How we got started

Nochi started back in 2017 as an idea, a pet project, a hobby. Indie games have been booming and it’s pretty accessible to publish games on various platforms now. We did a lot of research in figuring out how Indie visual novels were being made before jumping all in to create a team to bring the Sifting Thyme vision to life. Most of the research was done by looking at specific Indie game titles and any development blogs / posts that were made dev team members. Then we lurked in the Lemmasoft forum, devouring content and opinions from all parts of the site. It was a good way to learn some of the game development processes and to figure out what needed to be accounted for from concept to final product.

The biggest, critical mistake Nochi made was initially focusing all that research on how to produce PC visual novels when we were gunning to make a mobile game. We had glossed over this detail while researching one particular competitor who had successfully ported their original-PC title to mobile. But now in 2020, Nochi has gone through so many ups & downs because of the mobile publishing challenges since the process was not properly vetted out. The biggest takeaway from this experience for all of our projects is to properly scope needs in financial, technical, and team member needs.

Things to think about for creating an indie game:

• Team Composition & Skills - identifying the skills you need to actually make a game happen. What gaps do you need to fill if you can’t do everything on your own?

• Team Passion & Dedication - be real about the time commitment and dedication. Are you doing this along with keeping a job? How about the downtime you need to ensure your quality of life?

• Funding - try to figure out the costs by doing research and calculating all the assets you need! Don’t forget to count in funding needed to keep the business running.