Ruandre
09-04-2008, 05:53 PM
from Bit-tech.net (http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/04/09/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/1)
How To Start Your Own Games Studio, Pt 1
Introduction
By Joe Martin
There?s one thing you should know about me and that is that I?m a grumpy sod. Like all grumpy sods, I pine for the good ol? days and the times of yore. I miss the time when the UK was known as the capital of indie game design and when stories of teenage bedroom coders making it rich through ingenuity were commonplace.
Nowadays the UK isn?t like that and the world of the bedroom game designer has kind of collapsed on itself. It was inevitable, but also tragic. Thankfully, it doesn?t seem to have been permanent either and Introversion Software is proof that some of that British brilliance remains.
Now we?ve invited Mark Morris of Introversion to share some of the experience he?s built up over the years and pass on a few lessons to the next generation. If you?ve got an idea for a game you?d like to make or if you?re looking to crack into the business of game design then you?ll definitely find his advice helpful ? and remember that this is only the first of many lessons Mark is ready to lecture on.
But I Don?t Want A Real Job
By Mark Morris
There are many fantastic things about my job, but there are also many frustrations. Perhaps one of the most trying of these is when I get emails that read:
?Hey Mark, I really loved DEFCON, Darwinia and the other one and I admire what Introversion has achieved. In fact I have my own game idea and I wonder if you had any advice on how to start my own games company??
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s11.jpg
I mean, how am I supposed to answer that? It?s not that I?m unwilling to help, or don?t have the time - quite the opposite in fact, I?d love to see more independent studios set up. The problem is that I can?t possibly dump all of the experience we have built up into one readable email.
In my more mischievous moments I?m tempted to reply with something like, ?Don?t eat yellow snow?, ?Check your paper supplies before you begin? or ?Put a coversheet on all your TPS reports?, but more often than not I go back and just ask them what exactly they would like to know more about.
Very rarely do I get a response to this and even when I do it is hardly ever specific or directed in a way that I can actually answer.
I can?t help these people and that is what frustrates me. I?ve got visions of developers hooking up at GDC and asking ?Did you talk with Mark from Introversion?? only to be told; ?Yeah he was about as useful as a pair of boobs on a fish?.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s13.jpg
So I?ve decided to do something about the problem. I?ve decided to write a guide to building a video games company.
I?m not an industry analyst so I?m not going to compare different business models or analyse case studies, but I?m going to dig into my mind, and the minds of my pals in the industry, and try to build a guide to ?doing it the Introversion way?. That?s not because I think we are a perfect company or that we?ve ?cracked it?, but because I know everything about Introversion and I think we?ve done well for three guys who started out with a small stash of left-over beer money and one potential game idea.
So let?s start at the beginning, which in our business is finding the idea for your first game.
Ideas for Games
People often ask about our sources of inspiration and the creative method we go through, but the truth is that ideas come from all around us. We have no idea when an idea will hit or what will trigger a thought process that ends in an embryonic game design, but we need to be ready to capture it when it does arrive.
What we also know is that the more we experience, the more we expose ourselves to and therefore the higher our creative potential. Chris, the creative mastermind of Introversion, describes this as feeding his inner creativity. If that part of his mind becomes starved then the ideas begin to dry up.
So perhaps the first piece of advice I will impart is to expose yourself to as much stimulation as possible. Read books, play games, watch films, get out there and give your brain something to work with. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better your work can be.
Most people know all that though. Many people don?t need too much help coming up with ideas and if they do, well then they tend to be more interested in being accountants than working in the video game industry. In fact, most people who want to start a games company already have a game idea, but it seems to me that many of them don?t seem to be able to tell when their game is crap.
Now I need to be very careful at this point. It wasn?t that long ago that we experienced around twenty publishers telling us that Uplink was crap and wouldn?t sell. A few years later we were looking for distributors to shift boxes of Darwinia however it took as a long time to find someone who didn?t think it was crap. By the time we released DEFCON we?d pretty much given up on publishers, but we thought we?d give it one last go, but I think you can probably guess the response we received.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s14.jpg
We?re not publishers and I try to be as positive as I can about new game concepts (even if I don?t understand them), but there are some features of an idea that make it bad. If we can avoid those obvious pitfalls than perhaps we have something worth taking forward.
Firstly, don?t make a game that only you are going to play.
In order to be successful there has to be some market potential. Perhaps that market can be very small ? with a team of three people, ten thousand sales can be a good result, but you still need some people to want to play your game. If you get your rocks off thinking about a third-person bunny slaughter set in a steam-punked Tehran then fair enough, but you need to ask yourself what non-freaks will make of this idea.
Secondly, don?t try to beat the big boys at their own game. ?It?s like Call of Duty but better??is not a good way to begin a pitch.
The big companies spend millions developing their games and you and your mates are not going to be able to get anywhere near the production quality of these AAA titles.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s12.jpg
?It?s like a cross between Doom and WoW?, is another great way to shoot yourself in the foot. These are massive franchises with established players and if you create a second rate blend you?re not going to attract either group of fans. Ask yourself, what am I doing to convince a player to put down what he is playing and pick up my game?
Finally, make sure that your idea is feasible. Figure out how much work it will take to complete your game.
Figure out how much work your team can complete in a day and figure out how many days it will take to get to the end of your project. Double that number. What you end up with is a realistic estimate of the time taken to get your game out the door. While you?re at it, if you find that you are looking at several years of development than you really need to find out if you are committed to the concept.
All too often student teams have ideas that are way beyond their practical reach ? don?t make that mistake. Keep the scope small, and sleep safe in the knowledge that you can always put more of the cool stuff in the sequel. And if your idea passes those three tests than you are on to something. What exactly you are onto is yet to be seen, but at least you know that you cleared the first hurdle!
