so I started my own video game studio

[LordSphinx]

what's your stance on DRM and end-user redistribution of software? Will you be using a Stallman style 'free' model, an 'open source' model, a licensed copy with no DRm or will you be using authentication of some kind?

Sorry for not answering sooner, this post slipped through the cracks. I won't make a lot of friends with this opinion, but I think that the PC gaming is seriously rotten by piracy, with or without DRM. I am scared of developing a single player experience for the PC. I think that if I do put my title on the PC, it will affect my sales on both platforms as those who make a habit of stealing games from torrents won't bother with the console version once they stole our hard work on the PC.

The only kind of DRM that seems to be working is Steam. But even then, I think that to make a PC title, it must be tailored to circumvent piracy, with subscription-based games with micro transactions and low entry price points. I wouldn't do a direct port of a console title to PC, I don't feel confident that this would have a good impact on my profitability.

 

[Solo-Wing]

That's what you get for working in the biggest video game company in the world.

Sorry but I have to point out that Activision is probably not the biggest. The biggest one I can think of is EA. Activision is big, just not as big as EA in my opinion.

OT: What kind of games would you be making? Genres?
Oh and you hiring?

 

[canucmeh]

Now I'm only 13, but I really want a job in the video game industry. I play music and I can some what compose. I also have an urge to be a developer or storyboard artist. I'm a very creative and imaginative person and don't like brown, grey, and all of those games like MW2 or Halo. If you can tell me if there is anyway I can help or can get into the business, let me know by pm-ing me! Or you can email me. Thanks. Aerista!

 

[Gamoc]

Do you ever regret quitting the QA job at Activision, even for a moment? Whilst I understand you're following your dream and all that, considering that you're trying to amass half a million dollars and are currently at 15 grand, I would imagine that there are still doubts floating around somewhere?

Where did you find the developers in your team? Were they friends? People you found online? Did you advertise that you were looking for people?

If you're ever looking for a writer, feel free to poke me in the ribs...

 

[LordSphinx]

Fair enough, what about Steam if the game you make can be properly ported to PC?

Steam is most definitely a possibility, but less so for our first title than for the second. Our first project is first and foremost a pilot project to attest of our working methods and productivity level. But that doesn't mean that there is absolutely no chance for a Steam port for Swordcraft. We'll see how easy/convenient it would be, but I already have a rather tight development schedule and multiplatforming our pilot project isn't a priority in my strategy right now. But many things can happen between now and then, so we'll see.

snip

Anyhoo, my advice is watch Extra Creditz, and maybe even email them. They have actually been quite responsive when I've emailed them the past few times, and seem to really genuinely care about people in this industry.

Also you hiring? I worked on a game's music last year and it was a lot of fun

They actually responded to you? I have been trying to get their attention for a while. no dice.

How did you approach them? I signed an NDA contract so I can't go too much into details, but I could tell you how I proceeded and what were the results if you send me a PM.

Actually, ive read the whole thread and it still hasnt been mentioned just what kind of genre youre going into.

Ive picked up that youre doing a game in 3D, which is ok, but what genre are you doing?

The first game will be a 2.5D action game slightly reminiscent of Metroidvania design (large 2D levels with plenty of exploration to do), but the main feature of the game is a very, very, very customizable sword. So the game will be more about exploring the different "sword builds" than the level exploration, which will be more of a mean to an end. You start with a sucky sword, you're told to make it better, you speak with NPCs that can boost it in many ways. You choose which upgrades you want and they send you to the different levels to do a quest that will unlock its next power accordingly to your choices. So the player that wants a sword that shoots fire waves on heavy attacks and poisons your enemies on weak attacks will play very differently to the guy that wants a sword that lets you dash through 6 monsters at the same time and which can send tendrils of darkness attack for him while he blocks.

Our second title will be a turn based strategy game. I am not ready to say much more about it right now.

We are still looking into different possibilities for the next titles. I've been thinking of a management game where you control a guy in a nuclear shelter that must fight his loneliness by creating imaginary friends that really don't get along, creating chaos and costing resources if they aren't tended to. I also thought of using the Kinect to make a slow paced RTS that uses the camera to make a minority report styled interface.

