On the Process of Creating a Game... 92
jsager asks: "Can anyone tell me the process of creating a video game? I'm not talking about technologies, but about the business. Suppose you were a small successful consulting company and have an idea for a game that you would like to try to create. How do you go about the process? Do you try for funding like any other venture? What kinds of documentation do you need before you approach a game investor (as opposed to 'regular' investors)? Do you have to finish the game first? If not, how far along do you need to be?" This is a companion Ask Slashdot to the one we did earlier on
learning to be a game designer. So, after designing that game, just what would you be getting into if you wanted to make that game a reality?
Check out gamasutra.com (Score:1)
SDL rocks! (Score:1)
alternative route (Score:1)
Re:An Age Old Question... (Score:2)
Funny you should ask that... (Score:3)
A guy by the name of Tony Goodman had a consulting firm that was doing quite well out in Dallas. They had some strong ties to Microsoft, as I understand it, and did a lot of consulting with regards to their products for businesses. Tony and some of his guys one day decided to make games, and cooked up this great idea.
It became Ensemble Studios, and that game was Age of Empires. They've just recently (in the last month or so) been acquired by Microsoft, and each of their games were run-away million+ unit sellers.
Just like most industries, a lot of initial success is based on who you know. Ensemble had a great idea and a grea team, true, but it was also just as key that they had a strong relationship with Microsoft to begin with. That got them in the door and allowed their great team to strut their stuff.
I'm sure they, as most startup development houses do, created a quickie game concept demo and showed their buddies at Microsoft. Microsoft then decided to pony up an advance to get them to their first milestone and evaluate their progress. Obviously, it went well, so a long-term contract and milestone schedule was established, and a hit was born.
The best advice I can give you is to try to make some contacts in the industry. Game developers are very easy to get to know (and great people), but they often don't have the pull needed to get a fully-funded game off the ground. Game publishers are who you really want to get chummy with, though game developers can probably make the introductions. Coupled with a great demo (and, by extension, team) and a good introduction, you can't go wrong.
Hope that helps!
Don MacAskill
My geek site [onethumb.com]
Re:They dont belong in the game business (Score:1)
How do you think it is that *anyone* gets into the game business? Obviously the folks that are already there had to do a lot of question asking to get where they are. Beyond that, this is about the same for *any* profession.
People aren't born knowing everything. The only way anyone would get anywhere is by asking questions. Unfortunately, it is the jackasses like you that end up discouraging someone who wants to learn, simply by criticizing their question.
The old adage "if you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say anything at all" certainly holds true in this case. If you don't have the maturity and foresight to do this for your own good, do it for the good of the rest of the Slashdot population.
Re:What about handheld games? (Score:1)
Re:Entrepaneur about In-Home Game Design (Score:1)
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Entrepaneur about In-Home Game Design (Score:2)
For a modestly sized program (200 pages of code or so, not counting additional files for images and such) completely written in one language, I would recommend to just have a general idea of what you want to do and how you are going to implement it. Baby steps. Do things one at a time, and you will be able to get really far, if not to completion.
Any program larger than that and working in more than one language (or using more than 1 API) will almost certainly require a team (be it 1,2,3+ people). Corporate entities EXPECT everyone to work in teams. In a small to moderately large program, this is unnecessary. But all of a sudden you get a pretty good sized *serious* project and you have to deal with everyone keeping the same conventions (read: code review, ugh), sync'd schedules, and delegation of responsibility. You usually have to pay programmers to take on these alien practices.
If you are going to go balls-out on a game, market market market. Knock on 50 doors, get 5 meetings, and maybe one ping returns something promising. Some people say having a good demo is important. Having a good presentation, a good boardroom slideshow, and a good dog-and-pony show is the oldest way to get funding. Before I forget, a person calling companies to try to set up appointments is 10$ per person, per hour (max) and a good script for them to read from. That's all you need to know about selling the sizzle.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Re:AH HA!! (Score:1)
Many variables remained 16-bit integers (Vestage of Delphi 1.0) despite the performance hit (never had time to run them all down and change them). Also the code for the in-game UI elements was very heavily influenced by the Borland VCL's design (working with what we were familair with).
Re:Uh... It wasn't that way (The true version) (Score:1)
The Mode X library wasn't exactly the way I got into the industry. After that I did a bunch of other graphics stuff and wrote a few articles for Game Developer Magazine in 94-95. I looked for a gaming job for a couple of years off and on when I found Ensemble. I was picky and it paid off.
OMG.. so many typos (Score:2)
In my defense, when I wrote the above comment, I had to write the whole thing one-handed as I was holding my newborn daughter in the other.
Uh... It wasn't that way (The true version) (Score:4)
-- Standard Disclaimer -- The contents of this post are the personal views and recoletions of the author and not representing Ensemble Studios and/or Microsoft.
Tony Goodman is a business man and a first-rate gamer who dreamed of creating PC games and the company that would realize them. However, economic reality being what it is, he started out by creating a company that created Database tools (Paradox) and provided consuting services to local businesses. That company was Ensemble Corporation.
The company grew and prosepered. Along the way Tony and others learned a lot through the school of experience and mistakes about how to run a company successly. Eventually the company was succfull enough that Tony had enough resources to boot-strap start something that would become a game company.
At this time, Tony had NO connections to Microsoft or any other game publishers. Repeat, no contacts at Microsoft (Hell, they were using Borland products at the consulting firm).
He did however have a friend from 15 years ago (His college gaming club), Bruce Shelly, who had gone on to a successful career in the Game Industry (Co-designing Civilization with Sid Meier among other things). He called up Bruce, and over a period of time convicned him to join the effort he was starting.
With a couple fellow game-company believers they hired a couple people (game programmer and artist) to work full time on a game prototype. This first prototype was more Civ like and called "Dawn of Man". It was written in Delphi 1.0 and fit on One single floppy disk.
As the game was being developed by the programmers and artists, Tony and his tiny Management team were working on the Business side of things.
Now I can't stress enough how having great skills at running a small business is as important as having great skills at making a game. BOTH sides have to be there for things to turn out mega-successful.
Anyway, then the Dawn of Man prototype was to a point it could be shown, Tony Goodman went (along with a couple others) to GDC (The Computer Game Developers Conference) to shop around for publishers. With much salesmanship expended, eventually three publishers showed some interest: Seventh Level, Hasbro, and Microsoft.
