I'm the CEO of an indie game development company. Today I paid off our debt of $50 000 after being at the brink of bankruptcy. AMA!

Congrats. I feel like I'm you before the big successful part... so um, you hiring?

We're not big and successful yet, just out of the hole that we were in and really happy to be able to continue developing games.

Hiring, huh! Are you willing to move to Finland?

Hey! I played your game. Pretty awesome!

Hi! That's awesome, did you find any bugs?

Is it a coincidence or does finland have some kind of advantages for indie game developers? I swear 5 posts I see about people developing a game either lives or moves to finland

Finland has opportunities, much more so than other countries for sure I would say. Much of this is thanks to Rovio and Supercell I would say, sparking a real interest in investing in gaming companies and trying to nurture them.

Have you ever considered making a multiplayer game? Also I recommend linking your patreon or starting a kickstarter for a new game, I imagine it would be very successful

A future Kickstarter has been on our minds regarding Space Haven! As a form of getting alpha testers.

Is there a special reason why you're called bugbyte? Didn't Bugbear (FlatOut 1+2) also come out of Finland? What is it with you guys and bugs? Aren't they something to avoid?

Haha, I don't know! When we started we didn't have any other Finnish companies on our mind.

I think we did what many others would do when trying to come up with a name. Taking industry terms and trying to combine them in a way that would create a new word of our liking. At first we were Bugbyte Productions, but later on dropped the "Productions" :)

I have never heard of this game series.. But it looks awesome! Good job! My question is: Where do you see your franchise heading in the future?

It all depends on how this newest one, Battlevoid: Sector Siege manages to capture the interest of our community and new players. As long as there is interest there is always a chance we will do more into the series.

We have been working on a new and really ambitious project on the side as well. It's called Space Haven, and it's inspired by Rimworld, X-Com and FTL.

You can check out a dev blog we have for it. Starting with this post to see some screenshots: Space Haven Screenshots

Hyvää iltaa!

Space heaven looks awesome! What platforms are you aiming to release it on?

No iltaa! :)

We are actually going to release it on PC, Android and iOS if all goes well. So far it looks possible, although mobile might end up tablets only. We will see.

Bought Battlevoid: Sector Siege first thing this morning and can't wait for Space Haven. It looks amazing!

High five!

Looks to me like space haven is going to be your breakthrough into huge success if it provides enough strategic depth. Many people out there waiting and looking for an FTL-like fix. Goodluck, can't wait to see what you do with it.

Think so too! Will try our best to do exactly that.

If you sell a copy for 9.99 on Steam how much company revenue do you guys get at the end? Is Steam fair to indie dev groups?

All stores grab 30% to themselves. I'm ok with this, I think it's quite fair. They enable developers to make a living creating games, and they bring a lot to the table as well.

I think 30% is the max though, any more than that and it starts to be too much.

I love your story and I want to buy your game to support your team. What is the best platform to purchase your game on to financially support the developers?

All of them! Kidding :) Steam would be best! And that's really kind of you, how do people like you even exist?

How much programming experience did you guys have when you first started?

My brother had made a really small simple game in flash before. So not much :)

My brother is way more talented than I am though, my strategy is to be stubborn and fiddle with a problem until it is solved somehow.

Thanks for the response. How about now, since you have a few more people? Are you more into game design, or do you also do development?

What does it take to have a successful team? Your history mentioned you and your brother found a 3rd person who seemed to be the missing link. Why so? Was it the ideas or expertise the other person brought to the table?

Sorry for all the questions, I've considered making games as well for many yeara, but it never seems like the "right" time, and I can never put together a committed team.

I'll just give you this one image and let it explain why he was the missing link: Sector Siege title art

I'm always amazed by the work he does. He made our games look how we wanted them to look. Actually, we had no idea, but when we saw what he made we were like Yes!

Finding a committed team is extremely hard, that is why so many games fail to deliver in the end. Execution is key, and without a committed team it's impossible. Developing great games take anywhere from 1-4 years, people doing it need to be very committed and stay focused. It's not easy.

I really hope you find the right people, but I think you don't really know if you are around right people until shit hits the fan and you see how they react. Are they willing to push or do they just say: "screw it all", I'm out of here.

What does it take to have a successful team? I think it takes one person knowing what that is, what kind of people are needed and how to keep them motivated and work with everyone's strengths and weaknesses.

