I am interested in game design but im not sure how to start

[Karl Mark]

I plan to stary an indie company once I have the skils what are some important skills I need to learn and where do I learn them

[YetiChow]

Upfront: you'll probably get better/more useful advice from forums dedicated to that subject. IndieDB, GreenManGaming, CodeRM11 (that one is more related to general coding, but games come up fairly often there), or any of the Game Jam forums (e.g. Ludum Dare) spring to mind; however there are literally hundreds of such forums out there.

There's also a channel on Youtube called "Extra Credits", they post hundreds of short videos about game development and all the other things which go along with it (like community interaction, how to advertise your game to the right players, and so on).

On the other hand however, everyone has to start somewhere and asking "how do I become an indie developer?" is the same as asking "how long is a piece of string?" -- you need more context to start with; and following in the footsteps of a game you enjoyed is a reasonable place to start. I presume that's what brings you here; if you wanted to ask about examples/experiences from Towns' creators? If that's the case, you're most likely to get an answer if you send an email to [e-mail] rather than posting here; although you could also try adding Supermalparit or Burningpet as friends on Steam.

I'm no developer*, so I can't really offer much advice for how to go about making your games; but I've been around indie games (especially ones releasing into Greenlight or Early Access/beta releases) long enough to see some highs and lows, play some amazing games, and be part of the beta process of a few games now. From a player's perspective, I can tell you some things which I've seen other developers and games do quite well, and not so well.

The first thing is to NEVER ever rush your work -- it might seem like there's a lot of pressure to release something as soon as possible, but trust me when I say it always goes badly in the long run. As such, I'd suggest you don't try to hold yourself to rigid deadlines; and definitely don't make a lot of public promises about deadlines unless your game (or the update you're working on) has already been submitted for release. Once you've sent the files off you can say "right, it will be out in X number of days time"; but before then you can't know for sure -- there might be a last minute bug which delays the release by months; or which reveals you need to remake a huge chunk of the game to fix it. Have deadlines for yourself, sure; but don't make them more important than they really are. Developing games takes time, and sometimes you just need to let the game sit and mature while you do things like play-testing.

My second piece of advice: once you put something out in public (whether it's a promise, an update, a comment you make, or whatever) you can't take it back. That goes double on the Internet. It might seem like basic knowledge; but a lot of developers seem to forget that what they tweet or post on a blog or joke about in an interview will be found by Google for... well, forever, really. This means that you need to check before saying anything that you can fulfill any promises you make, or else make sure that everyone knows it's just an idea and there's no guarantee that what you've said will actually happen.

The third thing builds off of the previous two: once you release the first version of your game (whether it's an alpha, a beta, a full game, or however you release it), your work will not slow down untill the game stops being popular/stops being talked about/stops being offered for sale. Another common thought is that once a big update is released, players will be happy and the developer can get back to work. That's not how it goes in reality though -- every time there's a new update or expansion, players have more questions and suggestions and comments and all of that. As a developer, you HAVE to keep aware of all those questions and comments and so on. So, my advice on that part is to always plan for things to get really busy after and update, not just while you're working on it.

And my final piece of advice: you need to have fun while making your game. If it stops being fun to work on, then you're not making a game anymore; it becomes just a program or a chore. So, make sure that you break up your work so that you've always got something fun to work on in between the more boring/difficult parts; and take the time to do something else if you just get bored with developing your game.

That's the advice I can offer as someone who has played a bunch of games and who has been lucky enough to see a few games go through their beta phase to come out as a fully released game. I hope that at least some of it is helpful for you

*I'm actually working as a content writer for a game at the moment; although I'm not really working on the part of the game that you play... I write the story, and help explain what's going on in the game to the players through things like tutorial text and mission text.

[Aries]

Listen to Yeti, what he said is basically everything that is to be said!

I work as a indie developer in my free time, and Extra Credits has helped me alot. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me as I will try my best to help!