At that time (late '95 to early '96) Microsoft was a nobody in the PC games arena. (They were just about to come out with Deadly Tide and Microsoft Soccer -- which would go on to sell something like 3000 units)
A company discussion and vote was held to determine which publisher to go with. It was close... we almost went with Seventh Level (Remember them) , but we chose Microsoft instead. Why? Because 1) they offered a good contract that was competitive with the others, 2) they offered better hope for international distribution (though we didn't realized then how important that would be) and 3) they had their act together business-wise better than other publishers. It often is a dog-eat-dog world when dealing with game publishers, but MS's size gave their games group an advantage.. they didn't have to screw us around on the little points and they were hungry (the MS PC games groups) to make themselves into a publisher to contend with.
Anyway, from there a lot of hard work occured and passion resulted in some truly great games. Insdutry Contacts may get you the initial meetings, but you need the whole enchelada in place to make great games.
-Matt "The Optimizer" Pritchard
Don't know about writing no game (Score:1)
An Age Old Question... (Score:3)
What would be the ideal situation? Publish it yourself.
First, is it a video game (Playstation 2 et al.) or a computer game (PC)? The economics are totally different.
If its a video game, you have no choice but to go to a publisher, since the likelihood of negotiating an independent marketing deal with a console manufacturer is zero.
There is also the matter of the manufacturing of the game media and the development kit and tools, which are very expensive for a small developer.
If you go to a publisher for anything: funding, marketing, distribution; you are going to have to give up several things at a minimum:
Venture capital is almost impossible to get for a computer game, because the economics are broken. Its a little better for video games, but not much. The problem is simple.
Computer games, led by the publishers, have the entire economy of development exactly backwards: they ruthlessly focus on a very small market while trying to outspend each other in development costs and marketing. Result? 10 games a year make money, 50 others break even, the other 300+ lose millions.
Until this problem is fixed, no venture capital is going to even listen to a computer game pitch. Publishers will listen, but only to a point.
You have a 100% chance of getting a publishing deal if you walk into the company with the following:
Anything less, and its a roll of the dice whether you'll even get 10 minutes to make your pitch. I'd suggest not wasting the time, but we're an independent developer, and learned these lessons the hard way over three years.
Each pitch will cost your company $10,000 in time, materials and effort. Without a referral, your game has to start at the receptionist's desk like the other ninety-seven billion ideas. If you can afford it, and you can keep the company going in the meantime, you might find funding this way.
On the other hand, if you have a good idea, and the team to develop it, and you can keep costs reasonable (you don't have to spend four million dollars to make a computer game, despite what the game media would have you believe) its far better (IMNSHO) to develop and publish it yourself.
This prevents several problems, not the least of which is your break-even number. Our break-even number would make most publishers turn eight shades of green, and we like it that way.
Hope it works out for you and your game!
Re:Making it... (Score:1)
Heretic was created long before Quake. Raven started as two brothers making an Amiga game called Black Crypt and expanded out from there. At the time, PC game developers were very few and shared a lot of their ideas and resources. The guys from Raven convinced the guys at id that they could use their engine to make really cool games. This goes back to ShadowCaster which was a Wolf3D variant.
good reference (Score:2)
Designing a game - yes, even a mediocre one - takes a lot of effort. I think a pass through this book might get you over some of the rough spots and may make the difference.
good luck.
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Your game is cool, I meant to email you about
it.
Pete
the process... (Score:5)
First of all, since this is your first game, you need a lot more than if you were an established developer. If you're looking for money, that's where the publisher comes in. Warning, publishers are a different breed of people, somewhat like Music Execs. Since, again, you're new to the "game" game they'll want a lot to even speak of you. You should have at least:
1) A full game design doc. This should cover the game, it's design, it's basic functionality, as well as other key points such as style, what it will "feel" like when playing, what technology you are using, and most importantly, why it will be fun and sell LOTS of copies. If a publisher isn't impressed with this, most likely you can say goodbye. And honestly, be as buzzword compliant as you can with these, because lets face it, lots of long words DO impress suits, as sad as it sounds.
2) A game. Have your game with you, playable, and as full featured as possible. Having recently been to e3, I heard too many horror stories of people with great ideas for games, full documentation and everything, shot down. My friend on the other hand goes up to a publisher with a game they (publisher) can play, and he walked out with 3 or 4 offers from publishers to buy it. You really should have the game atleast 75% done and as "wow-worthy" as possible. Let's face it, these days tech and looks sell a game more than gameplay, and while gameplay is important, your game has to look good to be bought.
Talking with friends who try to start up game companies, or just want to sell a game they've made, this is all they had, in the past...a nice design document, and a more or less finished product, and they've had luck with finding publishers, and therefore money.
And a hint: If you're going to talk to a publisher, make sure that you get money on signing, as well as on completion, and your royalties. Money on signing is a great way to stay motivated enough to finish a game...trust me.
don't base a company around a product (Score:1)
In the end you won't be distributing it yourself (you'll have to hire a game distributor)
Base a company around a product line (perhaps a particular type of game that is unique), but not around a single product.
--buddy
OT: Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Excellent post... If you have no objection, I'll post it at Librenix.com [librenix.com] tomorrow (Sunday) where it will likely get somewhat lower visibility than a (Score: -1, Redundant) 200th post here.
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:2)
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Re:the process... (Score:5)
My game is Y2k ready.
Its like Civilization and Ants. You build a unix editor, window manager, or desktop API and distribute it to various admins and developers. Meanwhile your competing with other similar projects. You win when your enemy project leaders are slain!
SVGA 256 colors with 600 x 400 resolution!
Right now it only runs on AIX, but I'm porting to Solaris.
Completely playable from the command line.
This version runs with MySQL, but I'm porting to DB/2 where I think the performance might improve.
It's like the game Deer Hunter IV, but we've pulled alot from the movie on this one.
Works with VM 1.2 - 1.4!
The code is GPL'd.
It works really well with IE 4 but IE 5 kind of messed it up.
Before I show you the demo, you have to have Large Fonts on.
It worked really well, until Microsoft patched those VBScript security holes.
The game will support tens of thousands of players. I have a demo running over on the IBM Linux Open Source Development Mainframe...
It's a German Concentration Camp, and you can play either the Nazi's, the Poles or the Jews.
Completely XML compatible.
The game is first-post on
For a better idea of how the game works goto http://goatsex.org
The game takes a stupid joke and keeps going with it over and over again, until the joke isn't really funny, and somebody gets offended.
Pokimon-Porn
two things (Score:2)
First - Have a strong, NAILED design doc. This is more than 'he runs around and shoots stuff'. This can include a summary of plot points (if any), character information (sketch and bio), proposed features, market info, etc. Think of it as a business plan for a game instead of a company.