I don't think there is ever a right time, there's just now or later. You got to take a risk to have a chance to win!

So you and your brother seem to be programming guys. You joined up with an illustration guy, so my question is... Do you by chance need an animation guy?

Not a the moment, unfortunately!

How do you feel about what happened to hello games involving NMS?

I feel like they promised too much compared to what they were able to deliver, at least from all of the info I was able to gather and read. It felt like the game would have needed a year or two of more development to reach the stage that was promised.

All in all I feel the feeling of anger from players was justified.

Shouldn’t you have a link to your game in this post?

I added it now! Here it is on Steam. You can also find it on Google Play and Apple App Store.

This game caught my eye today on Steam. Why should I play it and what elements of the game are you most proud of? I'm a huge fan of FTL and Rimworld If it shares anything with those.

It's not really similar to FTL or Rimworld, it's quite far from.

The best way to describe it would be to say it is a light star craft type of game. Take away all the buildings and just build units. But the cool thing is that you get to customize every unit you build, you get to board enemy ships and then you can start building those! All the while this is happening there will be surprise warps here and there making you shift your focus frantically at times. There's also a bunch of cool tech to research, so you get to equip your units with new turrets and hangars.

The game will also challenge you, the difficulty and the AI and all the surprises can really throw you into loops.

What do you use to make your games and how does the process start?

I used Unity to start. First step was to look up Unity tutorials and follow them, creating simple games. From there I decided to make my own project with what I had learned. Every time I stumbled upon a problem I opened the browser and started googling.

I learned more by reading solutions to my problems online and after 14 months I had a game together! I worked 12 hours 6 days a week, so that made it come together a bit faster.

Have you considered doing a 3D game? Unity makes this quite simple.

Yes, but we kind of like 2D! Perhaps in the future.

Perhaps 3D graphics games which are restricted to 2D plane? Like Smash Bros or many RTS games?

Perhaps!

I have less than 20k in debt. You mind taking on that as well?

Not right now, maybe later!

You rented an office while being only 3 guys?

Absolutely. We felt it was really important for us to be in the same space and feel like we are focused and working on something together. I personally believe it is much harder to work in unison if you're not in the same space.

That's just me though, maybe others find it differently.

Home office, garage, 3 PCs on the dining room table?
I meen, I understand the need to be in the same space as a motivator, but it also sounds like you guys had many expenses that could easily be avoited.

The office cost 300€ a month and was definitely worth it. Just believe the productivity is much better when you go work to a real work office, and not home.

I mean if I had to bring 2 dudes home to me every day I would be pissed off at everything they do and have to clean up after them :)

I came here from r/linux_gaming. I don't want to pry, but I'm curious: what do your Linux sales numbers look like? Are they more than you would have expected, or less?

Linux sales is 2% of total sales currently. Hehe, I would say less! But I'm happy to support it.

and we few are very VERY happy that you support linux. Gonna check out your games after work ;)

Thank you! :)

How are the dynamics between the 3 of you? Is the third partner a friend or someone you found with the necessary skills you needed?

We realized we couldn't do graphics all that well. So I went hunting for someone and found the guy at a university. We chatted for a little bit, but then the event continued and we got separated. Just as he was about to leave the event I shouted to him and asked if he would like to come have a look at our office.

If I would have missed him then it would have been a whole other story. He's been crucial to our success, the missing link. Someone who can make great graphics.

So I loved the first game and had you on my list of favourite indie devs. Now with todays release you guys are charging twice as much for the game on steam, and I have to buy it twice, instead of once with a key for any other device? It feels like a metaphorical slap in the face.

Hi!

Unfortunately we cannot provide keys for other platforms. Additionally, we are forced to ask a lower price on mobile to sell units and stay on lists to stay alive and be able to continue developing games. It's just the way it is. Hope you understand.

What's your and your brother's career history before you got into game development? What was the point at which you decided to get into game development?

My brother had been working as an electrical engineer for a year or so. I had just finished my studies in computer science.

I was completely lost as to what I would like to do when I finish my studies. My brother then just happened to ask me if I would like to make games, and after some contemplation I jumped on it. I decided it was time to try something new and see what happens.

