mid_gen's Launch a Game Studio Thread

mid_gen said:
So, I wanted to have the targetting UI show an icon rather than debug text....I just say to claude...

"I want to change the weapon targetting UI to render an icon rather than text, but use the existing text string as a tooltip".

There's a whole bunch of code that needs to be written to do this, adding the new UTexture2D property, initialising it properly, modifying the UI orchestration code to make sure the property is fed through into the UMG widget to render etc.....

Back in the stone age before Claude :) I'd have to navigate to the weapon component, manually type in the property declaration, add the appropriate includes. Then find the UI code, type that in manually...etc. Just takes time to navigate around and enter code manually.

Now, once I've give claude that command, it takes maybe a minute to write the plan, I quickly review it, then I approve it and the changs are done in a few seconds. I can be still working in the Unreal Editor while this is happening. When it's done Claude can use my MCP to trigger Live Coding and hot reload the changes into the editor...I get notification when that happens, and I can get on with the editor work to wire up the assets.

I haven't written a line of code by hand for months. Claude is just faster and better at writing it. It's all nice clean performant code, exactly as if I'd written it by hand myself, but it's done in a tenth of the time.
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Very good! Thanks for describing it
 
Bit quiet, but things progressing. House move taking a lot of time...

Game prototype is progressing well, drones and lots of tooling improvements added.

Related things....signed up as a STEM Ambassador, I want to use the studio to support the local community once I move and get involved helping out students etc into games, and this seems like a decent route to get into that.

Also, the government announced some big changes to the UK Games Fund a few weeks ago (including a doubling of the funding available). They've rejigged the different grant options and introduced a new tier which is exactly designed for teh stage I'm at, so I'll be submitting my pitch when application open next month. This will give me a bit of runway to fully focus on the game dev side and free up some of the existing funds to start getting some concept art work done.

All ticking along nicely at the moment....

Oh also, I'm gong to the TIGA (games industry trade associaton) Start Up, Scale Up and Grow Conference in Laandan in a couple of weeks. Start introducing myself to some investors and publishers while I'm there.

Hopefully get to some of the local graduate shows and find some promising grads that might be open to freelance work.
 
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Be nice to see some UK investment - it is a massive industry and has the benefit of a lot of transferable skills such as problem solving, design, etc. both in and out.
 
Well, that's not a good start to the day. Expensive lesson learned.

I'd done searches beforehand for the brand....but not really paid enough attention to the details. Turns out this this quantum company called Moth Quantum have all the trademarks for Moth, covering game development and everything related...to everything.

I've paid up front for half the branding....which I'd seen this week and is coming along nicely, and bought the domains etc.

Think I'm gonna have to toss that all in the bin and start again.

Sigh.
 
RxR said:
I'm just waiting for the next video episode...
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I’ll record one tomorrow hopefully. Gonna be one of those ‘I screwed up’ videos :)

Got a backup name I think I’m gonna go with. It’s not as good in all honesty but it’s definitely free from trademark issues in UK, EU and US. Will be getting it registered and branding done before I reveal it. Small possibility I might come up with something different this evening but frankly I just need to get on with it and concentrate on the game.

Bit of an error and gonna cost be a bit on wasted design work, but I haven’t gone into making my own studio thinking I know it all and I’d rather learn a lesson about trademarks now than much further down the line.
 
Is it worth reaching out to the quantum company to work something out? May cost you a chunk still but if you like it and have the design work under way anyway could work out better in the long run.
 
petridish said:
Is it worth reaching out to the quantum company to work something out? May cost you a chunk still but if you like it and have the design work under way anyway could work out better in the long run.
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They are specifically active in the game development industry (they are positioning themselves as pioneers of practical applications of quantum computing), I wouldn't entertain someone moving into my name if I had the trademark.....and I really don't want to spend any more time on it. Even if they did agree to something it would involve legal paperwork and cost money.

Anyway, I have just sorted out my alternate name. It's a bit more sci-fi relevant anyway. Registered the trademark, bought domain, configured hosting and email. Done.
 
That's fair enough. I hadn't got the game focused view of this other company from your original post, from reading it I felt like it was more of a speculative trademark. Sounds like moving on is the right idea. Looking forward to the new name reveal!
 
Deep in pitch world at the moment. Only got 2 minutes video pitch for this first tranche of UK Games Fund! Quite hard to compress an intro, bit about studio, and the game in that amount of time.....think I've got a decent script now though, and filled out most of the other paperwork.

Now gotta sort the deck and visuals for the video....and get it done in the next few days as I'm on hols the week after :|
 
Well that was a long day....very interesting though. Lots to think about.

Had a good chat over lunch with a VC. Got an email follow up draft ready to send but I'm a little nervous about taking anything else on at the moment when I'm so overloaded, but kinda feel I should strike while the iron is hot!

At least I have next week off to decompress a bit!
 
mid_gen said:
Well that was a long day....very interesting though. Lots to think about.

Had a good chat over lunch with a VC. Got an email follow up draft ready to send but I'm a little nervous about taking anything else on at the moment when I'm so overloaded, but kinda feel I should strike while the iron is hot!

At least I have next week off to decompress a bit!
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Stuff being overloaded. No pressure, no diamonds. If you don't do it, you'll live with that regret forever. Figure something out, there is always a way.

Good luck :cool:
 
Diddums said:
Stuff being overloaded. No pressure, no diamonds. If you don't do it, you'll live with that regret forever. Figure something out, there is always a way.

Good luck :cool:
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Well, there's a few reasons really.

1) I could really do with moving house before taking on anything else :) I was dealing with conveyancing issues on my phone during the conference yesterday. Just a PITA juggling everything, and I don't want to start something I'm not in a position to concentrate on 100% just yet

2) I'm not really ready to pitch to investors yet. Need to build out my demo a bit more, get the studio branding, produce a proper pitch. I have the UKGF grant in progress now which I'll hear back from soon enough.

3) I do have an opportunity with my in-demand AI skills to continue bootstrapping my business myself. I could probably get first title released without any external investment if I choose to. Would be hard, but doable. Part of the attraction of building a studio is doing things my way, and having external investment changes that. I need to think over more what route I want to go down.

Not going to kick anything else off before I have my holiday anyway. Need the time out to think.
 
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