QUOTE
And if you look at the creators of savage and now project offset you can see that skilled and talanted people can create their own way! =)

Last time I looked project offset did not have a publisher, so I don't see that as a success yet, yes the images look great but as a publisher has not signed them to my knowledge then they still must be considered a risk.

On gaining experience I don't think a publisher sees that working for other companies is the thing, they want to see what that studio has shipped, though it does help if you and your studio has worked in other large studios on good titles, though even so, you in your new studio are still a new studio yet to be proven, even though you have worked years on other games for other studios, its a bit like the award shows on TV, you get an award for best new comer in comedy and you have worked clubs for like 8 years till you got the big break, your hardly a new comer but the business sees it that you are, I think the games industry is the same.

though I do belive that if a new studio can get a game with no publisher finance, completely done or almost done, from their own efforts and finance, you have really busted some ass to do that, unless you have some kind of massive trust fund, creating a games studio is not easy at all, for a new one to come in self funded and put there stuff in front of a publisher takes some doing, so you deserve some kudos for that if you can get that far. Far better to start small and work up though as others have said, but it isnt impossible to make a large title with a new studio, just virtually impossible.

Getting published from GamaSutra:

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/agents_advice/19990305.htm

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19990430/winters_01b.htm

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050906/jenkins_01.shtml

It gives you a few points to focus on at least. At the very least, you'll get publisher's perspective, and a "ranking" system to put your work in perspective.

As Abbadon said, Project Offset, with a single programmer and 2-3 artists got themselves a publishing deal but their engine is up there with Unreal 3 (from what I've seen might be slightly better renderingwise). But when we say this is not the norm we're understating it. Try self publishing, you can get a lot of reviews and interest that way and word of mouth is awesome. Plus 100% of profits go to you, instead of like 5% ;-)

Quote: Original post by Mike2343
As Abbadon said, Project Offset, with a single programmer and 2-3 artists got themselves a publishing deal....

He didn't say that and it isn't true. They still don't have a publisher (at least there have been no announcements that they have one). They are currently increasing their team size (at their own expense) in an attempt to look more attractive to publishers and get a deal.

Quote: Original post by DarkZoulz
Let's say we have a small group of indie-developers with no trackrecord. In general, what will publishers mostly look for in a demo they recieve.

* Lots of superb conceptual art and game models?
* Impressive technology (lots of animated characters with high-detail on screen at once, for example)?
* A well-written and structured design?

Or will they not even consider a demo from a developer with no trackrecord? How about smaller publishing companies?

My two cents is this:
Your only reasnoble chance is to complete a shareware game like the vast majority of small (what GG or Indiepath would charge for an Indie rather than Enterprise lisc, ~200-250,000/year) indie. If it is casual, you may be able to get a deal with a portal if the game is of sufficent quality (the production values is going up and up, so I'm not sure if that will hold true much longer). Or, like most niche retail games, do your own marketing/publishing as cheaply as possible.

The Project Offset team has licensed their technology to Red 5 Studios. This may not constitute a traditional publishing deal, but it sure constitutes reliable funding and further advancements of their original technology.

LINK to Press Release

Quote: Original post by Razorguts
The Project Offset team has licensed their technology to Red 5 Studios. This may not constitute a traditional publishing deal, but it sure constitutes reliable funding and further advancements of their original technology.

LINK to Press Release

/me does a little research at their web site and a few game sites to look up bios to match the names.

The three people had been working more than full-time on the project for 18 months ... (that's about 10,000 work hours for the math impaired, or 5 full-time years for one person) ... before putting out the video clips that initially got them a bit of recognition and funding.

Then they brought in three people who had already won international awards in game development. Also, they brought in as a director (ie: funding) somebody who had a moderately impressive title "Lead Technical Artist" in previous corporate work along with a nice list of AA game credits, and others with fairly robust game industry history.

The Project Offset team had 19 employees and other sources of funding before being licensed by this (moderately big) project.


The salary for 19 people (probably 13-15 geeks and 4-6 support staff for cleaning, phones, accounting, legal, and other stuff) in a year is going to be over one million dollars, and that's before you start buying hardware and software, pay for insurance, have an office, and so on.


Getting back to the OP, this does not fit the originally wanted description of no track record, almost no initial cash, with conceptual art.

What does fit the originally wanted description is three people working their fingers off and putting 10,000 work hours into a project hoping and praying that it will succeed.

Quote: Original post by Razorguts
The Project Offset team has licensed their technology to Red 5 Studios. This may not constitute a traditional publishing deal, but it sure constitutes reliable funding and further advancements of their original technology.

The first does not necessarily guarantee the second. It is often the case that an early stage company like Offset will license their tech to another company on a "future royalty only" just in order to generate PR and start building a client base.