mid_gen's Launch a Game Studio Thread

[suenstar]

Best of luck with the massive undertaking of launching and managing your own studio and projects, really keen to see what you produce as a lot of your interests in games seem to match quite closely with mine.

I've often contemplated going full into game design but never managed to drum up the courage and motivation to give it a real shot.
Done the odd bit of freelance contract stuff for UI and sound design. I did a few courses on game design and game programming, but never really took the time to hone those skills.

I often see a lot of smaller indies showing off bits and pieces of their development journeys on my TikTok & YT Short feeds, so expect I might start clocking some of your stuff on there too.
Would be really interested to see any kind of vlog about the journey you're going on, getting to see how people's minds work within the industry always fascinates me.

 

[Worthy]

I like your approach. I find the most enjoyable games nowadays are indie titles that blend the best elements from other games.

 

[mid_gen]

Good luck! The game sounds interesting, and I'll follow along once you get the blog/vlogs up.

This probably isn't helpful advice given your experience in coding/game dev etc., but from what I've experienced & heard from others, the wider you cast the net and build interest and wishlists etc. as you develop the game, the better.

Gaining traction in places you are kind of known (like here) gets you much more attention than targeting randoms on social media platforms. Though you should do it all.

Cheers! Yeah using communities like OCUK seems like a no brainer.....plus forums are one of the last bastions of real human beings left on the internet

Best of luck with the massive undertaking of launching and managing your own studio and projects, really keen to see what you produce as a lot of your interests in games seem to match quite closely with mine.

I've often contemplated going full into game design but never managed to drum up the courage and motivation to give it a real shot.
Done the odd bit of freelance contract stuff for UI and sound design. I did a few courses on game design and game programming, but never really took the time to hone those skills.

I often see a lot of smaller indies showing off bits and pieces of their development journeys on my TikTok & YT Short feeds, so expect I might start clocking some of your stuff on there too.
Would be really interested to see any kind of vlog about the journey you're going on, getting to see how people's minds work within the industry always fascinates me.

Yeah I'll be starting to show stuff, but nothing exists beyond some initial designs on my internal wiki just now.

I like your approach. I find the most enjoyable games nowadays are indie titles that blend the best elements from other games.

Cheers!

Going to be a slow start to the year, the fintech I'm now contracting for is pretty busy right now....but I am still planning to kick off the vlog this week. Hopefully get into the habit of recording it on a Friday lunchtime and doing a quick edit in the evening before uploading it.

Was planning to do a walk and talk outside somewhere but the weather might put a stop to that....will see on Friday.

 

[Zefan]

Pls gief vlog

 

[mid_gen]

Pls gief vlog

Well you might be in luck, I just went and recorded some waffle on a walk on my lunch break, as as long as the wind hasn't muffed the sound, I'll probably edit that up and upload.

Did the usual thing and when I finished recording immediately remembered stuff I forgot to mention, but ah well, the point of the vlog is that it's a bit off the cuff and not full scripted....it would be far too onerous a time sink to properly script, needs to be quick and dirty.

 

[Zefan]

Well you might be in luck, I just went and recorded some waffle on a walk on my lunch break, as as long as the wind hasn't muffed the sound, I'll probably edit that up and upload.

Did the usual thing and when I finished recording immediately remembered stuff I forgot to mention, but ah well, the point of the vlog is that it's a bit off the cuff and not full scripted....it would be far too onerous a time sink to properly script, needs to be quick and dirty.

Very nice. I know you didn't ask but as a someone aspiring to be more this way, I must say it sounds like you have a solid grasp of preventing perfect getting in the way of good. I think that "hmm could've would've should've" realisation is a healthy sign and just a symptom of having actually produced something, especially when on the fly.

I can never really remember how far the mod team let things slide with regards to linking to this sort of "self promotional" stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if excessive linking would be frowned upon. Would I be correct if I said I should be able to find it on youtube when searching moth empire games? Can't find anything from a brief search so far.

 

[mid_gen]

Very nice. I know you didn't ask but as a someone aspiring to be more this way, I must say it sounds like you have a solid grasp of preventing perfect getting in the way of good. I think that "hmm could've would've should've" realisation is a healthy sign and just a symptom of having actually produced something, especially when on the fly.