Second - have a technology prototype that gets the idea across. Ideally this is the first level/scenario/10 minutes, whatever. It should expose core gameplay, and at least some of the features you think will make the product unique. It doesn't have to look nice necessarily though.
old bungie rant, still pertinent today (Score:1)
http://www.bungie.com/inside/soapbox896.htm
Pretty much 100% applicable today
The offical word (Score:1)
http://www.warioworld.com/public/devapps/devapp
Reality. (Score:1)
If you have an idea for a game, to get started, your best bet is to find a license to pitch it under. It's not a co-incidence that more and more games have "branding" (Street Fighter, Grand Turismo, NASCAR, Lego, Mary Kate and Ashley Oslen, etc, etc).
If you can find a game that could fit a license, write a short summary of it, in less than a page.
Draw some fake screenshots of what the game would look like, and head down to the Game Developer Conference or the recently passed E3 with this and pray someone will look at you.
Keep in mind, as you do this, thousands of other people are doing the same. If you're lucky, and chances are you won't be (sorry to say), the publisher will ask to see a "demo" of the game, sometimes they'll pay you, sometimes they won't. If you're "small" (ie less than 30 people), they probably will figure you're just a bunch of guys who "wanna write a game" (which you are).
If they like the demo and you deliver on time, they may decide to consider publishing the game.
It helps if you're in Canada or Australlia as the currency works in favour of the publishers.
Head over to http://www.joystick101.org/ and http://www.gamasutra.com/ for more info.
This isn't a troll, it's reality.
And you just thought the music industry was bad...
Re: More than a prototype (Score:1)
And I don't mean age of empires-like cinematography. Something that actually shows a game in progress. If you've ever gone to Pizza Hut (or the laundromat) and not had a quarter to your name, you know what I'm talking about.
Wolfenstein 3-D was the ultimate demo. If you don't know what that is, then you don't have an idea for a game. 95% of all games these days are no more than weak attempts at porting Wolfenstein to newer video hardware.
And you should also have limited functionality actually working. If you were developing mario bros, being able to move around with the joystick and jump and smash blocks to give a feel for gameplay.
Oh, and connections.
Visit Gamedev.net (Score:1)
The have a message board fourum for 'The Business of Game Development'.
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/forum.a
You can read the answers to your questions there because this is asked ALL THE TIME. There are also forums for asking for help from artists and progammers.
Also look into a high level engine to drive your proof of concept. That way you can drop in your artwork and models and begin your scripting. Developing an engine from scratch would not be time well spent as your focus is to shop your 'idea' around and not the next killer 3d engine'.
Something like blender or crystal space should do.
Then if your idea gets picked up you can hire competent coders to design the engine correctly.
I spent a couple of years coding a 3d engine on the side with python as a scripting language. I got so caught up in the engine part the only actual game I created with it was a 3d pong clone for a flipcode contest
Good Luck!
Hire Tech Writers (Score:2)
Never underestimate how necessary good writers are to any tech team.
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:2)
I'd like to mention having been involved in two would-have-been videogame companies -- both times I've tried this it was always *THE ARTISTS* who flaked on me first. (bad) Artists always want to take whatever you need and transform it into their own retarded vision -- they can't ever just do what they're told ... and they are SUCKERS for instant gratification, they sketch a monster on an art pad and come in the next day and wonder why its not in the game yet! No appreciation for how much work it takes.
I'm still involved in one of these ventures -- and our artists all quit on us ... luckily most of the game we're working on is spaceships -- which I can do in moray no problem :)
Re:the process... (Score:2)
Let you ego grow as big as your hair, promise the world and get all the fanboys ravenously awaiting your masterwork, burn through $20M as quickly as possible, and then release Daikatana^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H a really lousy game.
Re:you havent played many games lately (Score:1)
Re:Well... (Score:2)
You're right, but you need to go further. (Score:2)
The problem is that most people haven't written a significant design document anywhere near long enough. I used to think 10-20 pages was fine, you'd hammer out all the details later, right?
Wrong. Average game design doc will be in the area of 150-200 pages. You've got to list out the formulae you're using to determine random encounters and calculate experience, you've got to have the entire plot tree listed, consequences of every action, etc. etc.
If you drop your doc on the table in a silent room, and it doesn't startle people, you aren't done.
The stupid thing about all of this is that during the course of making the game, you throw out 1/2 of the stuff in there, and redesign the other half. But you need to have it done, to show your potential investors that you know what you're getting into, or else you reek of vaporware, and everyone's going to hate that.
Remember. Every gamer and their mom thinks they have an idea for the next hit game. Maybe 10% percent of them actually have something that is originalt, and of those maybe 1% have the leadership, ambition, and ability to carry it through. (Unfortunately, most of those people end up getting shouted down by the John Romeros of the world.)
The publishers use the design doc to measure how much drive the person has to get the game made, and how much work they're willing to put in. A lot of games end up half-finished ideas, and those don't make anyone any money. Others end up as half-finished ideas that the company has invested too much in, and they ship them anyway.
well... (Score:2)
Gaming houses do like it if you show up with a finished/debugged game to sell though.
Good luck on funding (Score:2)
Noone will give you any money. Anyone interested in investing is looking for a quick profit that games will not bring in.
Try to sell a finished game to a publisher.
If you can prove to a publisher that you are capable you can usually get immediate work porting other games to different platforms.
In the old days... (Score:1)
If you have something that's fun and good looking, you've got a potential product. To find out if your game is fun, you should let as many people as possible beat on it. Watch them play the game and see how long they play before they decide to do something else. If they play just a minute or two, you're toast - doesn't matter how much fun you think it is - what matters is how much fun they think it is. After all, they're the ones who are going to pay for it. To find out if folks will pay for your game, make it shareware. DOOM started out as shareware and it worked well for them. Epic started out sharewaring their games and did well.
Be forewarned - you're shooting long odds when you sit down to write a game. Most of the games we looked at to publish we passed on and of the ones we passed on, only one got picked up by another publisher. Long, but not impossible, odds.
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
The other important rule is that it's just as much about what they don't say.
A lot of people won't want to dump on people in a reference, so they offer some fluff, but not much else.
Then you probably don't want to hire him.If the reference says:
Sure, he did the job, and he wasn't fired, but there's no mention of him adding value, and no recommendation to hire. If that's the best the empoyer could offer, then he wasn't a great employee.