How To Start Your Own Games Studio, Pt 1
Introduction
By Joe Martin
There?s one thing you should know about me and that is that I?m a grumpy sod. Like all grumpy sods, I pine for the good ol? days and the times of yore. I miss the time when the UK was known as the capital of indie game design and when stories of teenage bedroom coders making it rich through ingenuity were commonplace.
Nowadays the UK isn?t like that and the world of the bedroom game designer has kind of collapsed on itself. It was inevitable, but also tragic. Thankfully, it doesn?t seem to have been permanent either and Introversion Software is proof that some of that British brilliance remains.
Now we?ve invited Mark Morris of Introversion to share some of the experience he?s built up over the years and pass on a few lessons to the next generation. If you?ve got an idea for a game you?d like to make or if you?re looking to crack into the business of game design then you?ll definitely find his advice helpful ? and remember that this is only the first of many lessons Mark is ready to lecture on.
But I Don?t Want A Real Job
By Mark Morris
There are many fantastic things about my job, but there are also many frustrations. Perhaps one of the most trying of these is when I get emails that read:
?Hey Mark, I really loved DEFCON, Darwinia and the other one and I admire what Introversion has achieved. In fact I have my own game idea and I wonder if you had any advice on how to start my own games company??
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s11.jpg
I mean, how am I supposed to answer that? It?s not that I?m unwilling to help, or don?t have the time - quite the opposite in fact, I?d love to see more independent studios set up. The problem is that I can?t possibly dump all of the experience we have built up into one readable email.
In my more mischievous moments I?m tempted to reply with something like, ?Don?t eat yellow snow?, ?Check your paper supplies before you begin? or ?Put a coversheet on all your TPS reports?, but more often than not I go back and just ask them what exactly they would like to know more about.
Very rarely do I get a response to this and even when I do it is hardly ever specific or directed in a way that I can actually answer.
I can?t help these people and that is what frustrates me. I?ve got visions of developers hooking up at GDC and asking ?Did you talk with Mark from Introversion?? only to be told; ?Yeah he was about as useful as a pair of boobs on a fish?.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s13.jpg
So I?ve decided to do something about the problem. I?ve decided to write a guide to building a video games company.
I?m not an industry analyst so I?m not going to compare different business models or analyse case studies, but I?m going to dig into my mind, and the minds of my pals in the industry, and try to build a guide to ?doing it the Introversion way?. That?s not because I think we are a perfect company or that we?ve ?cracked it?, but because I know everything about Introversion and I think we?ve done well for three guys who started out with a small stash of left-over beer money and one potential game idea.
So let?s start at the beginning, which in our business is finding the idea for your first game.
Ideas for Games
People often ask about our sources of inspiration and the creative method we go through, but the truth is that ideas come from all around us. We have no idea when an idea will hit or what will trigger a thought process that ends in an embryonic game design, but we need to be ready to capture it when it does arrive.
What we also know is that the more we experience, the more we expose ourselves to and therefore the higher our creative potential. Chris, the creative mastermind of Introversion, describes this as feeding his inner creativity. If that part of his mind becomes starved then the ideas begin to dry up.
So perhaps the first piece of advice I will impart is to expose yourself to as much stimulation as possible. Read books, play games, watch films, get out there and give your brain something to work with. The more tools you have in your toolbox, the better your work can be.
Most people know all that though. Many people don?t need too much help coming up with ideas and if they do, well then they tend to be more interested in being accountants than working in the video game industry. In fact, most people who want to start a games company already have a game idea, but it seems to me that many of them don?t seem to be able to tell when their game is crap.
Now I need to be very careful at this point. It wasn?t that long ago that we experienced around twenty publishers telling us that Uplink was crap and wouldn?t sell. A few years later we were looking for distributors to shift boxes of Darwinia however it took as a long time to find someone who didn?t think it was crap. By the time we released DEFCON we?d pretty much given up on publishers, but we thought we?d give it one last go, but I think you can probably guess the response we received.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s14.jpg
We?re not publishers and I try to be as positive as I can about new game concepts (even if I don?t understand them), but there are some features of an idea that make it bad. If we can avoid those obvious pitfalls than perhaps we have something worth taking forward.
Firstly, don?t make a game that only you are going to play.
In order to be successful there has to be some market potential. Perhaps that market can be very small ? with a team of three people, ten thousand sales can be a good result, but you still need some people to want to play your game. If you get your rocks off thinking about a third-person bunny slaughter set in a steam-punked Tehran then fair enough, but you need to ask yourself what non-freaks will make of this idea.
Secondly, don?t try to beat the big boys at their own game. ?It?s like Call of Duty but better??is not a good way to begin a pitch.
The big companies spend millions developing their games and you and your mates are not going to be able to get anywhere near the production quality of these AAA titles.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/04/how_to_start_your_own_games_studio_pt_1/s12.jpg
?It?s like a cross between Doom and WoW?, is another great way to shoot yourself in the foot. These are massive franchises with established players and if you create a second rate blend you?re not going to attract either group of fans. Ask yourself, what am I doing to convince a player to put down what he is playing and pick up my game?
Finally, make sure that your idea is feasible. Figure out how much work it will take to complete your game.
Figure out how much work your team can complete in a day and figure out how many days it will take to get to the end of your project. Double that number. What you end up with is a realistic estimate of the time taken to get your game out the door. While you?re at it, if you find that you are looking at several years of development than you really need to find out if you are committed to the concept.
All too often student teams have ideas that are way beyond their practical reach ? don?t make that mistake. Keep the scope small, and sleep safe in the knowledge that you can always put more of the cool stuff in the sequel. And if your idea passes those three tests than you are on to something. What exactly you are onto is yet to be seen, but at least you know that you cleared the first hurdle!