Hello, I'm currently looking to start a professional Game Development Studio in the southwest of England. To the table i bring myself, an experienced Project Manager and Games Designer. I have studied "Game Design and Mechanics" in higher education, and also a side course in "Video Game Art". Basically I'm looking for fellow industry familiar people in the UK to start such a company. This isn't a Help Wanted as such but more of an announcement. The first project will be voluntary, however i am willing to pay for an indie game engine license for the creation of our first game. I will also be purchasing a domain name, and register the company name in the United Kingdom. Please, if you live outside of the UK, dont contact me unless you can relocate. I would rather this not be the case however. Also the first project, like many on gamedev will be completed over the internet and will be quite small in size. The aim for the first year would be to complete a simple virtual environment in which we can base future projects and build our company status. If you are interested please contact me via Private Message and we will then arrange another form of contact. From no on however, so that this doesn't become a help wanted thread, all discussion will be about the company and its projects. I have two questions of my own... - Which engine would be the best investment for a longterm arrangement such as this? - With Indie Licenses, can we sell our games without the game engine's creator receiving royalties and/or us pay the professional price of that engine? Thanks in advance. [Edited by - Skulburn on August 16, 2007 5:49:26 PM]

Quote: Original post by Skulburn
- With Indie Licenses, can we sell our games without the game engine's creator receiving royalties and/or us pay the professional price of that engine?

If you are releasing it for profit then, by definition, it's a "professional" project and you need to pay the fee.

If you're starting a company, you should have a few million in funding anyway, so the "small" price of the engine shouldn't make a dent.

-me

This is the problem, starting a studio without funding...

I've spoken with a few publishers and, i have contacts but without a project demo/finished project, no one will fund the studio. This is why (in my view) the studio would need one project, prehaps not even complete but to show the potential to possible publishers.

So thats why i was asking, i dont have several million pounds in the bank, gosh i wish i had. But theres just no other way to get such a large amount of funding.

Any help here would be much appreciated.

Out of interest, where in the UK and what platform are you aiming for?

Quote: Original post by Skulburn
This is the problem, starting a studio without funding...

I've spoken with a few publishers and, i have contacts but without a project demo/finished project, no one will fund the studio. This is why (in my view) the studio would need one project, prehaps not even complete but to show the potential to possible publishers.

Not exactly. You won't get funding until:

1) most of the people in the studio have 3-5 published AAA titles and 3-5 years of industry experience under their belt
-or-
2) your game is complete and just about at market quality and fits in subjectively with however the publisher perceives themselves

#1 isn't in the ballpark for you it seems.
#2 is probably going to cost you to get people qualified enough to make it

Unfortunately, that's the reality of entrepreneurialism. You need money to make money. For people starting without qualifications that money usually comes from friends and family.

The alternate path for those without ready access to capital:

1. join the industry
2. ship a few games
3. make some close friends
4. quit your company with your friends
5. get venture funding (because now you have credentials)
6. put together a demo level (finished to quality)
7. get more funding (and maybe a publisher)
8. ship a game
9. use profits (and maybe more funding) to help launch the next game project

Asking people who you don't know to work full-time for free for a couple years is an unrealistic start to a successful company.

-me

Evil Steve
Well I'm based in Gloucestershire (Southwest of England) and for platform, ideally it would be next generation console development, but that is extremely unlikely for a first project unless someone i know wins the lottery. For now i think we will produce Windows/Macintosh compatible games.

Palidine
Thank you for the information. As it is, i do have quite a few industry friends which i did state in my opening post, and we have spoken about collaborating, however most of these friends are in the same profession as i am (Game Design) and I'm mainly seeking people in programming and graphics.

Thanks again.

Quote: Original post by Skulburn
Palidine
Thank you for the information. As it is, i do have quite a few industry friends which i did state in my opening post, and we have spoken about collaborating, however most of these friends are in the same profession as i am (Game Design) and I'm mainly seeking people in programming and graphics.

Gottit. Sorry. I standardly fail at reading comprehension.

Good Luck!

-me

> This is the problem, starting a studio without funding...

IIRC, there was a session about funding at the Develop conference in Brighton called "Small Developer's Survival Guide". The paper should be available online and contact info for the speakers. There was also another session called "UK Games Sector Strategies"; one of the speaker was from TIGA. You can also look for the GAMES:EDU part of the conference, where instructors gather together to review the state of the game development education in the UK. You might find a few contacts (like Chris Chiltern of SkillSet) who might know a few good programmers willing to do some of your game demo on the side; there are probably a few apprenticeship opportunities related to those academic programs.

Speaking of TIGA, you should find a few contacts there for your needs. (www.tiga.org) And probably more info about tax credits and other government programs related to multimedia. Hopefully, you could get some minimal funding for your startup through some of those programs.

Hope this helps.

-cb

Thanks so much for that information cbenoi1

I'll look into that, and I'm certainly going to be speaking with them as soon as possible.

Thanks again.

You say you are an experienced Project Manager and Games Designer, what are your previous projects/games?