I once saw a reference for an IT guy, that basically said
Which bascially means, "nice guy, works well, worth hiring but don't expect him to bring in any skills, except those you see on his resume. If he can do what you want, then go for it, but if not, don't expect him to pick it up."Since I know the person that wrote it, I'm pretty sure that's what was meant.
Talk to the references (don't rely on the prepared piece) and ask them everything. If they're reluctant to answer something, then you've probably found the weakness.
--
Re:You're right, but you need to go further. (Score:2)
In my experience (and I have been a video and non-video game designer) outside submissions get about as much reception as a leper in a hot tub.
It's like this:
Publishers have a marketing department which largely determines what games get made. "Our analysis is that we need a first-person shooter for Xmas 2003." So shall it be; some suit at the company gets an outside or inside developer to make the game. Publishers are usually not interested in innovative games. Innovation is risky. Sequels and genre clones aren't. (I think Black and White, a recent innovative game, was self-funded; the publisher didn't have to pony up much if anything to Lionhead for its development.)
Game development houses have their own staff of creative people who like games -- these people have their own ideas, and they DON'T WANT YOURS. I've seen this from the inside in several game companies. I have also been that bad person who doesn't want your idea, even if it's a good one. This never varies; creative people have their OWN agenda to push.
I'm sure that some kid somewhere came up with a great game idea and got it made by some company at some point in history. And if you are so inclined, try your luck at that. But don't believe that there's some magic formula -- some kind of document you can write that will win over the Suits at the Publisher and the Hipster-Looking Game Designers at the development house. It all comes down to luck, getting your proposal in front of some kind of executive who is both open minded AND not full of his own ideas. That's a rare cat indeed.
Cheers,
IronChef
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:2)
LOL, did you work where I did??
(In retrospect I would have rather stayed in the office trying to recreate some pesky bug that see TPM. Uck.)
Re:In The Process my self (Score:2)
Are you saying that this is the process Sony said they require?
Re:The game industry... (Score:1)
It's true that a publisher will pretty much ignore you if all you have is a high concept and no proof of execution or skills to do same (experience is best, but failing that, a good demo is the proof in the pudding as it were). But don't ever make the mistake of believing that the publisher will somehow see the inherent brilliance in your idea. Ideas are cheap.
Though, unlike some of the other grim posts you see here, I don't think it's quite as horrible as all that. There is a thriving small developer market even with all the shakeouts, especially among the smaller and midsize publishers. Sure, you're not going to get an Ion Storm excessive deal, and you're not going to have 8-digit (or even 7-digit) marketing figures that way, but it is an excellent way to get your name out there, and it can be done. Don't get disheartened!
Re:AH HA!! (Score:1)
Re:Funny you should ask that... (Score:2)
ES has been very successful for a number of reasons, but key among them were getting lucky with a very talented set of people (Age of Empires was the first game out for almost everyone on the project!) and the fact that the game could be bankrolled off of the success of Ensemble Corp. Having the resources to hold our ground in negotiations with MS for Age and Age 2 was tremendously useful.
There is a lot of great strength in not coming from a traditional gaming shop background, but you definitely would be well advised to use the resources out there on the net, like Gamasutra. Publishers are your greatest ally once you get them on your side, but you have to keep in mind that your interests and theirs don't always dovetail. You have to guard your own interests, but not keep them at such arms' length that you fail to take advantage of the tremendous experience and opportunities that they represent.
Another studio stories I'm familiar with from personal experience: Irrational Games (System Shock 2, Freedom Force, The Lost) was initially funded with nothing more than a few months savings from the three founders (myself, Ken Levine, and Jon Chey). We parlayed that into some minor consulting contracts, and then parlayed that funding into a bigger contract using our contacts from LookingGlass. Lack of funding hurt us a lot, and we spent a lot of energy just figuring out how to stay alive.
But the upside of that is that we had no external debtors or angels so we HAD to figure out how to make everything work ourselves. We worked well under pressure, so it turned out fairly well. We also didn't have to sell our souls to anyone. I would advise very strongly against taking VC money if you can at all avoid it, because you're just shifting major influence and power in your company over to someone who doesn't have your long term best interest at heart.
Actual negotiations with publishers work in a fairly straightforward method; you make contact with the relevant people, arrange a presentation, and begin the lengthy process of negotiation. It can be hard to get those initial contacts without a lot of experience, but they are very valuable. You *will* need a lawyer to handle contract negotiation once that gets started, or else expect to spend a lot of time doing it yourself.
The philosophy we had at Irrational was that we were willing to "loss lead" our first game to make a good reputation and then leverage that in the future. It's been pretty successful.
Here at Ensemble, we had such tremendous success with our first few products, we were always able to avoid any real funding crises, and now that we are with Microsoft full time, we can finally stop worry about the whole publisher dance altogether. Dealing with publishers does take very real time; don't just assume that someone can handle all the business side of things and the publisher side of things in additional to their normal programming tasks (or whatever).
In the end, running a game company isn't too different from running any other kind of software shop at the high level. Proper business mangagement can make a world of difference, and publishers can see and respect that kind of discipline. Of course, you have to have the talent to back it up too!
It is very difficult to get mindshare (from publishers and equally important in some ways, the press / fans) early on, so be prepared to invest a lot of up front time in your demo. Polish, polish, polish! A well polished demo and a professional presentation go a long way towards convincing a publisher that you are serious about this, not a bunch of kids in a garage (even if you are).
The mindset/attitude we always founds best was, "this game is going to be a hit with our without you; this is your big chance to get on the bandwagon". Salesmanship 101, I guess, but that stuff can make a difference.
I wish the best of luck to anyone setting out on this long and crazy road. Launching a game company requires a blend of luck, talent, connections, and resources, but if you have the calling it can be very worthwhile. Just don't neglect the business side of things for the game side of things!
-- Lead Programmer, Ensemble Studios (and an ex-Irrational Games founder / programmer)
A common road (Score:2)
You get version 1.0 up which provides proof of concept and proof of potential coolness factor and lots of feedback.
This also gets you going on a basic website where you can find places to do basic merchandising for you life coffe mugs and t-shirts There are places out there that will seel t-shirts, for example, make their profit in the base price, and send you a check for your markup.
And then you can start moving to version 2.0 - Point being that you set yourself up so that the cost of everything is either free, or covered by the money you bring in.
Basic economics: Money In minus Money Out equals profits.
It is possible to be proftible from very early on, but it takes discipline
Check out the Vinny the Vampire [eplugz.com] comic strip
An idea is not enough (Score:1)
First you need to build a good technical team, a lot of connections, create a first level prototype, then you might get a publisher to help you finish and publish.