These are just pitches and since my third game won't start development before 2014, this is just speculation. My ultimate goal is to make the best fighting game that ever was.

As you can see, I don't want to settle in one specific genre.

 

[king_katchit]

Just out of interest, have you considered Android/iOS games?

Could be a great and cheap way to build some capital.

 

[LordSphinx]

That's what you get for working in the biggest video game company in the world.

Sorry but I have to point out that Activision is probably not the biggest. The biggest one I can think of is EA. Activision is big, just not as big as EA in my opinion.

OT: What kind of games would you be making? Genres?
Oh and you hiring?

I was saying biggest in terms of business estimated value by shareholders and all that. I prefer EA to Activison in many ways, but financially, they aren't as profitable as Activision. If they didn't have Blizzard it would be another story. But even then, Call of Duty is huge in itself. Highest grossing entertainment launch of all time isn't something you have to take lightly, and that's exactly what they did. Marketing is a powerful *****.

For the nature of the game, I answered in my previous post. As for hiring, I can't offer any salary yet, but that should change around October if all goes well. We'll see!

Do you ever regret quitting the QA job at Activision, even for a moment? Whilst I understand you're following your dream and all that, considering that you're trying to amass half a million dollars and are currently at 15 grand, I would imagine that there are still doubts floating around somewhere?

Where did you find the developers in your team? Were they friends? People you found online? Did you advertise that you were looking for people?

If you're ever looking for a writer, feel free to poke me in the ribs...

I never regretted quitting my job. I prefer failing but knowing I did my best than spend the rest of my life wondering if I could do it.

As for my 15 grands, they will soon become 30 thanks to a grant that doubles matching funds for acquisition of materials. That's called the Leadership Grants of Canada, and that isn't part of the government programs, it's a non-lucrative organization that helps starting businesses acquire the material they need to start up.

Then I'll get 45k in loans from the Canadian Youth Business Foundation and its partnership with the Development Bank of Canada. All of a sudden, I go from 75 grands, and there is some funding available from the Local development center of my region. These are sufficently reassuring numbers for investors to start pitching in until I amassed half a million. That's the original plan, but that doesn't mean that everything will go as I want. We'll see. Truth is, if the project is good, it's a matter of finding who's smart (crazy) enough to invest in it. Money grows on trees. But you have to find which trees, and how to climb them.

I already explained in previous posts how I found my team. I currently have 2 3D artists, a programmer, one 2D artist that helps with concept arts and will also help with textures and myself. We're currently looking for an animator, but we can't offer any salary (yet). However, all revenue from the first title will be shared among the team, and I will probably give away my share to the others as I don't think that the first title will be sufficiently profitable.

 

[gigastar]

My ultimate goal is to make the best fighting game that ever was.

Now that i dont mind, except that the definition of 'fighting game' is quite vauge.

Using Capcom games for examples here, there can be tournament fighting games like Street Fighter, side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Viewtiful Joe and full 3D beat 'em ups like God Hand and maybe Devil May Cry.

If going for tournament fighter, good luck.

If going for side-scrolling beat 'em up, try to add in as much variety as possible.

If going for 3D beat 'em up, use Crazy Awesome [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyAwesome] as a guideline. Nothing bombs harder than a game that looks nice and plays like bleh.

That tactical link to TvTropes reminded me to mention that you should use TvTropes to help construct the inevitable story you have to put in. Identify tropes that you would like to happen in your game, then make them happen. This Swordcraft certainly looks like its going to end up on various sword-related and elemental power-related pages from what you told us.

Also personally i was asking about a PSN or Steam release because im among those who would sooner buy a 360 to use as a footstool than as a gaming platform. Porting the game after a while will be acceptable, but no force of this world will make me get a 360.

 

[Gamoc]

Ah, I managed to miss that.

You seem to have a pretty good plan going on right there and I admire your willingness to risk failure, I hope it all works out and look forward to trying out some of your games in the future...