Yes this is something I got over when I was making my climbing Youtube channel. It's easy to sink hours and hours into getting the perfect edit, but the reality is that a) no-one cares if it's perfect and b) the MOST important thing is to actually just put content out there.....JFDI. It will evolve over time anyway and you'll build an audience more organically.

I can never really remember how far the mod team let things slide with regards to linking to this sort of "self promotional" stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if excessive linking would be frowned upon. Would I be correct if I said I should be able to find it on youtube when searching moth empire games? Can't find anything from a brief search so far.

I have linked a YouTube video occasionally, as do a few people that produce content. I think mods take a pretty common sense approach....I'm not spamming GD where all the traffic is. I guess this thread is self promotion really but I also think it's pretty interesting to a lot of people on OCUK so a fair exchange (happy to have chat with mods about guidelines).

You don't get a lot of traffic from posting links around anyway, again, from building my other channel, the Youtube recommendations algorithm is where 95% of your traffic comes from. Direct links, reddit, etc generate a tiny boost, but the real visibility comes from strong thumbnails that generate a good CTR, which is key to making sure the algorithm keeps putting it in front of people.

I honestly have no idea how this content is going to go....took me a while to get my climbing channel going, but games is a much bigger market.....but I don't know much interest there will be in some down to earth viewpoints and insight amidst the sea of manufactured outrage that is out there, haha

 

[mid_gen]

Alreet done a quick cut on the vlog and got it uploaded. I'm gonna have to put a placeholder icon on the channel and fill out the description, and do a few different cheesy thumbnail variants for the AB test launch.....then good to go.

 

[mid_gen]

Here we go then, cue the cheesy thumbnail....not really my taste but apparently it's what gets the clicks. I missed a bunch of stuff on here I wanted to talk about, but I guess the benefit of doing a weekly vlog is that I can just roll it over to next week. Got my notes on my wiki so will keep a track of everything.

Promise I will make the content a lot more professional in future but I just want to start getting it out there.

I need to sort my lighting out in my study so I can do the vlogs at home and not be hidden behind winter clothing and sunglasses.

 

[cee-S-dee]

Best of luck with your new venture. Will be really interesting to follow the journey. Always wanted to make games, just never managed to dedicate time to understanding how they are made (or have the brain for it if I'm honest).

Also, a bit off topic, mid_gen, did you play Half Life Death Match back in the day? I remember someone used to play with the same name, and I always wondered if it was you.

Will follow with great interest.

 

[mid_gen]

Best of luck with your new venture. Will be really interesting to follow the journey. Always wanted to make games, just never managed to dedicate time to understanding how they are made (or have the brain for it if I'm honest).

Also, a bit off topic, mid_gen, did you play Half Life Death Match back in the day? I remember someone used to play with the same name, and I always wondered if it was you.

Will follow with great interest.

Cheers! Haha yes I used to knock around HLCCL back in the day.

 

[cee-S-dee]

Cheers! Haha yes I used to knock around HLCCL back in the day.

Hahaha awesome. HLCCL was probably some of my best gaming days. The forum was so good, and the LAN's were pretty crazy. I was [ITV]/[KIA2]HiTMaN.

 

[arc@css]

Game development was something I had the intention of pursuing over the years, but for various reasons and circumstances, it didn't become a reality.
Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and wish you the very best of success for the future, and, perhaps just as importantly, to have a lot of enjoyment while doing it.

It appears you've already got a name, but something I would have suggested, which I expect just about everyone here is familiar with, was to create a mind map ('tis what we were taught when studying design).

Although not the most glamorous side of game development, something over the years that has become particularly important to myself, is the nuts and bolts of the design process; e.g. how robust the user interface is, freedom to map keys without lots of restrictions,
HUD design, and generally how polished the overall experience is. So, not placing all eggs into one basket: e.g. a pretty, but one dimensional tech demo.

A huge 'if', but had I gone down this route, I think a game idea I would like to work on would probably come down to one of two/three ideas.
The first and main focus for me would be a first-person shooter, inspired by the likes of Quake, Doom, and so on. I haven't got an extensive list of criteria in mind, but some of the details I would be keen to cut my teeth on, so to speak, would be:

*underpinnings of the game: HUD, user interface, etc., (mentioned above);
*many (multiple) wound/damage + death animations for variety/replay value;
*same as the above with regard to the audio/sound, e.g. enemy death cries: different if something is blown up with a rocket versus a side arm,
+ not replicated for the same two enemy classes (something, IIRC, we have in the 1990s Doom titles);
*experimenting with various types of colour palettes, e.g. monochromatic, adjacent, triad or tetrad;
*ambient sound/music (e.g. Aubrey Hodges in Quake 64 or PSX Doom);

...so in short, taking the highly successful FPS shooter game, but polishing it where intended, and stripping away what might be possible to scale down.