The problem is, your share of the pie will be small if you cannot afford to finance on your own. Even if you finish it on your own, you need a publisher or money for publishing. And even then it's a dicey business and you're not going to get an investor to bet on one game, if it's not something trully revolutionary with rave reviews.
If you think you have a great idea and you only need an investor, I strongly urge you to just forget about it. Making a game is essentially content production for a market full of risks and not realization of a grand idea.
If you're serious, visit the business sessions of one of the game conferences first.
Build it! (Score:3)
Re:Uh... It wasn't that way (The true version) (Score:1)
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Re:Uh... It wasn't that way (The true version) (Score:1)
]jump to the game industry. All I had at the time was the MS Basic compiler, so I made my library for it.
Cool, it worked fine from Turbo C++ (2.0? 1.0?) after a bit of coaxing. It was actually the first time I was able to do nifty effects like I'd seen in those 'cool demo things'. heh. I've actually got lots of memories that start with that library. Thanks for releasing it.
Blitz 3D (Score:2)
http://www.blitzbasic.com/
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Reads like a movie script, hint, hint...
Just coming to the end of my (maths) degree,
and i took summer (jan-feb) off to write
a test bed for a game that i've been thinking
about for some years.
I need to work with some others now
to see if we can come up with some
fun levels to play.
Seems to me that game programming/design
is one area that would use more than %5 of
my talents, another area being
scientific research...
im a bit of a recluse tho' and that's
something that will need a lot of work to fix.
I can tell you wahat isn't enough (Score:2)
We were actually in a good place as far as these things go, our team was top notch in the creative department, slightly lacking in the technical dept (though we felt we could pick up all the coders we'd need once a deal had been inked). Our worst weakness was in business issues. we didn't have an MBA on the team, so we hired a president and CFO through our lawyer, to legitimize the team. The roster was looking pretty good at that point, but it certainly occured to me that we were getting assed out of our own company before it even got off the ground with the inclusion of so many strangers in the top slots before we even started shopping for that VC money. but oh well, hopefully your internal structure will be solid enough to survive VC involvement.
As for getting a deal: well, we shopped and shopped among all the great publishers- from activision to warner brothers, infogrammes to EA. we produced nearly 50 kick ass design docs, many slick proposal packages, original concepts and custom art conceptuals all to no avail. The word was "this all looks great but let's see a demo".
Well, we tried to make demos. Problem was, most of us were working full time at other game companies. Those of us not working were incapable opr unwilling to create a demo from scratch. We tried mock-up stillshots and when that didn't get any bites we tried adapting the UT engine to look like a hand made demo (we were intending to use the UT engine for production at least, so that wasn't that bad an idea). But the resolve wasn't there and so the demos didn't scortch if they got made at all. This was very frustrating to say the least.
Last but not least, the publishers all showed a lot of interest in the development of pre-existing franchises that they have rights to.
So, my advice to you is:
:)Fudboy
gamasutra.com (Score:1)
THere is a place where people actually have a clue to share... and its called gamasutra
http://www.gamasutra.com
You can do whatever you want; as far as funding, often a publisher (Activision, EA, etc.) will fund a game, but you can also find private funding, or talk to a venture capitalist.
As with any other high-risk business, dont expect to take home a large %age unless you already have a large %age of the product done to bring to the table when getting capital.
Guiding principles for most investors (Score:1)
Big risk means big reward. Investors in a start-up business are taking a risk -- a big risk. They will only do this if they can expect a very large return on their money after a few years. Expectations vary, but a common goal would be recovering ten times the investment within five years. This may sound like a lot, but you need to discount it by how many new businesses fail (most). The failure rate is how they decide what amount of return is needed. (If most new businesses succeeded, they'd be happy with a lower return.) So whatever scenario you paint had better show a strong likelihood of plenty of money returning to the investors.
Team outweighs idea. Investors generally perceive themselves as investing in the team rather than in an idea, a technology, a market opportunity, etc. There are always plenty of good ideas out there, and bright people will get more ideas than they can follow up. The investor wants to find the right group of people who will select the best ideas, fight to get things done, solve problems, recover from setbacks, tell the truth, and deliver on schedule. This is common sense. If you want to hire a contractor to build a garage, you're more interested in the people than in the type of trucks they drive.
Ideas can get attention if protected. There are exceptions to the previous rule -- smart people do sometimes invest in ideas. But investable ideas are more than back-of-the-envelope concepts; they're protected, by patents, by well-developed proprietary processes, or by having been reduced to practice in a complete product. In such cases, the investable team can be taken as a given, because they were able to develop this great concept into something marketable.
If you don't have a team with international credentials, or a strong patent, or something else that is investable on its face, you have a few options.
1. Self funding. Find a way to build (most of) the product yourself, and get to the point where you can show a nearly-ready product. At that point, you'll have a chance of getting money for publication, distribution, support, etc. This is essentially the advice given in many of the other comments: build and test a strong demo.
2. Partnership. Establish a strategic partnership with somebody who can fund all or part of your work, in exchange for a substantial piece of the action. This is difficult, unless you already have a strong preexisting relationship. You generally have to provide enough information about your plans that the potential partner will decide "Good idea, but we can do this better ourselves." No nondisclosure agreement can really protect you from this risk. Often, the best you can expect is to work as a consultant implementing your idea as somebody else's product.
3. Shoestring. Do the project in your spare time, until you can pursue one of the above. This is difficult to do to a professional enough level, but it's not impossible. It often leads to shareware/freeware solutions.
No matter what, any potential investor is going to look carefully at the quality and completeness of your planning. Nobody is going to be impressed with "We have a great idea but we want somebody else to figure out how to market it." The most important aspects of the idea, from an investor's standpoint, require that you have a clear understanding of precisely who will buy the product, how many copies can be sold, what price can be supported, appropriate delivery and support channels, your potential competition, and all the other things that go into a business plan. So in addition to a running product or a strong demo, you need a strong business plan that shows a deep understanding of the business issues.
Again, the investor will only plunk down capital for people who understand those issues; such people will always be able to come up with good ideas and solutions as they're needed. If you don't have those skills, then you're asking the investor to provide a second team to do the business stuff . If he can find that team, why are you needed? Remember, the other team, if it's any good, will already have its own ideas about what products should be built. Who's the investor going to trust to make the tough decisions -- the team that knows the market, or a bunch of geeks who admit they don't?
I hope these comments are helpful. None of this should be taken as discouragement; if you've built a successful business, you realize most of this already.
- Trevor
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Sounds more like to have luck or not than to be smart or not.
