It has now been four years that GSM Productions went to Brighton for the Indie Dev Day of the Develop conference.

Each year, we feel our presence to be more “legit” than the year before. And, last month, for the first time, we went with an actual game in development (Get Well Soon!, but do we really have to remind you that?). From the outside, that detail looks relatively insignificant, but it made a lot for our state of mind.

The different talks of the day covered a broad range of topics. Nathan Vella from Capy Games (Sword & Sorcery among others) tried to define what it meant “to be an indie developer in 2014”. Mike Bithell (Volume, Thomas was Alone) warned us: our first games would probably flop, it is to be expected, everyone starts with that and the important part is to grow and learn from those failures.

Others told us that, contrary to the opinion shared by most indies, no, not all publishers are evil. For example, Mitu Khandaker (Redshirt) and Cliff Harris shared their experience. Cliff acted as “independent publisher” for Redshirt, a concept we at GSM Productions never even thought possible. All in all, a day full of information!

And that is only about the conference itself! Besides the talks, we had the chance to spend some time with the games of the Indie Showcase, acquaint ourselves with virtual reality… And we returned to the laid-back atmosphere of the hostel we have been staying at these past 2 years. A perfect occasion to ride the wave of energy from the conference and turn it into some progress on Get Well Soon!

If we had to extract the global feeling and summarize the whole day, we would say that, once again, we came back with clearer ideas. Not so much about indie video games or the “market”, but on the notion of independent studio and everything that goes with it. The risks of creating a team as well as the advantages that come with it. After that day, we see more clearly the opportunities the future might hold.

In the end, we came back from the UK full of motivation and even a bit wiser… Let’s go for Get Well Soon!’s alpha!