As one of my design tutors said, "less is more". Of course, I'm not saying we shouldn't have new ideas/grandiose visions,
but sometimes, I think I'd rather play something that's essentially more of a one-trick pony, but on the upside, it does what it sets out to do so very well. Maybe it's an age related thing!

Other ideas would feature a 2d top-down perspective game - a little like Eschalon, Caves of Qud or Caves of Lore.
Another that springs to mind would be something along the lines of Severance: Blade of Darkness, as AFAIK, there doesn't seem to be anything much out there 'quite' like it.

Do you mind sharing your YouTube channel? Cheers.

 

[Rroff]

Game development was something I had the intention of pursuing over the years, but for various reasons and circumstances, it didn't become a reality.

Similar here, I've done a lot of dabbling over the years with modding and so on and had some involvement in a more incidental role, personally I've never found the right "middleware" - a lot of game development software is optimised for either full on programming or tries to shield the developer from actual programming with blueprints systems, etc. and very little hits the sweet spot in between - i.e. something similar to Blitz3D or DarkBasic, etc. but with the ability to utilise C/C++ and an up-to-date renderer.

 

[mid_gen]

Here we go then, cue the cheesy thumbnail....not really my taste but apparently it's what gets the clicks. I missed a bunch of stuff on here I wanted to talk about, but I guess the benefit of doing a weekly vlog is that I can just roll it over to next week. Got my notes on my wiki so will keep a track of everything.

Promise I will make the content a lot more professional in future but I just want to start getting it out there.

I need to sort my lighting out in my study so I can do the vlogs at home and not be hidden behind winter clothing and sunglasses.

Well that thumbnail is not doing the business, no surprises I need to get my studio lights out and get some decent headshots, or at least shoot some 6k video, pull a load of stupid poses, and grab stills from that At the very least try a few different templates, cos that one ain't working. Looking like a bit of a sex pest in dark glasses probably not ideal

Hahaha awesome. HLCCL was probably some of my best gaming days. The forum was so good, and the LAN's were pretty crazy. I was [ITV]/[KIA2]HiTMaN.

Ah nice one, HLCCL was good times, got into AG when I was at uni......I don't like thinking about how long ago that was now

Game development was something I had the intention of pursuing over the years, but for various reasons and circumstances, it didn't become a reality.
Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in here and wish you the very best of success for the future, and, perhaps just as importantly, to have a lot of enjoyment while doing it.

It appears you've already got a name, but something I would have suggested, which I expect just about everyone here is familiar with, was to create a mind map ('tis what we were taught when studying design).

Although not the most glamorous side of game development, something over the years that has become particularly important to myself, is the nuts and bolts of the design process; e.g. how robust the user interface is, freedom to map keys without lots of restrictions,
HUD design, and generally how polished the overall experience is. So, not placing all eggs into one basket: e.g. a pretty, but one dimensional tech demo.

A huge 'if', but had I gone down this route, I think a game idea I would like to work on would probably come down to one of two/three ideas.
The first and main focus for me would be a first-person shooter, inspired by the likes of Quake, Doom, and so on. I haven't got an extensive list of criteria in mind, but some of the details I would be keen to cut my teeth on, so to speak, would be:

*underpinnings of the game: HUD, user interface, etc., (mentioned above);
*many (multiple) wound/damage + death animations for variety/replay value;
*same as the above with regard to the audio/sound, e.g. enemy death cries: different if something is blown up with a rocket versus a side arm,
+ not replicated for the same two enemy classes (something, IIRC, we have in the 1990s Doom titles);
*experimenting with various types of colour palettes, e.g. monochromatic, adjacent, triad or tetrad;
*ambient sound/music (e.g. Aubrey Hodges in Quake 64 or PSX Doom);

...so in short, taking the highly successful FPS shooter game, but polishing it where intended, and stripping away what might be possible to scale down.

As one of my design tutors said, "less is more". Of course, I'm not saying we shouldn't have new ideas/grandiose visions,
but sometimes, I think I'd rather play something that's essentially more of a one-trick pony, but on the upside, it does what it sets out to do so very well. Maybe it's an age related thing!