You don't know at the beginning if one programmer/artist is good or bad.
Process made EZ (Score:1)
Come up with idea (90% of the problem)
Work through the game to the end game, paper or compute mockup
Divy up tasks (art, sound, etc.)
Put together
Beta test
Fixes and Touchups
Release (don't forget to leave lots of cheat codes in!!!!)
Cross fingers
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
Having never programmed a game before... (Score:1)
Who love your all your base, baby?
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
Re:Process made EZ (Addendum) (Score:2)
Manuals are for lusers. First rule of opening package is to toss manual behind filing cabinet, bookcase, or any other hard to get at place.
Broke enlish are make greatest fodder for /. post!
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
Re:Process made EZ (Score:2)
The game market is very much run by the hardware maker, unless you mean the PC, yeah lots of cheap stupid crap at the game stores, which you can buy on the bargain table because they didn't really catch on. PS2, Nintendo, XBox, you're looking at getting the seal of approval from the maker, because sales ultimately go through them, since you're paying a hefty fee to be able to write a game for that _proprietary_ box. This is why hardware is sold at a loss.
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
Making it... (Score:1)
And Adrenaline Vault too! (Score:1)
My Experience (Score:2)
There are also contracts floating around- distributors like Hasboro will have an idea that they want developed. This might be a good place to start. Either that, or be as good as Blizzard or Valve :)
Remember that the distributor could lose millions on your game through duplication, warehousing, shelf space, and marketing (which costs probably double the total development price). To these people, you are a lottery ticket!
Depends on what you want to do (Score:4)
You can either subcontract out this side, work with a gaming company, or do it yourself.
If you subcontract out, you need people who have taken video games to market, have established connections with distribution channels, and understand your basic vision. You also need the capital to do this.
If you work with a gaming company, you either will get locked into a contract that has low rewards unless you meet certain shipping quantities or net sales (not gross). This may be a good idea if it's your first try, but if you've only got one game in you, this is not a good idea.
If you do it yourself, you will quickly find that contacts with distribution, marketing, production, and all that will matter far more than the quality or playability of your game.
Re:Well... (Score:2)
Thank you. :-)
I learned these lessons well, first-hand. With the number of gray hairs I have now (I kid you not), you can guess I wasn't with the "smart" company.
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:3)
Sounds more like to have luck or not than to be smart or not. You don't know at the beginning if one programmer/artist is good or bad.
You're sort of right. You can't guarantee 100%, but you can do some simple things to reduce your risks:
These are only some of the ways. It was guarantee you get good people, but it can reduce your risks considerably. Never forget to check someone's references and ask what they were like on the job.
Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:5)
Having recently escaped the gaming industry with my sanity barely intact, let me tell you how you "develop a game", from a business/marketing point of view.
First off, get an idea. Doesn't even have to be good or well thought out, just have an idea that gets other people excited. Then convince a bunch of your friends to come work with you on it, all on their spare time, of course. Develop a presentation proposal. How far you want to go is up to you. You can take it as far as a very descriptive design document with artwork, or a working prototype.
Now you decide if you want to become a slut or a whore. If you want to become a slut, you will go around to a lot of sleezy people trying to raise funds, get marketing contracts, etc. This is a lot of hard work, and a very chancy proposition.
If you want to become a whore, which is easier, you sell your game proposal to a publisher. If you're lucky, one of these publishers will like your game idea and give you a pot of money and a contract. If you look at the fine print, you will see you've sold your body, soul and first born for the next three generations. Invariably, you give up some to all of your creative control (depending on how good a negotiator you are), agree to ridiculous schedules and features and agree that in exchange for this nice pot of money up front, you won't see a dime in royalties unless the game becomes a f---ing big hit. The publisher takes care of publishing the box/CD, marketing and distribution. Also, the publisher is the one taking the financial risk, not you.
So now, you've got a pot of money, with promises of more if you can hit those milestones every month, your team and your game idea. Now you can form a company. If you're smart, you find a low-rent office that's not that trendy (looks like something from Dilbert, say) with basic amenities (like a fridge, water and coffee maker). You and your friends then buy appropriately priced hardware and furnishings and spend your days working on the game.
Now if you're dumb, which would include almost all of you fools who want to go into game development, you'll find a trendy office in a renovated industrial part of town with a cost per square foot that makes a downtown penthouse look cheap. You'll then spend most of your money creating the "coolest place to work ever with free pop!" You and your friends will come up with some fucked-up ideas on how to run a company (let's all go to Episode I two days before a major milestone! YAAAAY!). The technical architecture of the game will look elegant and amazing on paper; the art design and direction looks promising. You start hiring people like crazy by either paying over-market for experienced people or under-market for inexperienced fresh-out-of-school graduates then let them at it.
If you were smart, the next 6 months are quite fun. You and your friends work long hours, but have a good time with each other. Sure, the office is a little drab, but it encourages each of you to go home and have a life. You come back the next day refreshed and able to solve those hard bugs.
You chose simple, workable solutions over over-engineered work of art solutions. Your artists are all capable, creative people who really want to do good work and you appreciate them. Your programmers work very hard to create tools that support those artists and what they really want to do. You buy off-the-shelf tools and libraries rather than write your own. Your architecture is data oriented, not code oriented, so you can create tools that let the game designers and artists directly build their worlds and test out game designs. Sort of like how Doom, Quake and Unreal work.
You have the weird notion of hiring game testers early and having them intimately involved in QA and game design feedback. By having an engine, it simplifies the coding work so you can spend more time making sure your code works. You also save optimization until after the bulk of your game architecture is in place. Game logic changes are easy to implement with the engine scripting language enabling you to experiment with alternate ideas. You set realistic goals for each milestone and hit them on time. The milestone money seems to last till the next one. You buy a fooz-ball table.
If you were dumb, you find you're running out of money before your first milestone hits, that elegant technical architecture has turned into a white elephant. The artists never really got the idea and have created something else you didn't want so you yell at them, they go back and produce crappier and crappier art no matter how loudly you humiliate or degrade them. The experienced programmers sit on their butts all day playing Quake occasionally doing 4 hours work around midnight. Oh, on occasion they will do an all nighter, but after the deadline, it's back to Quake. The inexperienced programmers are introducing more bugs than they are fixing and their output is not "state of the art". The art is the wrong size, format, color for the game, but you've hard-coded all your parameters so you have to go in by hand to re-write pieces of code, change constants, re-compile, test, go back to the artists, etc.
