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Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way

GDC Festival of Gaming · talk · Watch on YouTube

Indie game developmentGame design

What it is

Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software gives a GDC 2018 retrospective on surviving as an indie game maker since 1994, from shareware days through Steam. It covers business realities, costs and sustaining a comfortable living without chasing riches.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN keeps recommending it as an inspirational, funny talk on running a long-lived indie studio and what Steam provides for its 30% cut.

  • 11 people recommended it
  • 8 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2018, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Jeff Vogel from Spiderweb Software have an awesome retrospective on his games and company at GDC 2018”

    Retrospective on Spiderweb Software's games and company

    cpeterso, 2018-12 · Strong recommendation · in “How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG”

  2. “his latest GDC talk is fantastic (and a better version of this blog post)”

    Fantastic GDC talk and enjoyable speaker

    hartror, 2019-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Why All of Our Games Look Like Crap”

  3. “this talk is legendary and inspirational to aspiring game devs”

    Retrospective on Spiderweb Software surviving in indie games since 1994

    hu3, 2023-05 · Strong recommendation · in “1999 Game Developers Conference (GDC) Recordings Archive”

  4. “Here's a talk from a very old indie company”

    Indie perspective on life before and after Steam

    Jach, 2019-07 · Recommendation · in “Epic Games Supports Blender Foundation with $1.2M”

  5. “Great talk from the author”

    Retrospective on staying in game-making since 1994

    ahaferburg, 2019-07 · Recommendation · in “The Glorious, Profitable, Inescapable Art of Addiction”

  6. “He has a really good GDC talk that goes into more detail”

    Detail on why Vogel operates as he does

    eropple, 2019-08 · Recommendation · in “Why All of Our Games Look Like Crap”

  7. “a humour-laced talk, enjoyable”

    Humorous talk from 25 years of indie experience

    BrS96bVxXBLzf5B, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “Getting sweet patron money on the modern internet (2020)”

  8. “The author did a great GDC talk about being an indie developer in the brick and mortar, pre-steam days.”

    Selling games in the pre-Steam shareware era

    Rd6n6, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “Getting sweet patron money on the modern internet (2020)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: indie games, spiderweb software, steam, gdc, game business

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