Epic’s Cliffy “Cliffy B” Bleszinski B just told a huge crowd of developers at 2012′s GDC that when starting up a developer, forget Xbox Live, PSN, iOS, Android and Windows phones, and instead make games for PC. Condemning the way Microsoft and Sony treat indies, and dismissing mobile gaming, the Unreal developer said that the PC was the only place to start.

In a five minute microtalk, he rapidly fired through a series of tips for new developers, heavily emphasising the need to focus on PC, and only jokingly suggesting that they should use UDK to do it.

Making it clear that early games will suck, he argue that persistence and passion were necessary for eventual success, observing that Rovio made around 50 games before they struck gold with Angry Birds.

But what about other platforms later? Even then, his suggestion was to stick with PC, and maybe consider iOS if you can get touch controls to work properly. Xbox and PlayStation he still qualified with warnings that Microsoft or Sony may not give you the promotion you deserve.

When you’ve got your game made, he stressed that people shouldn’t use focus groups, calling them a waste of time, and instead suggested you be more imaginative. Tweet him or Notch, he offered, and if they like your game they’ll retweet it and bring it lots of attention.

He finished saying,

“Do it because you love it, but make sure you get paid.”

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/09/epics-cliff-bleszinski-says-new-devs-should-make-for-pc/#more-98263

Well Epic Games did start out on the PC.

“Do it because you love it, but make sure you get paid.”

 He speaks the truth there. Game development is quite demanding, I have been tring to make a xna game for the last couple of months and I can tell that you really have to love what you do, because you need passion and a lot of dedication to go back and check every little detail on the code source until you find what freezes your game after the tittle screen (personal experiences :9). Jokes aside, I do agree Pc is the best option to start & your first games may suck (personal experience again)...

Sex.

Anyways, I know Steam is great for indie developers to start up on (well, from what I know) so I definitely see where he makes his point that PC gaming is a good place to start. It seems very welcome to indie developers more than console gamers are.

I think it has more to do withthe fact that it can be done for free and there is no cert to release a game on PC. 

on a related note 

Romero: upcoming indies should stop “waiting for permission”

Loot Drop’s John Romero has been offering advice for upcoming indies during the “Back to the Garage: The Return of Indie Development (From Those Who Were There and Some Who’ve Just Arrived)” talk at GDC. Romero has previously worked on Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and Quake, and is regarded as one of the first ever indie developers. He says these days there’s too much too much procrastinating and not enough developing going on.

“This whole getting a job question, it hasn’t really changed that much since the 80’s,” he said.

“I mean, in 1980, if you were just coming out of high school and you were great at programming, you could get a job in programming, if you wanted that. Or if you just wanted the complete freedom to do everything your way and not necessarily ever get paid for it,” continued Romero.

The serial entrepreneur says all the tools required are already available to most: “I talk to a lot of people who want to become indie and want to make games and I guess the biggest thing I find when I talk to these people is that they are usually waiting for permission to make games for some reason. Like ‘I need to get into school to learn how to do this, and then when I get out I will get a job’ instead of ‘hey, you’ve got a computer and get some books – all the information is right there.

“There’s the self learning thing and also the people who already have jobs… but they’ve just got too much stuff going on. Find some other people you can [develop] with in the same location. That’s the way a lot of us started here; we just made games because we wanted to or we had to… when I was at home, it was all about making games.”

“That’s how you get it done, you don’t wait for permission,” he concluded.

Are you waiting for an epiphany before beginning your indie? Let us know in the comments.

Every developer should make for PC, or Mac, or Linux. Computers are simply the best platforms for games.

Epic are talking a lot recently.. im not sure i care.

however... yes PC gaming is great

thatgamecompany's success shows that you have other options, but by all means, developers should find the platform that best suits them.

So does that mean that they'll be putting more of their games on PC?

I mean, are people still a little sore after Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3?