An artist accidentally adds an extra vertex to a polygon and it crashes your game. Don't laugh; this happens. Everyone works insane hours as the Milestone deadline approaches. You burn and burn CD's and you test and test, but you keep finding bugs, or the bugs you thought you fixed came back, or they were never fixed in the first place. ARGH! Midnight comes and goes, and as per your contract, you loose half the promised money. You then work for another two weeks just to achieve the goals you promised 6 months ago, but find you promised too much. You finally get a semi-working version and send it into the publishers. You last payroll bounced, so you desperately need the money.
As the game progresses, all your code is custom. One of the programmers complained he didn't like the CD code for Windows so he's now writing his own. A junior programmer is trying to figure out how to create a custom movie player format for your game, and how to convert AVI's to this new format. Your experienced programmer swore to you the two weeks spent optimizing the vertex transform engine will double the frame rate. Instead, it drops from 15 fps to 12 fps everytime someone sneezes. You test this, and find it's true.
Your testers complain the game isn't that fun to play, but you ignore them because they still haven't found out why the sound is skipping during Quizle's leap from tree to tree. One of your programmers quits for health reasons, another for "family" reasons. They controlled vital sections of the project, so you assign to junior programmers to their old positions. Your money is running out faster now. You sell your fooz-ball table to the game company down the street.
The year is up. If you were smart, your game still has some playability issues and bugs, but it's only 2-months extra work. Your publisher has no problems giving you the time and money because the game looks so good and you've proven you were responsible enough to deserve it. Sure, it's a lot of work, but everyone's happy. The game is fun to play, no one's burnt out or snapping at each other. You ship it out, and it's better than you expected. The game testers gave you great ideas. The data-oriented and engine based architecture allowed you to radically change elements of the game without a huge overhead in re-programming. The game sells a 100,000 units and you're comfortably well-off.
If you were dumb, the game ships out a year after it was due. You've missed payroll so many times, you can't remember if this paycheck is for the missed 3rd or 6th paycheck. You've had to cut back on the free pop. You've laid off staff. Moral is low. The game looks terrible and is unplayable, but you ship anyhow. You get savaged in the media, and made fun of on the game sites. The publisher pays you your last installment knowing that's the last money you'll ever get for this game. Two weeks later, you walk into EB and see it in the remaindered bin for $5. You never got a copy of the game yourself, but you think $5 is too much for it anyhow.
That's how you do it, Sparky. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Thanks (Score:1)
Well... (Score:2)
DIAYS. Build it right away - use blender... (Score:1)
It's from the dutch company NaN and called Blender [blender.nl]. The second most popular professional 3D App that runs on Linux. (Maya's the first) Features a fully grown game engine with python script support (you can use c if you feel better with that, though).
The only competitor to that I know is NeMo [virtools.com] - the devtool that was used for Halflife/CounterStrike. And that costs LOTS of money.
Coming to that... you should make your entire game in blender. The independant player should be finished within the next 5 months. Then you can go ahead and publish it already. Or just use it as a playtesting previewer (playtesting is 90% of the good games (as seen with StarCraft)). After you've done some realization you still can switch to the unreal engine or whatever you fancy.
The bottom line is, that sophisticated 3D gameproduction will more and more become a task of the good old garage group of the eighties again. Alas.
Good Luck and Happy Blending.
Re:Entrepaneur about In-Home Game Design (Score:1)
1) What is a page of code, is a page 50 lines of code in boldface, or is it 5000 lines of code. Nobody that I know of refers to 'pages of code' as a barometer. Function points and lines of code are two common measurements, neither one is completely accurate but they do serve as a guideline.
2) Documenting your code too much can detract from readability. My code has very little if any documentation in it but it is considered by my bosses to be some of the most readable code that any one of my coworkers spit out. Why? because the code that I write is readable unto itself. The only time I bother to comment the code itself is when the code is doing something that is not clear by reading the code, and usually I try to rewrite the code to make it readable.
Jonathan
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:1)
Also some companies make it a policy not to give out references either. I know that my former employer has this policy standardised around the world.
Jonathan
Have you considered self publishing? (Score:1)
I recall an interview from one of the ID software artists that said "If you sign up with a publisher, all you are getting is a salary to finish your game....the aim at ID is to make money off of our own games..."
My first suggestion would be to write the game itself. In your spare time, on your savings, girlfriend's money, whatever. Then put a demo version up on the internet. If people like it allow them to order the game online. Deliver the full version online too. The cost for doing (excluding your time) is about 25 dollars a month.
As for publicity, aggressively distribute your press releases to each and every game magazine you can think of. Suggest to them that you will cooperate with them for a review, a feature or an interview. Give interesting statistics about ur company. If your game is interesting, they will definitely call you.
This has worked for me cos I have written and published a new animation editor for Maya called Titan [poojyum.com]
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:2)
Oh my. Oh my, but this is true. One thing you forgot though; in the dumb company, you hire a hideously expensive slut-in-a-trouser-suit director to handle your transition from one-game wannabe's to a multimedia multinational powerhouse. We're talking IPO's, we're talking acquisitions, we're talking CHECK YOUR SOUL AT THE DOOR, HEADCOUNT!
Re:Oh, Dear God! Not another one! (Score:2)
Well, there are good and bad artists, just like there are good and bad coders, but I do remember nightmare conversations along the lines of "Don't you think 144 polygons is a little excessive for a bullet model? What with us having a couple of hundred of them flying around. Can we maybe cut that down a bit? Ideally to the two that we budgeted for."
On the other hand, the lead programmer wanted a COM wrapper round every bullet object (as well as every bloody object in the game) to make it easier to seamlessly integrate future modules. "So you'll be playing your Mech game, then suddenly BAM! A bunch of Aerotech fighters appear, and you're like WHOA! Where did they come from? That'll be so cool!"
I swear to Shub Internet, all this is true. The wonder is that any games get released at all. ;)
Re:Hire Tech Writers (Score:2)
Excellent point. Also, remember multi language. Change your mindset. Don't think "English, but we'll internationalise it later", think "Language neutral, regionalisable from day 1."
Quick tip 1: get a German translation and design your interface sizing around it. Some German words and phrases are longer than you can possibly imagine, and don't take well to abbr.
Quick tip 2: don't let your producer's new girlfriend do the translations, or tell you that the professional ones you had done are all wrong. I don't care how much sugar he'll get for letting the vicious vacuous bimbo slut parade her sliver of "German for irritating backpackers" knowledge. Er, that might be a personal point though. ;)
Re:The idea is not what's important (Score:2)
Failing that though, you do need a meaty design (even if you're going to ignore it), plus you also need a flashy prototype.
