who have already started a game, those who have finished one, those who have abandoned a project, but also those who are simply considering getting started.

Your answers will be extremely valuable, because even if our project could be aimed at different types of creators, I have personally used RPG Maker a lot. I would therefore like RPG Maker users to also be able to benefit from solutions truly adapted to their needs, if these needs exist.

The survey touches on several aspects of game creation: motivation, time, budget, technical difficulties, abandoned projects, external feedback, visibility, finalization, and publication. It is anonymous and takes about 5 to 8 minutes.

Thank you in advance to everyone who takes the time to participate. Your help will be very valuable to us.

I wish you all happy making!

Survey link:

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Biggest challenge is having enough free time to sit down and work on the game or the projects, I do get it done though!

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I have the skills to make polished stuff and the programming ability to do almost anything I want. Time is really my biggest challenge.

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I want to punch time!

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Thank you all for your responses.

Based on the initial survey results, lack of time and motivation seem to be recurring challenges for many creators, especially during the early stages of development and prototyping.

There also appears to be a strong connection between the two. Limited free time often requires more effort to maintain a consistent schedule, while slow project progress can gradually affect motivation and make it harder to stay engaged over the long term.

Interestingly, creators with more advanced projects seem to face a different set of challenges. Rather than issues related to starting or maintaining momentum, they more often mention project organization, finding feedback, visibility, marketing, networking, and community support.

We’re still collecting responses, so it’s too early to draw firm conclusions, but these patterns are already emerging from both the survey and the discussions here.

And for anyone who is still considering whether to participate, please don’t hesitate. Every perspective is valuable, and every creator’s journey is different. Whether you’ve completed games, abandoned projects, released commercial titles, or are just starting out, your experience helps us better understand the real challenges game creators face.

Thank you again for your time and feedback.

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well in my case, you need to gather audience first before publishing your game.
it feels a waste of time when you work hard and barely few play the game (I’m happy for whoever tried my game it means a lot!) I started to think it only takes one popular influencer to try your game and it becomes a success ( I could be wrong though)
I wish you the best and success :+1:

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Artwork/visual assets, no contest. That’s why every time somebody whines about AI, I want to punch them in the face.

Edit: Also the gross modern-day engagement-first algorithms that favor already-popular content creators over small or newer ones.

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It’s really not okay to talent-check or wealth-check small scale devs on what assets they use. And I’ll say that as a hobby artist myself. Games should be primarily about the gameplay, not about how great or quirky your artwork is; DeviantArt exists if you want to go that direction. This is why I’ll always be in favour of RTP or AI usage (but I will still rate harshly if the game itself sucks).

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