 

[twaddle]

I plan to start a small company someday, so i'm looking forward to hearing the news about u. I wan to know if you will be accepting interns anytime soon if not now maybe in a couple of months or years. You can never have enough experience. Or would you like to be a mentor or have an apprentice. I would probably pay to observe you and your team work.

 

[LordSphinx]

Just out of interest, have you considered Android/iOS games?

Could be a great and cheap way to build some capital.

The thing with these platforms is that it's usually a big gamble. About 1 game out of 100 is profitable, and extremely good titles often plummets while horrible ones gets into the Top 100 (and that means success). This has a lot to do with timing, and sadly on this platform it is very hard to have any kind of control on said timing. If you release your game at the same time as 100 other games, chances are that you will be flooded no matter how good you are.

So I think that the best strategy with these platform is to already have some kind of brand recognition, and then this gives an edge on the competition. But of course, it's always possible to pierce through without good timing and without brand recognition, but it still is a gamble. I've never made a habit of counting on luck (and yet I know all too well that I'll need luck to be successful, that's the most frightening part).

My ultimate goal is to make the best fighting game that ever was.

Now that i dont mind, except that the definition of 'fighting game' is quite vauge.

Using Capcom games for examples here, there can be tournament fighting games like Street Fighter, side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Viewtiful Joe and full 3D beat 'em ups like God Hand and maybe Devil May Cry.

If going for tournament fighter, good luck.

If going for side-scrolling beat 'em up, try to add in as much variety as possible.

If going for 3D beat 'em up, use Crazy Awesome [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyAwesome] as a guideline. Nothing bombs harder than a game that looks nice and plays like bleh.

That tactical link to TvTropes reminded me to mention that you should use TvTropes to help construct the inevitable story you have to put in. Identify tropes that you would like to happen in your game, then make them happen. This Swordcraft certainly looks like its going to end up on various sword-related and elemental power-related pages from what you told us.

Also personally i was asking about a PSN or Steam release because im among those who would sooner buy a 360 to use as a footstool than as a gaming platform. Porting the game after a while will be acceptable, but no force of this world will make me get a 360.

To me, fighting game means those One-on-One fighting game such as Street Fighter or Dead or Alive, so that fits your definition of tournament fighting game.

As for TvTropes, which is a delightful time waster, I don't intend to voluntarily "pick" tropes to fit into our games. It's rather a natural process in my opinion. However, you'll probably like the idea that one of the sword powers is "sun dust coating" which gives a critical hit chance. When said critical hit occurs, there will be a lens flare flash on screen as a "joke" effect.

As for your dismissal of the X360, I think that's a shame, there's a lot of good things about this system. It's actually my system of choice. Every system has something to offer.

 

[LordSphinx]

I plan to start a small company someday, so i'm looking forward to hearing the news about u. I wan to know if you will be accepting interns anytime soon if not now maybe in a couple of months or years. You can never have enough experience. Or would you like to be a mentor or have an apprentice. I would probably pay to observe you and your team work.

I'm very interested in internship, so why don't you send me a private message telling me what it is that you can do for the business? as for mentorship, I'd be honored to have a willing apprentice, and I'm looking forward to helping out other starting up game studios, but I feel like I have a lot to learn myself before being the sufficiently suited for such a task. I already have a mentor myself and I can't say that I know even one tenth of what he knows about making a business. This is all new to me! As for paying to see us work, that would be awesome but it would feel like a fraud to me, especially since one of Nine Dots Studio's objective is to make information on game development more accessible. I invite you to peek at our website, this aspect of our philosophy is explained in our welcome message In fact, I even intend to give away a complete and up to date version of our game design documents for all of our games (but only once the game is released).

 

[Anarchemitis]

What development model do you use? SCRUM?

 

[gigastar]

My ultimate goal is to make the best fighting game that ever was.

Now that i dont mind, except that the definition of 'fighting game' is quite vauge.

Using Capcom games for examples here, there can be tournament fighting games like Street Fighter, side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Viewtiful Joe and full 3D beat 'em ups like God Hand and maybe Devil May Cry.

If going for tournament fighter, good luck.

If going for side-scrolling beat 'em up, try to add in as much variety as possible.

