The First Tree: Indie Game Production Tactics

David Wehle shared the experience in finishing his successful indie game, The First Tree, at GDC. Check it out!

The First Tree is a third-person exploration game created by David Wehle. The game has 2 parallel stories: a fox that is looking for her family, and a son tries to find his father. During the play, you will help the fox find her family and, at the same time, help son find stories and facts about his father. 

During the talk, David talked about how he managed to finish the production of the game with a little amount of money and time. He shared his tactics that lead to the success of the game. Some of them are: 

  • Posting and updating the audience about the development process. It took him 18 months to finish the project, and for all 18 months, he has been posting stuff about the upcoming game. 
  • Learning lessons from his first indie game, Home is Where One Starts. When working on his second game, he basically knew, what to do and what not to do. 
  • Having less time forces you to be more productive. 
  • Using publicly available assets isn't a shame.
  • And, of course, never have a 0% day. Always get some time, even if it's 1% of the whole plan, for the production. 

Watch the whole talk for more insights and tips here.

The First Tree is available now on Steam.

Published 20 December 2019
Ellie Harisova
Editor