Greetings to all here. I have an idea. Can someone make it for me? I am just kidding, of course. While I do have an idea (the best one the world has yet to see...of course) that I am in the process of fully designing (ie. concept is finished and now working out every single working detail from start to finish) my question is this, if you want to produce a full on game (to compete with the big boys) and can aquire the neccesary funding to avoid going to and being steered by a publisher, how does one go about setting up a team to build a prototype to validate the premise of a new game? It is a new breed of RTS game that would function differently in some very key ways over existing and, from what I can tell, future titles resulting in a real evolutionary leap for the genre (IMHO) but I am not a programmer which is to say that as far as I got was IF and THEN in basic a long long time ago and so I cannot accurately discern the plausability of some of the new fundamental concepts of this idea. How, for minimal initial cost, do you set up an effective prototype team for an RTS style game as in, what kind of people are required for this kind of task and how many? I appreciate any feedback as I am relatively new to the creation side of video games and can only learn so much by reading before asking is required but I apologise if this question has been asked before.

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Original post by TemporalFlux How, for minimal initial cost, do you set up an effective prototype team for an RTS style game as in, what kind of people are required for this kind of task and how many?

Much depends on how you want to implement the prototype. Are we talking about something that can be implemented as a mod to an existing game? Or are we looking at something that has to be written entirely from scratch? Or somewhere in between these two extremes?

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how does one go about setting up a team to build a prototype to validate the premise of a new game?

Check out the Help Wanted forum. You will most likely need to provide more information about your game though, as just telling people it's the greatest idea ever without any more details is unlikely to convince. I'd recommend creating a website outlining the main gameplay concept, and as much concept artwork and background information as you can provide.

The mechanical side of it probably needs to be written from scratch as it will operate in a unique manner through I am sure certain build parts can be pulled from other sources. Plus, there may well be numerous shortcuts available that I am simply not aware of but a full prototype of the full on version could be done in overhead 2D to create and test the working concepts.

Regarding setting up a team...how can this be done without widely publicizing the conceptual details of the game? I know this probably just sounds like paranoia but as an inventor I believe in the inherant value of an idea because while everyone may have one, not many are realistically 'good' ideas and those, can be worth 'borrowing' and hence, I am not descibing the game :)

Is it unwise to create a company and hire initial designers vs. setting up an unofficial indie prototype squad or, is this just a matter of finances?

Thanks

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Original post by TemporalFlux Regarding setting up a team...how can this be done without widely publicizing the conceptual details of the game?

Realistically? Not really.

Think about it from the programmer's point of view. There's a whole loads of things he could be doing with his time. He could be working on any of the other projects posted in Help Wanted, he could work on his own projects, he could go and play computer games, or he could go out and get drunk and have a good time. Why would he want to spend that time working on your game instead?

If you don't provide enough information to persuade him that it's an interesting and worthwhile project, the answer is simple: he won't.

If you're offering a paid position, you might be able to get away with keeping more back, and could perhaps save the important details for an interview and get him to sign an NDA. But you'll still probably want to provide something that will capture the interest of prospective developers beyond just the money.

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I know this probably just sounds like paranoia but as an inventor I believe in the inherant value of an idea because while everyone may have one, not many are realistically 'good' ideas and those, can be worth 'borrowing' and hence, I am not descibing the game

A bit of game industry wisdom: An idea is worth nothing. Implementation is everything.

Another thing: many people have had the same reservations as you when it comes to revealing their game ideas. In all cases I can remember, on finally revealing the idea, it turned out to be either a) rather less original and groundbreaking than they thought, b) a horrible idea or c) all of the above.

My advice is to not worry too much about people stealing your ideas. It almost never happens. Chances are it's been done before in some form or another, or else someone's posted a similar idea sometime in the past.

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Is it unwise to create a company and hire initial designers vs. setting up an unofficial indie prototype squad or, is this just a matter of finances?

Setting up the company is probably more expensive. I'd probably recommend starting out indie and worry about setting up a proper company once progress is being made.

As soon as you release your first beta/demo everyone will know your idea anyway. Or I could volunteer and then drop out and post it all on GameDev (I wouldn't but somebody might).

Making your idea is a part of it. But just implementing your new ideas without getting the rest of the game slick and polished will mean your ideas don't get noticed.

Do you want to see your ideas in a game, or does it have to be your game the ideas are in - different people take different ideas here depending on if they just want such a game to exist so they can play it.

I'd be happy to chat via PM/email about your ideas but I get the feeling you'll not accept this offer.

A good start would be the IGF competition. If you can pull together a team and make even a crude prototype, you have a chance of being recognized. After that, you can polish the game and present the finished product to a publisher. In theory. [smile] Good luck!

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Original post by TemporalFlux Is it unwise to create a company and hire initial designers vs. setting up an unofficial indie prototype squad or, is this just a matter of finances?

If you have the money the best way to go is to set up a company and hire a small initial team to do the prototype, with everyone signing an NDA and a contract (which includes an assignment of rights where necessary). Then don't show the prototype to anyone you don't have to (investors would be on the "have to" list) keeping it under wraps until you are ready to start marketing it.

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A bit of game industry wisdom: An idea is worth nothing. Implementation is everything.

Much like the old addage that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, I agree completly but my perpetual retaliation to this fact is that without the 1% inspiration the other 99% becomes somewhat irrelevant.

But, when it comes to creating a game, I can understand what you are saying. Ideas are a dime a dozen but successful execution of an idea into a working, marketable and enjoyable product is what it's all about.

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If you don't provide enough information to persuade him that it's an interesting and worthwhile project, the answer is simple: he won't.

Agreed. But "on finally revealing the idea" I'd like to tentatively reserve d) is a good idea and with the required effort potentially a great game :)

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Do you want to see your ideas in a game, or does it have to be your game the ideas are in - different people take different ideas here depending on if they just want such a game to exist so they can play it.

I want to make a game using my ideas that I think would appeal to a great many people who are growing bored of the same ol same ol that the RTS genre is presently offering.

While there are small evolutionary growths here and there, for the most part it seems that this whole genre (and most others) consists essentially of one game rebuilt fifty different ways and as graphics somewhat plateau in the near future, focus will shift back to where it is supposed to be, the game mechanics.

I appreciate your feedback on this.

A somewhat technical question on the subject: What are the processing constraints on a terrain map (ie. RoN or C&C) relative to its size? Does the map itself chew a lot of power or is it all the active units that really eat up the power?

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If you have the money the best way to go is to set up a company and hire a small initial team to do the prototype, with everyone signing an NDA and a contract (which includes an assignment of rights where necessary). Then don't show the prototype to anyone you don't have to (investors would be on the "have to" list) keeping it under wraps until you are ready to start marketing it.

That I think, is what I was looking for. Runs the risk of Sandmans a) b) or c) syndrome though just with much higher financial reprocussions!

Can you give any sort of rough projection on how much this would cost and how long it takes. I realise that without any details on the game this will be a ballpark guess but assuming a marketable game will run about 2mil and take 2 years of production time, how much of these two elements would the prototype phase cost?

The map is a huge memory and CPU hog. Since most games don't allow units to act like physical bodies, proper collision detection is not needed, which would make units expensive sometimes. Unit-level AI is pretty simple.

A large map will take a lot of memory, although I guess modern PCs can handle that OK. Path-finding is historically the single biggest issue in RTS games, particularly as far as eating the CPU. As you increase the map size you increase the length of paths that get generated.

So as far as the CPU goes, increasing map size is more of a constraint. From a rendering point of view I'd say it's the units which slow things down though - rendering a small section of a gigantic terrain isn't much harder than the same section of a larger terrain, wheras rendering 100 units on-screen is a lot harder than rendering 10.

Even after significant optimisations, path-finding is EASILY the biggest thing going on in my RTS game.