And here's the catch. If you're an unknown team, you can forget writing the next Civilisation. You have to have a whizzbang demo that makes jaws drop within the average attention span of a producer. You've got about 10 seconds, 5 if there are any shiny objects nearby. I'd even venture say that it doesn't even necessarily have to be interactive. Just knock out a swooshy flyby demo aimed at the next gen graphics card. Publishers don't give a rat's arse about playability; their vision is based on movement.
Your first step is to hook some c0cksucking little pissant producer in a publishing house who's desperate to score a winner. You need this insider to champion your cause, and the swooshier the demo, the higher up the food chain your demo will be passed. Remember, if you send a dull or ropey demo, any producer that picks it up will likely be more neurotic than Desparate Gil from the Simpsons.
After you get your producer champion, he'll then whore your design doc around inside the publishing house for you. At that point, internal politics takes over. If you got Gil, you're screwed. He'll lie to both sides, while covering his own reptilian arse and pumping up his portfolio to let him escape to a better position in another publishing house. If you get a good producer, then... no, wait... those don't exist in the real world.
This isn't overly pessimistic, it's the brutal truth. Without backing, industry experience, contacts and a good body of work (demo/game and docs), you're basically screwed. Bear that in mind if you really think you've got it in you to be a commercial game developer.
Re:It's rather like Hollywood... (Score:2)
Oh man. I was coding on Project Millstone, slaving away to try and get the damn thing nailed down and out the door. The publisher didn't want it, nobody wanted to work on it any more. It was basically dead but still staggering around.
But every week, the creative team would lock up with our macho/martyr complex lead progammer, then emerge with The Idea. This Is It. This Is The Thing. The Idea that would save the game. It was radical! It was daring! It would take just a tiny rewrite of the engine... ;)
So true. Publisher's vision is based on movement. Forget pitching Civ 2002 to them, if you're whoring a fresh game, your demo has to grab their reptilian vision centres within 5 seconds. It doesn't even necessarily have to be interactive, just something that a producer can use as eye candy muscle in his little internal power plays (hopefully on your behalf).
Re:Process made EZ (Addendum) (Score:2)
And don't forget to get your German translation done by the producer's new bimbo slut bitch girlfriend. She backpacked around Germany for like, six weeks, so she knows a hell of a lot more than some gay ass professional translator, right? All you have to do is explain to her what "left click" means. In English.
Oh, how I wish I was joking.
What about handheld games? (Score:2)
I wish we had a Open Source based handheld gaming platform. It would likely have more of a chance for success than Indrema since GameBoy style games can still be developed by individual developers in their spare time. I'm sure an Open Source gaming handheld would prove popular among a crowd like this.
GamaSutra is your friend (Score:5)
- Budgeting and Scheduling [gamasutra.com]
- Go here [gamasutra.com] and punch in "Post Mortem"... they contain a lot of useful info about starting up.
- Creating a Design Doc [gamasutra.com]... there are tonnes more like this there.
- Creating a business plan [gamasutra.com]
- And finally the one you probably really want: Birth of a Game Studio [gamasutra.com]
and it just goes on and on and on. GamaSutra is your friend.Ryan T. Sammartino
Re:Wrong place to ask (Score:2)
you havent played many games lately (Score:1)
Designers have no place in Video games (Score:1)
The idea is not what's important (Score:3)
Re:two things (Score:1)
90% of all game development goes into getting the first level, scenario, or 10 minutes of continuous gameplay to run. The remaining 10% is merely content integration.
I've been a Game Developer for 6 years, so I'm comfortable with the design and implementation aspect. However, the original question was asking more from a business point of view.
Anyone here ever start their own small game company? What were your steps?
Re:They dont belong in the game business (Score:1)
The game industry... (Score:1)
One is that everyone has an idea, so they're worthless on their own. What's worth something is being able to implement the idea.
The second element relates to the first, and that's that the game industry has become that, an industry. Furthermore, just like the film and music industries, it's becoming a hit-driven industry in which 90% of the revenue is made by 10% of the titles, and much of the popularity of the title is decided upon by the fickleness of the masses.
Game publishers work just like music and film publishers, they amortize risk across many titles. They fund the development of many titles each year, with the objective that a few hits will cover the costs of all the others. Because the vast majority of games do *not* make a profit!
So what's the secret? It's to minimize the publisher's risk. It's done in a number of ways, but the main ones are:
- Produce as much as you can by yourself. Create the technology, prove the concept. The more you have already produced, the more you have shown that you can hit the remainder of your milestones, and the more you've shown that the product has a chance of success.
- Get experience. Publishers reduce risk by betting on proven teams. People who have shipped titles on time, and on budget (and preferably profitably, but that's not always possible) are infinitely more valuable than people who would *like* to one day do these things.
So there you go. Read articles on the net about the game industry, and how brutal the entire sector can be. It's a big chain from retail to wholesale to publishers, and developers are but a small part in the whole equation.
Appreciate the risks undertaken by each part of the chain, and then look to how you can fit into their scheme to produce something which they'd like to take to completion.
It takes patience, but wouldn't it be nice to have your game on the shelves one day!
Re:Process made EZ (Score:1)
It's rather like Hollywood... (Score:2)
First, just an idea will get you nowhere. Everyone has an idea. Every time I mentioned I wrote video games, there was someone offering me their idea and saying that of course they were now owed at least half of whatever it would earn.
Of course, they never realized ideas are easy. Good execution is hard. And convincing someone to fund your execution is harder. You're talking about creating a company from scratch -- know how few of those live to tell the tale?
Much like the big movie producers, game producers are reluctant to take risks. They want to earn money, so they prefer an established team and an established type of game. A sequel or a movie tie-in is even better. And they won't hesitate to re-edit your baby to please the market, or can your project outright if it doesn't look like it will be worth the expense of marketing and distributing it.
If you have just a design document, you're in the same position as someone peddling a movie script. Why would I spend time reading a script from some unknown? And why would I ever give you good money to develop it (as I presume you want to, since you said you had a team of consultants) instead of picking my own team?
So in addition to that design doc you need something that will capture the imagination and limited attention span of your target. A good demo that shows what you want to do, and proves that you have people who can do it. Even then, I'll tell yah, putting together and holding together the size of team it takes to make a modern game is _hard_. It is in any business, and in the game industry you need your first product to make it out fast and be successful enough to let you do another one. Consider alternatives such as doing an add-on pack or teaming up with an established developer for your first project. Good luck.
There exists a nice tutorial on game development (Score:1)