Not sure this belongs in a Game Design forum...sounds like another of those misplace posts about the business-aspects of game development (shameless plug for the creation of GameDev business-related forum)...

In any case, what you're asking boils down to "How Do I Write a Business Plan That Will Attract Investors." Admittedly, there are game development wrinkles to be considered, but it is still a business plan.

There are a lot of books and articles covering writing a business plan. Just go to Amazon.com and look around. Or even your local bookstore.

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DavidRM
Samu Games

Well first of all, I think you're in the wrong industry. The games industry shouldn't be all about making lots and lots of moulah. It should be about making games, and fun ones at that!

If you want someone to take interest in what you do, you don't NEED a plan. You don't NEED a strategy. You need honesty and a general love for what it is you're doing. Who in their right mind could refuse someone who's made their dream a reality? I know I'd be insane to. Make a game and make it amazingly fun. Show those you need to support your game, that people love it- that you love it. If they don't pick you up then, they're the fools.

It's no wonder the game industry sucks these days. Everything is about business first, games second. It's wrong. Take a look at gaming's roots and you'll see that there was never any big business behind game development. There were games first.

Forget your pitch. If you love what you're doing enough and consider money a secondary thing, you'll have people coming to you for a change. Besides, the more need for a pitch, the worse your game must be. That's what I always thought...

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-Reactor
Planetblood.com
Gamesiege.com

The game industry is an industry because of business, no one should assume they can not deal with business and still be a successful full-time game company.

If you want to just do it as an art or as some higher-level of craft, stick with it as a hobby. Getting into it full time means you either work for someone who shelters you from business, or you have to deal with the business aspects of it yourself.

Unless you are independently wealthy, youll need funding to finish big games, and that means you need a real business plan and the ability to manage money and plan for all the things your game will need. So its not just about the coolness of making games...

BTW, original poster should really bring this up in the Business Section of the message boards, youll get a much better response there.

-Geoff

[This message has been edited by ghowland (edited October 20, 1999).]

I agree, but only to a point. Sure, you'll have to deal with the business side of the games industry, but what is games developing with a love for it? It's crap games, that's what it is. What's the difference between going in with a passion for making great games, and not?

It's funny, but people always come to me. I never have to go to anyone. Of course, I'm not a professional games developer, but time after time I do things for people, prove my worth and just be honest about the gaming industry (and how much I love it) and I'm amazed at how many people offer to publish the things I do, or shout me a domain, and so on.

I'm not saying we should be naieve little twerps and forget about the business side of gaming, but we shouldn't focus on it. We should do what we love best, even do it for free for a while. People will see what you do and say,

"Hmmm... this guy is producing some amazing stuff right now. He's a favourite in the gaming industry and has a huge fan base following everything he does, because he does it with a passion."

I've had people tell me that any game I make in the future, they will buy, because they respect my honesty. What makes sence to me isn't business, it's games. These days, so many people think business first. They do it with the comics industry and... heck, almost everything. It's a real shame. Just because there's a lot of business in games these days doesn't mean it's right.

Something just seems wrong to me when you need a sales pitch from a book (or something) to get someone to publish a game. If it's good enough, you shouldn't need one at all!

*sighs*

Guess I'm the only one here who thinks this way. Oh well.

Ooops

"but what is games developing with a love for it?"

That should be 'without a love'.

Me learn spell. Good idea methinks :P

Reactor...no offence old buddy, but you are bordering on sounding naive as hell.
I'm all for passion in the games industry, without passion people like me and you wouldn't bother doing what is essentially an underpaid, unthanked, stressful job.
But when it comes to the business aspect, either you have some sense and be proffesional or you don't and either sink without trace when no-one offers to pay for your game developement or you end up finding your contract screws you for every penny as soon as the game is one hour over deadline.
Business people run publishing corps. and they want to see that the company they are hiring and throwing money at is a business too. Personally I think the entire games industry needs to grow up and start acting like an industry, not like the bedroom hobbyist dinosaur that so many small companies are.
And the reason most companies that treat it like this are small is unsurprising. I've personally seen two companies who rose to multi-million pound _profit_ operations in the early nineties, fall flat on their faces when they have to compete with giants of business like EA, who, let's face it, know what the hell they're doing when it comes to making money.
People give money to make money and if they think all you have is a dream and all the passion in the world, then they're going to expect you to fail because without planning and design the best games people working with the best idea will end up three years and 10 million later trying their best to figure out how they ended up creating a monster.

