John has supported indies as an angel investor, including

GameCake, Emoji Charades

Emoji Charades just became your best friend on game night! Conquer your boredom by describing pop culture trivia to your friends using nothing but emoji. Then, they use their collective brainpower to quickly guess what you mean. Check out the video or visit Game Cake Studios to learn more.

Buddy System, Little Bug

An amazing adventure platformer about a girl and her spirit light! Step into an adventurous story about a young city girl named Nyah trapped in a dangerous fantasy world, where evil pink spirits lurk in canyons, ice caves, and moonlit deserts. Play as Nyah and her light companion at the same time. They share an incredible bond that allows a little girl to swing and jump high, destroy obstacles, defeat dangerous demons and light the path that leads to secret areas.

parents

RE: Indie Game Dev

If your child is interested in game development you have easy access to resources - Mario Maker, Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite Creative are great places to start, all below!

If your dev is further along, encourage them to play other indie titles - not just AAA games. A lot of the indies John helped through the Indie Game Challenge are great references…

Indie Game Challenge

John co-created the Indie Game Challenge on behalf of GameStop with Terrence Myers at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and Ron Jenkins at SMU’s Guildhall. The experience brought together industry advisors and judges and created an annual event that delivered over 30 indies significant exposure, over $500,000, and opportunities to get published or fundraise around their objectives.

It is John’s all time personal favorite program - opportunities for indie devs were very few, thankfully now there are significant resources, college programs and ongoing industry entry points.

The following indie games and indie dev teams were recognized:

Aaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity - Dejobaan Games
Altitude - Nimbly Games
Climb to the Top of the Castle - TwO Bros. Games
Cogs - Lazy 8 Studios
Dreamside Maroon - Terraced
Fieldrunners - Subatomic Studio
Galactic Arms Race - Evolutionary Complexity Research Group at UCF
Gear - Team 3
Miegakure - Marc ten Bosch
Vessel - Strange Loop Games
Waker - Poof Productions
Zeit2 - Brightside Games
Confetti Carnival - SpikySnail Games
Fortix 2 - Nemesys Games
Hazard: The Journey of Life - Alexander Bruce
Inertia (video game)|Inertia - Team Hermes
Limbo - Playdead
Monaco: What's Yours is Mine - Pocketwatch Games
Q.U.B.E. - Toxic Games
Solace - One Man Down
Spirits - Spaces of Play
Subsonic - Team Height Advantage
Symon - ZZZ Games
Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare - Bad Pilcrow
Atom Zombie Smasher - Blendo Games
The Bridge - Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda
Closure - Eyebrow Interactive
Demolition Inc. - Zeroscale
The Dream Machine - Team Dream
The Fourth Wall - Team Pig Trigger
Nitronic Rush - Team Nitronic
Paradox Shift - Paradox Shift
The Swapper - Facepalm Games
Symphony - Empty Clip Studios

RE: Next Steps

If your dev wants to get into building titles like these, Unity offers online walkthroughs designed for parents and kids to learn together.

John encourages classes across programming, art, marketing, audio and more - but don’t forget to remind your dev their economics and finance classes will help them manage their in-game resources and get ahead of any industry’s evolving business models.

If you’re just getting started, Mario Maker, Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite Creative are great resources to explore first: