Hi I have been wanting to start up my own business for a while designing games for game companies. but i dont know how to do it. So i would likesome help in this matter i would be very greatful to anyone who would do this i am 16 so this may be a problem for me thanks kakarot Honor and Pride. A warriors right and left arms.

*Ahhh. A chance to complain a bit. Davaris listen! *
There are no design companies and there won''t be any in the future. Correct me if I am wrong, but I never heard about such a thing. And there is a good reason why: Everybody and their brother wants to design. So usually those who bring in the money design the crap known as games.

And now my complaining part. Just and only for my friend Davaris:
*I waited so long to say this*
DON''T GO IN THE GAME INDUSTRY. RUN AS FAR AS YOU CAN AND GET A REAL, WELL PAID, COMMONLY RESPECTED JOB. Like a baker. Or better yet, go to the army!
That''s what I should have done.

D00d: where did u come from?
Okay yes this is done...Actualy it is quite common.
Many developers can''t really afford to publish their games. Okay millions of cd''s and pacakges sent in a truck to Wal+Mart. Can you afford that or are you going to give up your game to someone that will do it and can do it?

If your game is good enough someone will be interested in buying it. Take MS-DOS for intance... Microsoft wasn''t the creater of DOS...They bought it from some guy : )

-x3r0
(x3r0@x3r0.com)
X E R O D E V E L O P M E N T
http://www.x3r0.com

I believe Kakarot is talking about *designing* games, not programming them. Huge difference. There are no such *designing* companies.

Martin

Kakarot -

Well, I''ve never heard of a design co, but a game designer, yes. A company that just designs games really isn''t that great, cause then you have to aquire a developer, and then the developer has to go out and aquire a publisher. In the end, the shares of the profits first go to the publisher, then to the developer, and then to you. Yuck. Your best bet, if you want to design games, is becoming a game designer for a development house. That way you get paid by the developer, who gets paid by the publisher. Much nicer right? Breaking in is hard, so chalk up a few design ideas and start passing them around, someone is bound to notice. Just remember: hundreds of other kids your age are trying to do the exact same thing.

(and nobody feel wrong in correcting any mistakes I made - hate to lead this youngster astray)

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\\// live long and prosper; \||/ die short and rot.
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The chances that you get a job as a gamedesigner from scratch (you only have design docs as references and not finished games) is very, very, very low.
My suggestion for you is to go to University and study computer science. And after that if you really don''t want to get a well paid IT job, in gods sake go and make games.

Point for Jester. Also, if you wanna design games, make sure you play them religiously and keep up to date. If I were looking to hire a game designer, some of the questions I would ask him/her would be stuff about what you think the latest games do a good job of doing, the current state of the games market, etc.

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\\// live long and prosper; \||/ die short and rot.
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Sup, jus wanted to warn you, I''m not as fanatical as to jester 101, makeing games can be fun, and you can get paid an average salary, but....... there are going to be sometimes when you wished you hadn''t. try actually designing a game and putting it together I think you will be able to realize if you like this type of thing or not. I''m not sure if I''m right or not, but I think the game designers can also be the producers. I''m 19 now, and I started designing and making games when I was 14, and I''m jus now starting to get somewhere. think long and hard before you try to start a company, it can SUCK! at times. Well thanks for listening to my rant. hope you decide well.

You cannot design games without a programming and art staff to go along with it. Without proof-of-gameplay, its all just hot air. A game design company is a complete pipe dream.

OK, wait a minute. Now I have a question. What are all the different ways of getting into the game industry? And how do you go about doing each? I always ask this question and no one can give me a strait answer. Its so fucking confusing I am starting to wonder if I should even bother trying or if I should just program OS''s.

-I'm a little Teapot
"And don't quote me on that"