Malstrom,
Recent articles have been very fun to read. I especially enjoy the talk about other forms of media in relation to games, especially when you provide examples. It almost feels like you’re dropping fishing lines and using Citizen Kane and Gone With the Wind as bait to lure people into new (to them) realms of possibility and inspiration. I guess that’s up to each individual reader to decide for themselves, though. But that’s not what I’m writing about.
How should the kids with ideas be getting their ideas to the places they need to be? If someone has a great game all figured out, would they want to make a (quality) presentation that they can take from developer to developer and hope someone takes interest? Should they gather friends of different talents and see if they can start from scratch? I would assume both of those are decent methods, but pragmatically, what can the amateur do to break into the professional world? What kind of people should they be contacting, and what should they prepared for?
While I am not sure about the inner workings of the “Game Industry”, I would imagine that the best way to get hired or get interest in a publisher is to demonstrate talent. For example, a book publisher will demand a full written manuscript from the “budding young writer” before seriously considering publishing. The reason why is because most books that are began are never finished.
Most amateur game projects that are begun are never finished. It is actually very hard to begin and finish an amateur game project. First, you have the sheer inexperience of the team. Game development is extremely hard and many have no idea what they are getting into. Then, you have to get the team working on the same mission, on the same wavelength. This is hard because everyone believes they are the next Miyamoto. They thought game development was about ‘design’ and ‘ideas’, not the elbow grease of programming, bug hunting, and constant script making. Also, the team has no cashflow coming in so they are essentially working harder than they ever have in their lives for free. All entrepreneurs have to do this. So they don’t want to continue working so hard… and for not getting any money. Isn’t game development supposed to be FUN? they wonder.
There are many ‘kits’ out there where a small team can buy use of a game engine and build their game from there. Garage Games is a good example of this. They have a 2d and 3d engine you can get. There are also many “kits” and “art packages” and “sound packages” they are willing to sell you for an additional cost (profitable for them and also for you if you want them to do some of the work for you).
Some examples of Garage Games:
The last video there shows a finished game on the iPhone being reviewed by… well someone who reviews iPhone games. Garage Games engine can easily be ported to iPhone, Linux, Mac, PC and who knows what else. I wanted to show that video to show how you can put a finished product out there and even make money off it. If you keep getting money off it, like Rake in the Grass apparently seems to be doing, then you can make games for a living (and not have to get a ‘real job’ as we’d say in the 80s).
The Unity engine is also available but I don’t know much about it. Some videos:
There are many ways to put out a game. There will be more obstacles than you can imagine. If you think you can just make a few ‘casual games’ in your spare time, start raking in the revenue so you can them make your ‘masterpiece hardcore game’, don’t bother with game development. What occurs in the game maker’s mind bleeds over into the game whether they realize it or not. If you just try to make a ‘dumbed down casual game to make some money’ then the gamer will instantly detect it and be turned off by it.
People who want to make games will have already know many, many more alternatives than the few I showed above. If you want something bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to get it. So when people tell me that they think making a game is “too hard” or “too inconvenient”, I know they don’t want it bad enough.
Mod making has been popular for a while. And there are examples of mod makers getting jobs as a game maker. However, I think this is setting people up for long term failure. There is a completely different reaction in giving away something for free as opposed to charging something for money. Having people download and play your stuff doesn’t really mean much since it is all for free. It is no indication of what it is worth in the market. Put a price on it, and you will fast realize how much it is worth in the market.
Knowing how to sell a game is more important than knowing how to make a game people play. Making the cash register go *ding* is the ultimate objective. There are many different ways to do this. Some game companies try to make a really fun game that people want to play forever (Blizzard, Nintendo, etc.) while other game companies try to crank out a massive amount of hype to sell their game (“Game Industry” typical practice). The purpose is the same: make the cash register go *ding*.
This is why I see mod making, for people serious about game making, to be setting someone up for a fall because there is no emphasis on making the cash register go *ding*. You’ve heard of mod makers hired at different companies. But I’ve never heard of a mod maker actually becoming a company that survives long-term.
Here is one example to watch for. The Warcraft 3 mod called “DOTA” got Ice Frog ‘hired’ by a company. However, no one has ever paid money for “DOTA”. We don’t know what market strength it has aside from the “DOTA clones” made by other game companies (like Demigod). Also, “DOTA” was not an original creation. There was much theft of other mod makers’ spells and ideas and even textures that went into it (which is why War 3 modders that had been around for a long while really despise DOTA). I expect someone like Ice Frog to be running headlong into a wall because DOTA’s success was based on how many users it has, not in how much money it makes (which is zero). Guys like Miyamoto and all became so because they made and sold smaller games (e.g. Donkey Kong) which forged them to go ahead and make larger games. Skipping the process of selling I think is a recipe for eventual failure.
You are not in the business of making great games. You are in the business of selling games. This is why gaming revolves around the best selling list, not the best gameplay list. (Same way with books. There is a New York Times best selling list, not a New York Times best written list.)
Now here is what is getting interesting. Many mods that were began on Warcraft 3 such as tower defense moved away to other platforms. People wanted to sell their ideas, of course. Blizzard has realized this massive erosion. Their solution to it is the concept of selling maps and mods with Starcraft 2.
Some believe that Starcraft 2’s concept of selling maps is just the latest example to cram DLC down our throats. But Blizzard is a different animal, even under Activision. I did witness and even participate in making mods for Warcraft 3 to test them out and then sell it on another platform. So I do believe Blizzard’s focus is not so much cram DLC down our throats but to stop this practice, to stop this erosion. They want these great mods to stay on their platform and not move somewhere else. This is why they are creating the incentive to sell your stuff.
It is a really intriguing idea and one I will take advantage of personally. But the big issue is what legal rights does the mod maker have? If you sell a game, normally, you have many legal rights. Copyright, alone, has significant legal teeth. If you ripped my game and stole its art assets and music, I could take you to court (and win). How is this being done in Starcraft 2? Blizzard has admit they don’t know. You cannot sell something unless you have legal rights with it. It looks like the legal rights may be nothing more than you versus Blizzard as Blizzard will be assuming all legal responsibility of protecting maps. But we’ll find out details soon enough. So Starcraft 2 is another possibility where kids can “take their ideas” since they will be able to sell them.
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