The Importance of Peers

I keep being reminded how cool it is to be on a team of people with the same goals. Lofty ones usually where striving for the best result in converting a game, for example my recent work on Jak &  Daxter PS3 port. It is also really cool to be part or parts of  groups with coomon goals, such as writing an iOS or Android or Xblig game. These communities are scattered all over the place and yet these individuals and groups are around. I see some of them every day and being part of those communities and groups is amazing and I love the sesne of camrarderie etc. Having Peers in the Indie scene is very important to me, they not only motivate me and help me, but I love to just feel I am not alone. Generally I am alone nowadays in my Indie development as my other teammates have chosen to give up on the Indie dream, finding the work too hard and too long for scant reward. These people also have families they would rather be with, and also get some sleep (haha that would be nice!).

So in this article I mention several things that my Peers bring to MY party and Feelings. I will also name a whole bunch of handles from the community connection system that I love. TWITTER, yup i said it. The social networking software Twitter is my connection of choice and I love it. Short and sweet bites of information and glances into my Peers lives. Some make me laugh, some make me think, and some make me sad. I do not beleive I have not met anyone on my Twitter list, anyone at all. Yet I would consider a whole lot of them friends of mine, as they inspire and help me in more ways than telling me just how to do something.

I am going to name a bunch of people. I will also neglect a lot of names that should be in thos post. I apologise to all the ones I missed, it is just hard to crawl through 750 tweeps and mark them up. It would also make this post rather large. Note, If ya named in one category, I omitted your naem from other ones, simply put... Some people Inspire me are friends and also give me a sense of community etc.

Sense of Community
I started my Indie games creating them for Xblig (as it is named now). I love this platform and would love to do more. When i got in I was in at the start of making Indie games for the Xbox and The community there was amazing, it was mostly ran or coralled by MVPs that really care/d. Those MVPs are still around even if for me the platform is not on my development list. Following are a group of Twitter Peeps that really give me a community and togetherness. Though not all are from Xblig now.
 Clingermangw, TimelessReality, OneksoftGames, DVMGames, TimTheCoder, YourPSHome, pgermishuys, The_ZMan

Friends you never met
There are a lot of people follwing me and I follow back that I have never met. Yet I have read about their lives and their work place changes, and the issues with weather and travel to that new job, be it on bikes or whatever. I have read about late parties and police hassle in the next door neighbours house. I have had very friendly comments and suggestions from so many people, this next list are a few of those people that I would call friends I have never met.
So many, too many to name them all (but i'll try). sorry if i missed ya on my list
Hodsey77, darkan12, notthatbrad, kid_jenius, the_xlr8life, TBaby_84, DomenicDatti, AL2009man, seizethedae, Dan_Carbon, birdy1975,

Inspirational
Some people inspire to do better with my games. Usually through their own efforts at creativity or perfection. The fact most kep on trying like myself makes me feel like I should also try harder and do more.This list of peers are the ones more directly working on games and some are way more successful than others, in some cases they are living the dream of being fully independant, one day I say!
Chaunard, ElementCy, BinaryTweedDeej, mcozma, RayBladeX, StewPaton, Jayenkai, DeadlyRedCube, StegerGames, mechaghost, marketingwizdom, HeadcaseGames, Mike_Acton

Drive to finish
Some of my Peers work very hard and get lots of stuff done and Out. I am constantly being updated to what they are doing to their games and are always about to finish their next title. This puts pressure on me to also finish what I am working on. I wanna be just like them. The next few names are some that I would say do this.
CSR_Studios, VDichotomy,  Kriswd40

Support group
Ok, I lied when I said i had not met anyone on my twitter list, there is one and he is so helpful. Gotta love what he has been doing for the last 10 years being independant, even if not directly in games.
SSava,

Tech Help
Interestingly this group of people who have helped me out with tech bugs I have faced in the middle of the night when most of the world has been asleep are also huge community Peers for me. When i had a tech bug on A Shooter at 2am PST I asked a question in Twitter and It was amazing to get help from my Twitter crowd. Simply amazing!
NickGravelyn, theBigDaddio, ClingermanGW, PocketeersLtd, FinalMirage, bdsowers,

Fun
Some of the Peeople I am following provide me with all sorts of insight and information. Mostly these people help keep me sane (as much as i am!). They provide funny insightful tweeets that I cannot ignore.
DMZilla, emuholic, StephieRawks,

Sanity Check
The group of people commenting on all the games out there, the articles about this game or that. The detail and passion that some people have for the Indie games is astounding and I have to say it really infuses me with more passion of my own. These next Peers tell it like it is, or tell it how they see it and are always hyper-active in the community. Gotta love all they write and video (I Do). I do not always agree with them, but i love they write with passion and verve.
DaveDoyles, MasterBlud, NaviFairyGG, billreiss,

Things you never thought of
This is a special mention, as there are times when people point out stuff and ya go.. hmm, yeah you are soo right. Jim is one of those people and he did this again to me the other day, and is the main reason for me writing this blog post. Becasue of him, my Blog picture now looks a lot more professional and as Jim said after I changed it, he can now take me more seriously. It can be these little things that help or hinder ones progress in all sorts of ways. Thanks Jim.
MachXGames

Thanks all you Peers of mine, Love ya all!
Da Voodoochief

... Once again I apologise to all my missed Tweeps and Peers. I love you all. (If i got ya name wrong, please let me know so i can edit it, thanks)