Hi, I've been interested in game design for the longest time, however I've never really been able to grasp the process that a team really goes through to create a wonderful game like EK. Could you tell me about the development of this game from its origins as a random idea to what it is today?
EK never had a team, it was just me (plus open assets, and in the late stages I commissioned some art and also had help from the translators). That may sound like it made things harder, but it's actually the easiest and simpler because coordination and keeping a team united and motivated can be a big challenge and is one of the reasons indies often fail. I guess if you have great leadership skills it can be easier, but chances are you are either a good programmer, or a good team leader, rarely both in my experience.
Even being just myself, the proccess was complicated and full with mistakes, steps back, etc. Looking back I would have done many things differently. But living is learning I guess. Your question is too wide to provide a specific answer, but an "ideal" process to create an indie game would be:
1) Paper. Take a pencil and design the whole game in paper. Draw all the menus, some gameplay screens, the controls, everything that you believe is clear and neat on your head actually isn't until you put it on paper.
2) Excel. If it's an RPG or strategy game with complex mechanics, put them all in a spreadsheet. Things like armor/damage, or how stats will evolve over the levels, what bonuses will items provide, with a few examples. It all must make sense.
3) Tech research I: the tools and skills. Find what is the best tool to make this game happen. Is it Unity? is it Unreal? is it Android Studio? Do you have the required skills to do it? If not, you'll need to learn new skills. Will you need some specific add-ons for features you need? Again, all this needs to be written down.
4) Tech research II: the challenges. Almost every game worth being played nowadays has some features that present tech problems and are not easy to implement, and will not just work "out of the box", or will require a lot of effort. You need to know this beforehand. You need to understand where you're getting and get ready for it. If you believe your game doesn't present any tech challenges, you are going to be disappointed later.
5) Prototype: time to get your hands dirty. Start implementing all your design, using the selected tech. Don't bother with graphics now, just with code. Try to identify all the esential features in your game and have them working in a basic way, to make sure you can pull off the whole thing. But it won't work. You'll hit a brickwall here and there, therefore from this phase you'll go back to 3 and 4, in a loop that hopefully will end at some point.
The above will take from weeks to months, depending on the game. From here, actual development begins. Writers/designers add the content, artists make their sprites or models, etc. Of course the proccess isn't as linear as I've drawn it out, you may need to revisit some of those phases several times.
Of course I have omitted step zero: inspiration. Not just ideas, because ideas are easy to have. You need to have a complete vision on why your game is different and fun for players, and also have answers to the question: "why will people play my game instead of others?".