Other ideas would feature a 2d top-down perspective game - a little like Eschalon, Caves of Qud or Caves of Lore.
Another that springs to mind would be something along the lines of Severance: Blade of Darkness, as AFAIK, there doesn't seem to be anything much out there 'quite' like it.

Do you mind sharing your YouTube channel? Cheers.

Taking an existing concept and altering and improving it is a sensible option....it's quite rare that people come up with genuinely novel gameplay experiences. You can click that thumbnail above to find the channel.

Similar here, I've done a lot of dabbling over the years with modding and so on and had some involvement in a more incidental role, personally I've never found the right "middleware" - a lot of game development software is optimised for either full on programming or tries to shield the developer from actual programming with blueprints systems, etc. and very little hits the sweet spot in between - i.e. something similar to Blitz3D or DarkBasic, etc. but with the ability to utilise C/C++ and an up-to-date renderer.

Epic has made a new text-based scripting language for Unreal Editor for Fortnite....not sure how integrated it is into the standard engine yet, but might be what you're looking for. There's a Python API but it's mostly for scripting the editor rather than building gameplay I believe.

You might find that Unreal C++ with a coding assistant like Claude gets you the best of both.....Claude knows all the syntax and C++ nuances and you can focus on building stuff.....although it's still pretty challenging if you're new to programming.

I was planning to go into Nottingham today to try this co-working space and then this East Midlands Indies meet-up in the evening, but with the forecast still saying 20cm+ of snow falling this evening I'm going to give it a swerve. Shame as I was looking forward to it, but it seems pretty daft to risk getting stranded trying to get home (I'm a bit out in the sticks).

Probably a good time this evening to work on tarting up the channel. I think there's a bunch of metadata I've not input yet which is going to be limiting the algorithms ability to target people.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

Well that thumbnail is not doing the business, no surprises I need to get my studio lights out and get some decent headshots, or at least shoot some 6k video, pull a load of stupid poses, and grab stills from that At the very least try a few different templates, cos that one ain't working. Looking like a bit of a sex pest in dark glasses probably not ideal

Do that Korean thing where you laugh and just keep taking a ******** of photos

 

[mid_gen]

Do that Korean thing where you laugh and just keep taking a ******** of photos

Think it will have to be done!

Just had a chat with my fintech client and they wanting to cut costs for a bit so I'm going down to 4 days a week from February. I'll probably scale up and down on that contract as their milestones change.

This is awesome though, means I actually get a full day a week to be 100% on the game studio. I am getting a lot done around the other work, but the context switching and sheer time demands mean it's not nearly as productive as having extended periods to concentrate on it.

I'm trying some different thumbnails on the videos to see what sort of style is landing....more colour this time!

 

[mid_gen]

Well, pleasantly surprised how that first video did, given the slapdash thumbnail and production. Views are good for a new channel and particularly engagement, 15 likes from 85 views is really good and the number of comments.

Was hoping to get some stuff done today but I’m currently at the vets and have been up all night looking after our sick house rabbit. Fun and games. Going to be good for nowt but sleep later.

 

[Nabinium]

Well, pleasantly surprised how that first video did, given the slapdash thumbnail and production. Views are good for a new channel and particularly engagement, 15 likes from 85 views is really good and the number of comments.

Was hoping to get some stuff done today but I’m currently at the vets and have been up all night looking after our sick house rabbit. Fun and games. Going to be good for nowt but sleep later.

Sorry to hear about your rabbit, hope they get well soon.

Your new thumbnail looks much better IMO!

 

[mid_gen]

Sorry to hear about your rabbit, hope they get well soon.

Thanks, think he'll be alright, but he's back to the vet on Monday for an expensive hotel stay and some scans and tests....expensive critters.

Your new thumbnail looks much better IMO!

Yeah I think it's better, although it probably wants my mug on it, as apparently that's the key to getting clicks for some bizarre reason.

I'll probably mess around with a few more ideas, they're mostly templates on Canva that I've messed around with. Youtube has a feature where you can add multiple thumbnails to a video and it'll do a test run and see which one gets the most clicks, before sticking with the best one. I'll probably do that on the next few vids.

Bit gutted I didn't make it to the East Mids indie meet-up last night, wasn't a great idea with the snow, will go next month.