Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Just curious about insights into this. Reason I ask is I see a lot of people on the boards who work as programmers as well as modders and other forms of IT gurus. A lot of people here are clearly passionate about gaming (you almost have to be to overcome the steep learning curve of Dom 3). Then considering the fact that (AFAIK) Dom 3 is the product of 2 people with other jobs makes me wonder why more people have not tried to create a game. Seems most people have a vision of “the perfect game” but not many ever bother to try to make it. As I have no background in programming, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to actually execute on such a vision but curious if any folks here have ever contemplated it (obviously the Ilwinter guys have but any others?). After all, in the US more money is now spent on video games than movies...

Happy Monday!

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Not really, even though I'm a programmer by trade. Good game design is way harder than program design, and a lot of the best games don't run on computers at all, or didn't at first. (Anything from Monopoly to Hotels to Axis and Allies to Scrabble.) I don't necessarily feel that knowing how to make a computer obey me makes me qualified to work on games at all.

-Max

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

I'm the opposite, I've got a lot of years experience with many different aspects of designing games, but am a very poor programmer, so my biggest problem with creating computer games is finding someone who will do what I want them to, committedly, without having to pay them large amounts of money for it.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

My background is more in managing programmers and Ive been involved with PC game designers since the birth of PCs.
"Managing programmers has been compared to herding cats. They dont tend to move together. Your best bet is to stand behind them, make lots of noise, and hope that one of them ends up where you wanted them to go."

However, I will pitch this.
ANY programmer who has a game in working alpha mode can easily move toward getting help for more development and finally distribution. There are many ways. SourceForge for open source. CafePress for self distribution. And I highly recommend Shrapnel for first game independent developers. I would avoid the really large shelfware companies until your 3rd major release (or sequel) and will gladly discuss the whys and hows with anyone who is interested.

And MAJORLY I would warn anyone against being BOTH a new developer AND starting their own game company.

InMYHumbleOpinion of course.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

I've designed about a dozen games, and gotten 3 of them programmed with a friend of mine. The hardest thing for us is finding an artist. We have been through at least 20 artists/graphic designers, and not a single one of them had a scrap of discipline. They'll do one 3d model and then quit, or a handful of pictures and then you'll never hear from them again. No amount of money seems to overcome laziness/lack of motivation in this regard.

I guess it could be that way with a programmer too, so perhaps I'm blessed in not having to go it alone. But it's a hard road, because you basically have to work 80 hours a week instead 40 for some distant and by no means certain goal of low to moderate success. It has its moments though.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

I am working on a game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif. We are very close to completion and it is a pretty exciting project. Here is a link:

http://wildfiregames.com/0ad/

At the moment we cannot accept novice programmers because we are too close to completion to train someone. But we are looking for history articles from community members that are relevant to the time period.

We are also in need of 3D animators, texture artists, and sound effect specialists. We can take novice skill level for these jobs because we have enough veterans to advise, and these jobs normally do not affect milestones.

Drop by and check it out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Small world Foodstamp!

It has been quite a while since I looked at 0ad. I used to frequent aiscripters and noted the 0ad forum there. It looked as though the project was dying at that time so I kinda lost track of it. Quite to the contrary, it appears to be progressing nicely.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Goodstuff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

As with any spare time project, there are ups and downs of activity. Staff come and go, but as long as those things are just obstacles to be overcome, and not roadblocks that completely stop progress, eventually the game gets released http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif.

It is crazy fun to play and insanely modder friendly, I can't wait to see what the community does with it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Foodstamp:

Quite boring time of history http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Making a PC game / starting a game company?
 

Well 0 A.D. is not actually a "real" time in history, but I think the time period represented, 500 years B.C. to 500 A.D. are actually some of the most exciting times in history http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif