mid_gen's Launch a Game Studio Thread

[mid_gen]

Can't help but feel you are going to need a lot, and I mean a lot of money to actually make some sort of return on the investment if ever, let alone get everything up and running.

Respect for giving it a go though, good luck.

I'm not trying to make a return on investment, because I haven't invested anything. The aim is to create a self-sustaining business, not just burn a load of money trying to ship a game

I'm undecided so far when/if I will focus full time on developing my own titles. I may carry on bringing in fintech money and just outsource much of the development and build the studio that way, doing the coding work in my free time. Maybe I'll end up doing bits and pieces of game dev contract work here and there to keep things ticking over.....or maybe I will just go full-time trying to get a title out the door myself. I'm pretty flexible.

I very deliberately live a frugal lifestyle, no debts, no monthly outgoings other than a modest mortgage. Gives me the flexibility to take on an enterprise like this without gambling my retirement on it.

 

[Noxia]

I can remember how to do a 'hello' world in C++ on MS Visual C++ 6.0, DM me and we can talk about how to split any profits.

Seriously though good luck with it, I found my enjoyment playing games did not translate to making them, though now I don't enjoy playing them much. Arguably its easier than ever now to actually ship a game, but perhaps harder than ever to get noticed because of that.

I do sometimes get a wee bit of inspiration and I jot random things down I dream up or think would be cool in a game. If I were to ever pursue making one, it would be one I'd want to play if I saw it, and I'd treat any financial input to it as a write-off. I do wonder if I'm arguably in the best position ever to do so as I have (albeit not game) a fair bit of digital product delivery xp for some far reaching apps and services with unique challenges, and have picked up a fair bit of tech knowledge along the way due to integrating myself into some of the dev teams and getting stuck in. I think my tech skills are probably the least important factor when I think about it holistically. Anyway, it's not about me, and I certainly have no desire to move from my current field, especially with the state of the world right now.

 

[petridish]

Thread watched - really interested to follow along. This is the first thread title that tempted me into this part of the forum, so well done!

All I can say is good luck and good on you for giving it a go. Sounds like you've got the infrastructure side more or less sorted already. Hopefully that first simple game idea comes easy and you'll be off and running.

 

[mid_gen]

I can remember how to do a 'hello' world in C++ on MS Visual C++ 6.0, DM me and we can talk about how to split any profits.

Seriously though good luck with it, I found my enjoyment playing games did not translate to making them, though now I don't enjoy playing them much. Arguably its easier than ever now to actually ship a game, but perhaps harder than ever to get noticed because of that.

I do sometimes get a wee bit of inspiration and I jot random things down I dream up or think would be cool in a game. If I were to ever pursue making one, it would be one I'd want to play if I saw it, and I'd treat any financial input to it as a write-off. I do wonder if I'm arguably in the best position ever to do so as I have (albeit not game) a fair bit of digital product delivery xp for some far reaching apps and services with unique challenges, and have picked up a fair bit of tech knowledge along the way due to integrating myself into some of the dev teams and getting stuck in. I think my tech skills are probably the least important factor when I think about it holistically. Anyway, it's not about me, and I certainly have no desire to move from my current field, especially with the state of the world right now.

Thread watched - really interested to follow along. This is the first thread title that tempted me into this part of the forum, so well done!

All I can say is good luck and good on you for giving it a go. Sounds like you've got the infrastructure side more or less sorted already. Hopefully that first simple game idea comes easy and you'll be off and running.

Cheers all!

Have got to a point now where I've done a lot of the tech and admin work, after an extremely busy year, I need to give myself a bit of time and headspace to just work out some designs. I have a main one in mind at the moment.....to give a flavour....

A bit RimWorld
A bit Faster Than Light
A bit The Outer Wilds

It's a scope I think is manageable, systems heavy which suits me as a programmer.

But I need to flesh out the concept a bit more. I think what I'll do is in the new year, get a Discord set up and invite people from here to join. Managing the marketing and building an audience is going to be key to success....I'm a little undecided how 'open' to be about the process. At first I think I'd be happy with a closed group from here (and some other devs I'm working with).

Speaking of other devs, I've just been put in touch with a concept artist by another of our little indie collective, and they're mad about moths, so going to get them to come up with some logo ideas

And now, I also need to give myself a bit of a break and play some games and have some time off!

 

[Nabinium]

And now, I also need to give myself a bit of a break and play some games and have some time off!

You've done quite a lot already! I agree, I'd say take a break and come back to it in the new year

 

[Mr Jack]

Managing the marketing and building an audience is going to be key to success....

Not sure how hot you are on this stuff, but if you're not I think Chris Zakowski's How to Market a Game course is pretty good for folk like us. Although I've not got to the point of trying it anger just yet.

I'm a little undecided how 'open' to be about the process. At first I think I'd be happy with a closed group from here (and some other devs I'm working with).

IMO, it's better to be open than not, but creating actual full-on dev logs and things is way more effort than anything you get back from it.

 

[mid_gen]

Not sure how hot you are on this stuff, but if you're not I think Chris Zakowski's How to Market a Game course is pretty good for folk like us. Although I've not got to the point of trying it anger just yet.

Not see his stuff before, will take a look, ta!

IMO, it's better to be open than not, but creating actual full-on dev logs and things is way more effort than anything you get back from it.

I wouldn't be sinking loads of time into editing or anything. Half tempted to get some Meta rayban's and just randomly stream stuff, seems to be the way the yoof are doing things now, less curated, more just real stuff. Be kinda hard while I'm still doing fintech day to day.

Had a chat with my artist who is super keen, realised I worked with her at Rare briefly before the Covid times started!

Been fleshing out my prototype high-level design....think it's coming together into something that makes sense as a) interesting and b) achievable. Prototype codename is 'Delve'. Might mean something to Ian M Banks fans

 

[mid_gen]

Just done tour of the coworking space in Notts, pretty cool, will definitely start doing a day a week there in the new year. Realise how much I’ve missed a bit of human interaction in my work days!

Even the permanent resident rates are pretty reasonable.