Through all of it I found that spark again and found myself really enjoying what I do. It was hard as hell in the beginning but so worth it. I feel like I'm learning new things every day and it's truly enjoyable to go to work.

Not all of it is dandy of course, there is a lot of stress sometimes. Like now when the game has been released and some bugs keep appearing in the back-end report :)

Why'd your brother not like EE? (I'm in school for it and the fact he only lasted a year worries me.)

He did not dislike it that much either. Keep in mind he only tried 1 job and was doing stuff that probably didn't excite him that much.

He was surely thinking about making own games and if it would be possible to make a living doing so.

How does one get into the game dev field? Where to start , what to learn etc...

Honestly if you really feel a spark to do it I would say one of the best ways would be to start online. If you can find someone who is also interested you can work together.

But we learned everything online, and by experimenting and just jumping in and giving it a try.

The best way to start is with a small game, and choose your game engine based on how well it is documented. I recommend Unity for this reason, you will find answers to your problems.

how do you feel about lootboxes and microtransactions dominating video games in 2017? where will it take us in 2018?

Well, they are designed to milk money from customers. So the focus has been on how to get more money from players, instead of how to make the game better.

I don't like that. I don't like that time is spent on developing features to milk money from players, when all that time could have been spent on developing features that make the game better.

I feel like it's going all wrong here. In my ideal gaming industry world games would have a one-time price + for every big content update there would be an additional price. I feel this would keep the focus on making great games and enable developers to get paid for their effort.

Will you be making this game free and pay to win in the future? Those bloodsuckers make so much money.

No we will not :)

Any tips you can share for people learning how to script? Any resources you found valuable for when you got stuck and couldn't get something to work right or when you are looking to add something you've never done before? Favorites on unity asset store (that is if you used unity). Do you guys have one person coding, one doing assets, etc?

I'm taking online courses from a few sites about c# and unity. Oddly, I find scripting relaxing when things are progressing. Trying when you think things should work but don't. Rewarding and a learning experience when figuring what was wrong. I want to devote most of my time scripting and leave the other parts for other people.

Just keep scripting and being persistent with problems. Unity is truly terrific regarding this as you can simply type your problem in Google and there's a good chance someone has asked the same thing.

It's of course good to try to understand what others have scripted, and then modify to your own use. I just kept doing this and experimenting and along the way I realized how things work and how things should really be done.

I just like to jump in and do things brute force, not always ideal when you code but I got there in the end, little by little your knowledge base will fill up.

Since you rented an office I assume the 3 of you were working on the game "full time". Did you pay yourselves out of the loan or only use it for business expenses? Has finally finding some success changed anything about how much you are taking for yourselves?

We used it to get more funding, we were lucky enough to get some support from the Finnish government when they saw we were serious. So we managed to turn that 50k into more.

We used it for business expenses and to pay ourselves. We always just took the minimum we need to survive, to be able to hold on as long as possible. The money lasted for over 3 years with 3 persons, which is a long time here in Finland considering how much it costs to live.

Can you expand on how the government loan worked?

It wasn't a loan, it was a grant! Finland can be pretty awesome in ways. Don't get me wrong, it's not easy to get and requires developing tools for the company to have a better chance at surviving. They hand it out to potential start-ups, who have a chance at high sales outside of Finland, and gaming companies have been very successful in Finland. The hype has died down now though, many know the gaming industry has matured a lot and it's a big risk to invest in any gaming company.

How'd you get into programming? Any tips for a novice coder?

Online! Start with c# and Unity for example. Look at tutorials on Youtube and create something of your own with the help from those tutorials. You will find out how cool it is soon enough!

It just takes a lot of work and persistence, like learning to play a guitar.

I have always dreamt about quitting my job for a year and trying to write a game. I thought that having $100k USD would be enough money to start out.

Is that even close?

Being a coder, I never thought about hiring other people, but it seems like they might be a support structure when things get tough, or someone you can bounce ideas off of (instead of just an additional expense). I thought it would be a lot to ask one of my friends to risk, though...

I'm so happy it worked out for you.

Best of luck!

It can be enough for sure! If it's your first game there is a big chance you will do mistakes that first timers usually do.

For this reason instead of thinking about time I would think about amount of games. If there is a way for you to get 1 or 2 smaller games released before trying that big one that would be great. It would teach you a lot of the whole process and you could avoid some of the pit falls with your main project. It would show you more clearly of what you need to have a chance. Perhaps you need someone to do the graphics, perhaps you need a marketing guy.

