Unreal Developer Roundtable: Taking AAA to Indie - How Small Teams are Making Big Games

In our first-ever Unreal Developer Roundtable, we assembled a panel of guests who worked in the AAA game development space and branched off to form independent studios. Our panelists include Summerfall Studios Creative Director David Gaider, Ironwood Studios Founder & Creative Director Alex Dracott, and Fallen Leaf Studio Game Director James Tinsdale. The trio worked on Stray Gods, Pacific Drive, and Fort Solis, respectively. In this in-depth discussion, our panelists share their origin stories getting into game development, elaborate on how they switched from AAA to forming their indie studios, and share learnings from working in the AAA development space. They also discuss how to establish trust within an indie organization and what they think represents the best thing about indie development. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:04:58 Origins of getting into game development 0:10:35 Switching from AAA to form your own indie studio 00:19:11 Learnings from working in AAA 0:23:32 Knowing what you know now, would you form your own studio? 0:26:49 Inspirations behind Fort Solis, Stray Gods, and Pacific Drive 0:39:18 Executing your game’s visual style 0:49:45 Establishing trust within an indie org 0:58:48 Why was Unreal Engine a good fit for your game? 1:06:34 Were there any particular UE tools or features that were particularly helpful for your game? 1:12:48 Tips for Indie devs 1:32:33 What’s the best thing about indie development?