If going for 3D beat 'em up, use Crazy Awesome [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyAwesome] as a guideline. Nothing bombs harder than a game that looks nice and plays like bleh.

That tactical link to TvTropes reminded me to mention that you should use TvTropes to help construct the inevitable story you have to put in. Identify tropes that you would like to happen in your game, then make them happen. This Swordcraft certainly looks like its going to end up on various sword-related and elemental power-related pages from what you told us.

Also personally i was asking about a PSN or Steam release because im among those who would sooner buy a 360 to use as a footstool than as a gaming platform. Porting the game after a while will be acceptable, but no force of this world will make me get a 360.

To me, fighting game means those One-on-One fighting game such as Street Fighter or Dead or Alive, so that fits your definition of tournament fighting game.

As for TvTropes, which is a delightful time waster, I don't intend to voluntarily "pick" tropes to fit into our games. It's rather a natural process in my opinion. However, you'll probably like the idea that one of the sword powers is "sun dust coating" which gives a critical hit chance. When said critical hit occurs, there will be a lens flare flash on screen as a "joke" effect.

As for your dismissal of the X360, I think that's a shame, there's a lot of good things about this system. It's actually my system of choice actually. Every system has something to offer.

Unfortunately, I cant offer much advice for a tournament fighter. Best thing i got to to stop at every turn and ask yourself, 'What would X do?' where X is whichever developers of tournament fighters you currently look up to.

TvTropes might be less useful for constructing a story than it would be for prying out any flaws that may end up in it. Im not great at stories so im not going to tell you how to do that either.

Also i do like the idea of the solar glare crit effect. Though im not sure how well it will come across as a joke.

As for my bias against the 360, it may be the stock excuse for PS3 users now, but its with reliability. I actually did have one back in 05, until it RRoD'ed. It got repaired under warranty, then it caught E47 after the NXE update, shortly after which it turned into a disc eater, at which point it had the unusual error of having a woodcutting axe logded in its motherboard.

If, a year from now, Swordcraft were to appear on Steam I would buy it to see if it lived up to what you wanted it to be. It doesnt sound like it has a reason to fail, it just has to get made and get noticed.

 

[LordSphinx]

Surprised this hasn't been asked yet but: When's your first game coming out?
Also, what will it be?

I think the first game will be out in 5 months.

What development model do you use? SCRUM?

Yup, we'll use scrum! But I don't have much experience with it so I'll see how it goes.

Would you be open to game suggestions from Escapist members?

To be honest, not really. Just like any other studios, we already have a lot of our own concepts to fiddle with. I guess I shouldn't speak for others, but I don't think that any development studio is interested in working on ideas from the outside. If someone want to see his idea in action, it will have to be brought up either by doing what I do: making your own studio to develop them, or work your way to high enough in a company to call the shots on what should be made. And even then it's not that simple.

 

[Freechoice]

So just wondering, if someone were to try to join a studio saying they wanted to write for a video game, what would they be looking for?

I think that writing for video games is rarely something that can be done on a year long basis, and thus is more fitting as a contractor job. But some bigger studios are developing many different projects at the same time, so they can make the most out of someone with a permanent assignment to writing. From such a guy, they'd need a high productivity and a rich background. Someone who only write fan fictions, for instance, wouldn't cut it. I met a designer who was doing more of the writing, and he was writing plays. Someone who published a a few books would definitely get my attention more than someone who has never wrote anything on his own professionally.

I think most people don't understand that for however much writing can be an integral part of a game (hell, any medium with a narrative), it's usually very insignificant. Unless it's considered early on, it's like sticking a baseball card in the spokes of a bike.

But Sphinx, I would advise you to look for someone that understands the fundamentals of good literature (primarily, characterization) as opposed to someone that writes well; there's a very big difference. Crytek hired a published author to write for Crysis 2 and the story was still rather meh. It may be a characteristic of FPS, but most developers do not get or do not care about the "it's an interactive media" thing. It's either a single road that leads to the same end or many roads that lead to the same end with no real change in either the plot or the characters. Ultimately, the best you can do is create characters the player can sympathize with.

But if you do go for a dynamic narrative driven by gameplay, show the Extra Credits guys. And me.