“How we won gamedev by rolling our own tech”

 

For more technically inclined people, here are the slides for our GDC & IndieCade talk this year:

Slides with notes included

Slides without notes

 

Did you know you can make successful games faster, cheaper and more reliable by building your own tech instead of using a third party engine? 
With a small team and no budget, we managed to make 2014’s best tactics game (Door Kickers) in a very short time, with a huge amount of content, on 5 platforms. 
Without using any third-party engines or tools. 

Instead of adding tech, we removed tech. We kept removing until there was almost nothing left. Sounds counter-intuitive? Think of it this way: simpler means faster, cheaper and more reliable. 
Learn about the extreme simplicity of the production pipeline and the “unified everything” game engine used for Door Kickers. 
Learn that developing a game can also be done in a very smart and simple way, instead of spending years or $$$$$ on game engines. Learn how to focus on what is important and that finding the simplest solutions is usually the hardest.