Another week has flown past (well not quite, I’m actually writing this yesterday as there is a bank holiday tomorrow, and I may be in the middle of a BBQ and a wee bit tipsy this time tomorrow). It’s been a very busy business focused week. Fringe Planet isn’t just about making a game, it’s about establishing my own business. With all business there is a lot of invisible overhead to the outsider – things need filling in, the government needs to be kept informed of things, networking, cats need to be fed treaties and deals need to be done.

One of the important things, to me, when it comes to business is not the every day stuff that needs doing – it’s the overriding goal of the business. Why make money? (aside from the obvious reasons).  Do I just want to grow a business and get super rich so I can buy my own island and build a giant gold statue of myself on it?

The answer, surprisingly, is no. I very much want to give back to the people who have made me who I am today. I want to grow the game development community. I want to help others along their own game development journey as much as I can. Because it is hard: everyone who has tried to make a living from being an indie game developer will say exactly the same thing – it’s incredibly hard. There are edge cases of run away success stories that have created millionaires and billionaires virtually over night. This will not be the journey for 99.9% of people.

Saying you want to get rich by making a game is akin to saying you are planning for retirement by playing the lottery.

One of the big tasks for me this week was putting together the Sigil Initiative website. Sigil Initiative is not a sinister cabal – it’s my limited company I set up a few years ago to apply for the UK Games Fund. I’ve had clear goals for what I want from my company for a while now, but with various things happening behind the scenes, I thought it would be a good idea to set up some public facing information about what I want for the company, as well as (very important to me) the ethics of the company. So please feel free to check out the site, it’s a single click away and in a convenient yellow box:

In other news, people are starting to receive the Fringe Planet merchandise – it’s been both an incredibly surreal and humbling experience, seeing it out in the wild. Don’t forget you can join all the cool people by visiting the Fringe Planet Teespring shop. Every purchase literally makes me squeal when I notice it!

There is a lot more to read about Fringe Planet… why not try:

• The unseen forces are growing – Dev Blog 79
• Visiting Groningen – Dev Blog 15
• Thunderpeons are GO! Dev Blog 73