Porter's World

The Boss

Being your own boss is pretty sweet. As a full time web developer, and flash game developer, I’ve come to enjoy far more time in my room and outside, rather than making pizza on the make line at Domino’s. As great as being self employed is, I perhaps jumped into the self employed role a bit too early, and I’m facing the consequences of that now. I do however plan to push through hard times and succeed, but I’m here to share the pros and cons of being your own boss, and what you can do to ensure a smother ride if you happen to choose this wonderful route.

Everyone wants to be there own boss; nobody likes taking orders from others, especially when your input on matters isn’t really appreciated, or even listened to. Aside from the horrible wages and lack of free time I experienced working a “normal” job, I also got sick of taking orders from someone above me, especially when that someone wasn’t exactly as intelligent or deserving of that position in comparison to myself. This is one of many things that finally drove me to the decision of quitting my job and becoming self employed. Sounds awesome right? For the most part, yes, but there are a few negative aspects to it that I’ll go over now.

I admittedly jumped into being self employed a little too soon, I can cope with it now, but at a price I would have avoided had I known what I know now. I definitely should have gotten more experience under my belt before making this my actual day to day job, especially without having too much funds saved up. Stability of income is an incredibly important thing, if you’re not entirely prepared to be out on your own and self employed, you’ll find yourself facing unstable income from time to time. This can all be easily avoided if you save up enough funds to support possible issues, so I definitely advise anyone considering becoming self employed to do so. I also encourage you to be well prepared for what it is you’re doing. If you’re a programmer, make sure you know your stuff, learning is much harder when you have to worry about paying the rent and where that money will come from.

The next issue, and biggest issue for myself and others from what I’ve heard, is motivation. It’s really hard to put in the proper amount of hours, as well as actually stay focused, when sitting in front of a computer. I’m not addicted to any social networking sites, nor do I play any MMO’s, yet I still find myself wasting far too much time in front of the computer; this generally consists of doing things such as browsing the net, reading interesting articles, looking at computer parts on Newegg, and so on, it’s just one thing after another. When I finally do get settled down, and into a mental state that is ready for work, a friend will call me up and invite me to some gathering that all my friends are going to, something I have a hard time passing up when there isn’t someone there to tell me no. It’s not that I don’t have self control (believe me, I’ve passed many events in the last few months), it’s just not as easy to pass up a good time when nobody is stopping you but yourself. If you think that this could be a possible issue for yourself, check out my other article titled Motivation Boost. In addition, I strongly advise you to change your desktop background to a little motivation, it’s effects are rather impressive.

Lastly, there’s the wonderful world of taxes. This really shouldn’t be an issue, at least once you’ve learned what’s required of you as someone who is self employed, but unfortunately for me, I’m one of those people who has been delaying the research and will have to deal with it when the time comes. Some sponsors require you to fill out a W2, while others don’t. Regardless, I don’t exactly know what to do when it comes to my taxes and being self employed, and this could prove to be an issue in a few years. It really isn’t a huge issue since I have records of all my game sponsorships, but it’s still something you have to be aware of when becoming self employed.

Cons aside, there are definitely perks to being your own boss. I can sleep in as late as I want, whenever I want. I’ll repeat that for those who are in shock, yes, I can sleep in as late as I want. There is no greater perk to being your own boss than that. I don’t have to rush out of bed, take a shower, catch a bus, then fly down to a place I don’t want to be. Instead, I can wake up slowly, grab some food, hop online for awhile, then let the course of my day roll out as I please. We all remember the dreaded sound of an alarm clock waking us up for school or work, rarely do I hear that sound anymore, and when I do, it’s not I who has to wake up with the feeling that smashing something against the wall is a great idea.

As far as free time goes, there is a lot more free time to be had, and it really won’t hurt you if you use a bit of self control and plan out your work schedule. On that note, I highly suggest you plan out actual hours for yourself, don’t feel that you have to work those exact hours, but giving yourself a rough outline will help you maintain a balance of free time and actual work accomplished. I suggest using the program Klok, it’s an excellent program to keep track of the hours you work, and those you don’t.You’ll also find that having more free time makes you a happier person, which in turn makes your actual production hours more valuable because you’re in a better mindset. The amount of work achieved when happy and working on something passionate is significantly larger than work you have to do, and really don’t give a damn about.

Lastly, and most importantly, there is a certain sense of accomplishment one gets from working for him or herself. My biggest complaint with a “normal” job is that I constantly felt like I was wasting my life, like I was literally a slave to society and the system that it rests within. Making pizza is fine, but it’s not something I want to do, it’s not something I can feel proud of. People shouldn’t have to sit behind counters and take orders for nearly 25% of their life (168 hours in a week, full time employment is 40 hours, often times more). If I’m going to be working that long, it’s going to be towards something I’m passionate about, something that I enjoy, regardless of how tiresome it can be at times. That being said, I would rather work 40 hours a week as a game designer and just barely be able to pay my rent, then work 20 hours at a gas station making more, it’s just that much more fulfilling.