The downside to that would be that you wouldn't get to start on your "big" game right away. But it is something to think about. For us, 3 years and 2 games was a lot of learning. After that we did a change and managed to turn it for the better. I think this is the way it goes for most developers. It's rare to make that first game and have it take off.

And a Linux support! Will purchase both of your games now therefore.

Will you be supporting Linux in the future too? I don't think a Finnish company should ever release Windows only games... XD

Depends on how much trouble Linux gives us :) So far so good.

Hey man! thanks for this AmA. I wanted to ask, are there any new projects you guys might be working on? Will you continue with the BattleVoid franchise you have going on and develop it further or move onto something new from this point ahead?

Oh yeah! We're working on Space Haven. Actually we have been working on it longer than Sector Siege. It's a really ambitious project and we will try our best to make it the best game from us yet.

Regarding Battlevoid. It all depends on how this newest one, Battlevoid: Sector Siege manages to capture the interest of our community and new players. As long as there is interest there is always a chance we will do more into the series. We're really happy with how it has turned out and our fan base is just the best :)

Not sure if you're still answering but what's different between the new game and Harbinger?

I bought Harbinger in 2015 and definitely got my money's worth from it. Keep up the good work!

Here's what I posted in our forums:

Max 10 ships + 8 stations to command in Sector Siege versus 3 ships in Harbinger.

Marines added to ships.

Boarding feature added, both the player and the AI can board.

Capture points added, generating resources.

Old and new ships.

Turrets are mostly the same. Area of effect added.

Fog of war added.

Seamless saving and loading added, save and load at any time. Cross-platform save/load support.

Ability to capture all enemy units and stations added, and it's possible to start building them once you have one captured.

1 new race, the Guardians added.

All alien races may warp in to a fight and attack any other race. This means alien races will be fighting each other too.

Skirmish game mode with 2v2 added, you can play with an alien ally.

Star map is not randomized, but a lot of the elements inside a sector are randomized. Sector Siege is all about what happens inside a sector, and one sector play can easily take 30-60 min. A campaign has 25 sectors.

You can build up the Battlestation.

Defense missions added.

Skirmish also has defense mission and you can play against endless enemy waves trying to reach a high score.

Congrats on getting out of debt! I'm looking to create my own business (not in the gaming industry) and want to know, what kind of advice would you give to someone like me looking to start their own business?

Try to surround yourself with like minded people and people that have started their own businesses. Ask questions, like you are doing right now :)

You will probably have to make your own mistakes but some can be avoided by doing this.

Otherwise, just take it one problem at a time and don't be afraid to reach out for help to all thinkable places/persons if there is something you struggle with. People like to help.

Try to get validation for your ideas quickly. If you get stuck developing something for a long time there is a risk your prediction of how it would sell/be interesting to customers was wrong and you've put time into something that doesn't sell in the end. Test fast if you can. It can be done with small groups. A 100 people already give you a good rough estimate of if something is interesting or not to them.

How can someone invest in your company?

Contact us at [email protected] and we could continue discussions from there! We have been a bit on the "no investors, let's try to build this company ourselves" side, but if it would be a good match and views would align then it could be possible. At least worth of more thought.

Hi! I absolutely loved Battlevoid: Harbinger. When I first downloaded it from the Google Play store, I was amazed by how much time I spent on this game.

Question: If either you or your brother is married, what did it feel like answering your spouse's questions about work and the state of the company while you were at your lowest? Did you try to remain upbeat? Were you brutally honest?

Thanks for entertaining all of us with your creations! Going to download your newest game now.

Thank you!

Well, I guess we had to say to our parents how much we were making. I found it funny and depressing at the same time. But when you give something your all and it doesn't end up well, you're going to be sad but also proud of yourself.

I would say to friends sometimes that things seem so hopeless, but you can only try try and try and hope it turns out ok.

In your opinion, what are some contributing factors to the decline of cooperative gaming? Seems like with online gaming, it would be more easily implemented, but rather than mission mode co-op, we continually have mediocre single player with arena battle online options. Call of Duty World at War was a great teamwork testing game.

