Hello! I've got a question that has been bothering me for some time. I'm a IT student. I recently also got a job at game porting company. So currently I'm getting some foothold in the game biz. The thing is that I want to start something on my own and I'd like to plan ahead. I'm currently working on a project that possibly some people might find interesting. However after reading through Tom Sloper's Sloperama a couple of times I couldn't find one thing. There's a small team of people. A working demo, full game design etc. Possibility of getting a reasonable bank loan to start a small company (but not surely not enough to get full product created and I'm not talking about a AAA title). But what then? Do we go from publisher to publisher and say that we have a great project started but we need funding to get it finished? Or do we find some kind of investor? The additional problem is that the game industry is not very well developed in the country I'm living in. What do You suggest is the most reasonable course of action at such a point? thanks for any input

Quote: Original post by Yezu
However after reading through Tom Sloper's Sloperama a couple of times I couldn't find one thing.
What do You suggest is the most reasonable course of action at such a point?

The most reasonable course of action at this point is to finish your degree, then get several years of experience in the game industry, before trying to start your own company. You say you couldn't find "one thing" on my site. Did you see article 29?

Why not cut a couple "A"s off that title(that is release an A instead of a AAA title) and go indie with it? Or if you want to hold out for the big bucks, enter the demo in IGF and see if that helps with shopping the title to publishers.

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper
The most reasonable course of action at this point is to finish your degree, then get several years of experience in the game industry, before trying to start your own company. You say you couldn't find "one thing" on my site. Did you see article 29?

Yes I did, and I read it thoroughly.
I know I should finish my degree and get experience in the industry. I'm working on both of these steps. I realise that gamedev is not rock'n'roll :P

Maybe I stated my question in wrong way.

What I'm interested in is what should one do when all of the mentioned 10 steps are completed? How does one get THE deal to finish his product? Is it reasonable to start up a company, once you have a demo, and then look for somebody interested in funding the finished game? Or should one wait until one has a finished product and look just for a publisher? Or should one do it another way round? Or are there any other ways to get the game published, with limited funding?

I know I'm not about to face these problems very soon, but I'd like to be able to know what may lay ahead. Given that the industry in the country I live in, has only recently began to gain momentum, it may turn out to be wise, to face them sooner than later.

Quote: Original post by stonemetal
Why not cut a couple "A"s off that title(that is release an A instead of a AAA title) and go indie with it? Or if you want to hold out for the big bucks, enter the demo in IGF and see if that helps with shopping the title to publishers.

Well I never presumed to create a AAA title, as first project :P "Indie" is a broad term, but nevertheless I've been thinking about it, whatever form that may turn out to be. IGF is a interesting idea, to be honest I never heard of that, I'll have to read about it a bit.

Quote: Original post by Yezu
How does one get THE deal to finish his product?

If there was a sure way, everybody here would know it already. The truth is that even extremely experienced teams with plenty AAA projects on their belt are having a hard time to secure financing (e.g. IronLone and plenty others if you watch the news regularly). So what makes you think that some publisher would be willing to undergo such a hige risk associated with an unproven team ?

Even if you could take advantage of lower development costs in Poland, there are still huge marketing costs, which are usually higher than the development costs itself. So, saving few hundreds of thousand doesn`t cut the deal, if the publisher would still have to spend $2M on a marketing. So, A / AA / AAA games are out of your reach from the very start. You`d be happy for a B rating, believe me ;-)

Your best bet is to finish the game yourself and then go around pitching the game to publishers and see what they offer (if at all).
If you`re lucky and have AT LEAST visuals of current AAA titles, you could go to budget section of PC market (i.e. games for $10-$15).
If you happen to find a publisher who is extremely liking your finished product and sees the market right away, you might get some nice advance on royalties.

Currently it`s probably the worst time to try to enter the retail PC market.
But if that`s what you want to do, then go ahead and burn yourself.

But beware of the loans and make sure you can pay them even if the game doesn`t get the publisher and consider the money from him only as a bonus, not the primary objective, if you can do that.

Quote: Original post by Yezu
What I'm interested in is what should one do when all of the mentioned 10 steps are completed? How does one get THE deal to finish his product? Is it reasonable to start up a company, once you have a demo, and then look for somebody interested in funding the finished game? Or should one wait until one has a finished product and look just for a publisher? Or should one do it another way round? Or are there any other ways to get the game published, with limited funding?

Yes, all of those are good ideas.

No, no one can tell you which is best for you and your particular game without actually spending time looking at your game and getting to know your company.

One of the main reasons why you need experience is so you can work out what will be best for your game.