All in all, being your own boss is excellent. You’ll live a happier lifestyle, feel more accomplished, and eventually make more money than any retail job will ever pay you. It takes a lot more work than those jobs do, and often times it’s much harder work, but you’ll gain valuable knowledge along the way, and actually enjoy yourself. The few cons I mentioned aren’t really cons, but more things you should be aware of before becoming self employed. If you enter carefully, and well prepared, you’ll find yourself a much happier and successful individual.

Here are this week’s useful links posted by me, for you, check them out,

1.) Finite State Machines: A look into FSM (Finite State Machines) by the one and only Colby Cheese.
2.) Interview With Vortix Games Studios: An interesting interview with Vortix Game Studios.
3.) Concept First: A quick reminder of why you should plan your game fully before you build it.
4.) Sockets and IE7 Trouble: A look into some issues IE7 has with dealing with sockets.
5.) What would you pay for?: An interesting article that poses the question, what would you pay for when it comes to micro-transactions?

Check back with the Prince often, because I love you.

Here are this week’s useful links posted by me, for you, check them out,

1.) Portals With Revenue Share: A look at a few portals that offer revenue share plans for developers.
2.) Every Flash Game Must Have: A look into what Vortix Game Studios suggest every flash game should have.
3.) Are You A Risk Taker: An interesting article on taking risks in the gaming industry.
4.) The Flash Games Micro Transactions Debate: An interesting debate regarding micro transactions in the flash industry.
5.) 3 Ideas For Your First Flash Game: A look into some of the easier games you can design to get yourself started in the industry.

Check back with the Prince often, because I love you.

FGL

Lately more than ever I’ve realized how in depth and advanced the Flash industry can be. From market plans by developers, to the increase of technology in the software used, Flash is constantly evolving. The level of quality for a game, to be accepted as good, has  risen dramatically even in the last year. It’s also a common misconception that creating and selling Flash games is an easy task, lets go over some specifics.

First off, we’ve already gone over market experience and showed you how important having ads and submitting to revenue share sites can be. Well this is just the surface of how in depth marketing can get for a Flash game. Aside from ads and revenue share there are micro-transactions, performance deals, Non-Exclusive license sales, in game ad placement and more. We’ll go in depth on all the above in future  posts, but I think it’s clear the market isn’t a simple one.

The software Flash developers use is also in a constant phase of upgrading. I started Flash using Flash 4 back in middle school, at which time the company belonged to Macromedia. I now use Adobe Flash CS3. Even now, with an expensive and advanced program I find myself one program behind, for Adobe has already released Flash CS4, which comes with it’s own share of interface changes and new features. Aside from Flash itself advancing, the services and programs us developers associate ourselves with are constantly changing as well. Everything from Editors like FlashDevelop, to the API’s available for various tasks. These advancements roll over into our next bit of discussion, the increase in game quality.

It’s no mystery that the longer you do something the better you get at it, the same goes for Flash games. As the industry has been around for years, and constantly evolving, we’ve seen Flash game graphics go from mostly stick figures, to high end graphics that match those of any well made 2D game regardless of platform. Creating a game is not nearly as easy as it once was, the bar has been raised significantly with games such as GemCraft being created, and finding sponsorship is not as easy as it once was. There are more restrictions, more specifics, and more details to be gone over for every deal ranging from agreeing on a type of license, to if the sponsor will allow ads or not. Had saying this I’d like to move on to a friendly warning to fellow developers and new-comers of the industry.

As mentioned above the quality of Flash games is on the rise. Flash games are no longer created primarily by single users doing both graphics and programming, but by teams of 2 or more people. It’s commonly thought that you can simply get into Flash, think of a game idea, create it, and then continue to sell said game. It doesn’t work that way these days, you really have to know what you’re doing, and you will most likely fail before you succeed. I was lucky enough to get myself into the industry on accident, I was just making games for fun to post on Newgrounds to get a bit of recognition. I had no idea I could be paid for what was quickly becoming my favorite pass time. I think most developers issues these days is that they are in it too much for the money and failing to be passionate about game design on it’s own, even if a penny was never to be made. I love my job, it’s my hobby as well as my pay, I would continue doing this if sponsorship didn’t exist and have fun with it all the while. If you can’t be passionate about your work and devote a lot of time and energy into your projects, it’s very unlikely that you will succeed, and that’s after you have a game or two of trial and error and learn your way into the industry. I’ve seen a lot of new developers come into the industry lately, and I can honestly say that from my perspective, very few of them will succeed with their current outlooks and attitude towards the Flash scene as a whole. That’s not to say that new developers can’t succeed in this field, but they must keep in mind that there will be failure, there is much learning to do, and things are not going to be as easy as most see.