Alright, business is business...that isn't out of the ordinary. However, art without passion is meaningless. If something is made to simply earn money or profit of some other kind, it will not likely get the same treatment as a project that really means something to the author.

The video game industry has been going downhill because of the money factor. Games are released too soon, you get patches that pile up quickly and there are deadlines deadlines deadlines. People dislike the "when its done" statements of id and 3dRealms, but hey, that usually means that the project means something to them. Sure they will probably covered with money seconds after the releases of Quake3 and Duke4ever, but thats because they want to do the games right.

By now, most game makers want to get a quick buck. Busines is busines...though that business now consists mostly of getting money. Hey...thats fair...we as the consumers won't be upset....right?

I would have to say that the original post (and my response) had more to do with attracting the necessary funds to actually undertake the long, expensive task of developing a game, than with just getting lots of money from a great game idea.

And that is a very valid concern. If you have a project in mind that requires 8-12 people (producer, programmers, artists, musicians, et al) over 18 months, you're going to need *somebody* to pony up the dough (to pay these people, to buy licenses, and so on). Unless, as Geoff mentioned, you're independently wealthy. (And if you are, I have a plan I could show you... ;-) )

Creating a quality game requires a budget. If you can't make the budget yourself, you have to have someone agree to make it for you. And no one is going to volunteer without some assurance that they will see a return on their investment.

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DavidRM
Samu Games

Um, how the hell did this thread end up here? Ok... whatever... getting back on track...

I'm with Rust. I could write a whole lot of hooplah, but the gaming industry is changing. I don't like it. It sucks. Game are nothing what they used to be, just ask the hardcore gamers about that one. I'm sure there are thousands of very successful game developers here on this very forum, lending advice and all the rest, but what I hate is the lack of thinking behind it all.

A guy needs a book to help him sell his product. Something's wrong with that, and I feel ashamed I want to work in an industry, originally born of something vastly different to the rest of the world, that's now degenerated into a money hungry, 'pitch my product' to the businessman industry. We all need money to survive, but gaming gone business, is gaming no more.

You say, MikeD, that gaming is an underpaid, unthanked and stressful job. What a crock. Do you think the Id boys complain about money? Like everything in life, it can be stressful, but if you aren't thanked by those who are playing your games, you're either making the wrong ones or so far out of touch with the gaming world it isn't funny. I know of no one who is thanked more, and taken better care of by fans than the developers who come and spend time with them.

Anyway, yadda yadda yadda. What's gaming to you? For me, it's about making the best games. If I can do one thing in my entire life, it's to bring one moment of joy to the faces of those who see the work I do. Screw money. Screw big business, publishers, who falls, who survives. The games industry is NOTHING without great games. Eveything else is completely and utterly meaningless. Money is pointless without joy in your life, and I could care less about how many dickheads get sucked in by big business.

Ask yourself what it means, when thousands upon thousands of gamers complain again and again and again and again about the very thing you want for the gaming industry, MikeD. They hate big business. They hate patches and they want, more than anything else, to have gaming how it used to be. They want better games, not more of them.

You want things yourself, right? Sure, I've seen tons of guys on here who do the good old,

"We have an idea and might make some money!"

But what you don't realise is that the payment for gaming shouldn't be in the money. It is glory in achieving something. It is the looks on the faces of those who buy your games. It is their reaction, their thanks. Game developers seem to be a greedy lot. (the ones I've seen lately, anyway) They want money, they want thanks, and they want the game they're doing to be successful. They want everything.

They just seem to forget, they're robbing the gamers-- They very people who support them in the first place. Think about it. If you had a real love and passion for gaming, you'd understand what I'm saying. On this forum, it always seems to be 'money this, and money that'. It shouldn't be.

That's the decision I've come to. I'm not going to go crawling to anyone. I'm not going to sell my product with a sales pitch. I'm going to go into the industry with a passion and see what happens. Money is something that will come, when I have damned well earned it, and if I have to work cleaning toilets until I've reached that point, so be it. But, I'll be a better gamer for it, because I didn't have to do it the big business way. 'Nuff said.

...and a quick reply to DavidRM...

Well said. I'm just still rambling about the very first post