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Are there any more stories like this of failed indie devleoper retrospectives?

I say this with humor, but this weekend, I took part in an indie 48-hour game-jam contest. I created the game, Fire Starter http://dummysoftware.com/games/firestarter

Created it with HTML5, targeting the desktop, rather than mobile. Didn't win, but had a lot of fun. That's kinda like the op's story compressed into a time-span of a few hours, sort of.

Btw, I recommend game-jams to anyone interested in indie game development. It forces you to create something quick, take decisive actions, and finish the game.

He participated in Ludum Dare (ludumdare.com), as did I, it's always a blast. I think you can't be thinking of going indie without having participated at least once sucessfully in a ludum dare (either in the jam or the compo, doesn't really matter)

I agree. Ludum Dare teaches you YAGNI. I built a better screen engine during LD in a couple hours than the bloated disfunctional monster I was building for my hobby game I had spend a dozen hours on. "First make it work, then make it modular" and "Create something small that works and then iterate" are now my game design commandments that I constantly have to repeat.

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