I'm not a programmer, so I'm asking, why is it so often not a feature in the shooters, let alone a game built around cooperation?

Hmm. Well, generally you can see games shifting with trends and with what sells. Take a look at Steam top charts and you see these battle royale games a lot.

If there's a demand the supply will follow. Perhaps the demand for co-op is there but it's not big enough to make developers put in the time and effort.

It's a shame because I would also like to play some great co-op game.

Any plans for a release outside of steam?

We have it on Google Play and Apple App Store. If GoG approves our submission it will be there too!

Hell, I'm happy for you guys. good on you for pursuing your dreams and finding success.

Space Haven perked my interest. How management based would you say it will be? I have a penchant for tycoon games, but on mobile it's often just a case of build the next thing and wait. I want something more like theme hospital, with challenge.

Either way, I'm happy to support you, have a 4 hour flight later today so I'll buy battlevoid sector siege. Hope it's kind on my battery life!

Hi!

Something a bit more towards Rimworld is what we're trying to achieve. A lot of focus on the characters, but also management. It's like taking a base building game but you get to move that base all the time :)

Fantastic. Well I loved rimworld so that definitely sounds enticing.

What would you say you are doing that will make me play it instead of Rimworld (if I'm honest I'm concerned a game of that type that is also available on mobile would lose depth and therefore longevity in its appeal).

We're developing Space Haven PC first. PC is the main focus and we will do everything in our power to bring it to mobile too. We will try our best to make the whole experience different enough compared to Rimworld to make it exciting. There's a lot of possibilities to do so since the setting is different. Rimworld is on a planet while Space Haven is set on space ships.

Remember, FTL is on mobile too :)

Fair point, though I'd say FTL is very different from Rimworld and maybe more easily moved over.

Either way don't mean to give you a hard time, just intrigued about your thought process and intentions. Either way clicking buy on sector siege on playstore... now!

Thanks :) hope you like it!

How do you guys get the word around about your game ? More importantly how do you take care of consumer satisfaction ?

We mail a lot of places. Youtubers and press. It's really hard tough, you really need to have an interesting game to have a chance.

We have built our community over years and that's the best way to spread the word. We do it by reading what they write regarding our games and try to fulfill many of their wishes, this creates solid fans who are ready to help.

Hey if I'm not too late, I've been following you guys bc I liked the past battle void game, but haven't looked at the details of sector siege. Can you tell me what differences there are between games and why should I buy this new one?

Thanks, keep up the great work

Hello! In short Sector Siege is much more of a light starcraft type of game compared to Harbinger. Here is a list of differences:

Max 10 ships + 8 stations to command in Sector Siege versus 3 ships in Harbinger.

Marines added to ships.

Boarding feature added, both the player and the AI can board.

Capture points added, generating resources.

Old and new ships.

Turrets are mostly the same. Area of effect added.

Fog of war added.

Seamless saving and loading added, save and load at any time. Cross-platform save/load support.

Ability to capture all enemy units and stations added, and it's possible to start building them once you have one captured.

1 new race, the Guardians added.

All alien races may warp in to a fight and attack any other race. This means alien races will be fighting each other too.

Skirmish game mode with 2v2 added, you can play with an alien ally.

Star map is not randomized, but a lot of the elements inside a sector are randomized. Sector Siege is all about what happens inside a sector, and one sector play can easily take 30-60 min. A campaign has 25 sectors.

You can build up the Battlestation.

Defense missions added.

Skirmish also has defense mission and you can play against endless enemy waves trying to reach a high score.

Be the next CD PROJEKT RED and pay it forward your fans. The worst thing you can do at this point is make the next game and forget your fan base.

Good publicity won't make you the next EA, but who wants to be that ?

Oh, our fans are definitely a priority. We have been able to get a small but awesome fan base, and we try our very best to keep them satisfied.

Hey!

First off, congratulations! That is no easy feat, what you've accomplished. I'm jealous ;D

Okay, so my question is, [I'm not sure if you have experienced this] what does it feel like to have your game pirated? Your game looks phenomenal--but sadly, I lack the funds to buy it.

Thanks!

Hello!

The first time we noticed our games were pirated it felt pretty bad. But now, after seeing how hard work and listening to players still pays off it doesn't bother me at all. I just keep focusing on developing games and trying to keep our players happy, success will follow if we manage to create great games.