15 posts tagged “development” (page 2)

This was written by a dear friend, who is working on getting his start up, WhiteMoonDreams going.

1. Get a solid partner. Having a partner who can balance you out is tremendous. Especially when the deal prospects start flying around, it's easy to lose ones head, but it's hard to lose two heads

2. Don't be the sole expert. It's easy to want to take on everything (for awhile, I was handling art, programming AND business), but you won't be able to do that for long. The earlier you start delegating these things out and building that infrastructure, the better your company is going to run when you begin in earnest.

3. Get more people involved. A lot of people might disagree with me on this one, but after the last 6mos of really working with a team as opposed to the previous 4 mos of working with a very tiny group, it's proven very effective. Handing off major portions of starting things up allows everyone to focus better on their specialties. There are a lot of concerns around properly compensating these folk since there's likely no funding yet - there are a lot of options for that, and you'll find that a lot of people, especially your friends, are willing to work with you as long as your vision and goals are sound and clear.

4. Get someone who knows business. Not necessarily just the games business, but business on the whole. Someone who understands what it takes to start and run a company, handle shares, talk to investors, write a business plan, etc etc. The romantic idea is that those of us who start game companies are also the business manager. Personally, I've been doing art and programming for the last 14 years and am not going to pretend that I know a damn thing about business. I've got a business guy, he advises me as does my board of directors, and I make the call based on that.

5. Read Execution by Larry Bossity. We've seen several companies set fantastic goals, yet fail to reach them despite the best intentions and efforts of the crew. This book is an excellent analysis of that process - what goes wrong and how to implement a culture that doesn't fall into the traps that major corporations like GE, Lucent, etc have fallen into. Even though they speak at big business level, the concepts are all sound for small businesses and especially for our industry.

6. Get stellar lawyers and in the beginning, let them hold your hand. I make no moves without my lawyers. Yes, its expensive, but the fallout from having signed a poorly written NDA or even an evaluation agreement can be catastrophic. My lawyers just caught a cleverly written eval agreement that stated that any unlicensed IP that has been toyed with on their product belongs to that company as opposed to us who created the IP. Later on, as we grow more accustomed to these paperworks, the lawyers can step out the way a little more, but at these early stages, it is vital. I even had the lawyers set up the corporations, shareholders agreements, etc. If they know what we've done every step of the way, they're better prepared to defend us if anything happens.

7. Do what you want. I see a lot of developers get out there and start scrambling for whatever project they can get. They get something and then start grumbling about having to do some crap project because it's the first one that they could get and hopefully in the future they'll be able to develop their own IP. I know one developer who has been saying that for the last 5 years while they do ports all the while. If you didn't get into this business to do ports, then don't start out that way. Its easy for a developer to get pigeonholed, and its sad to watch these established developers get passed up for projects they're dying for because they've dug themselves in, while the pub hands them to new devs or shadier devs. I know it probably sounds pretentious, but really, sticking to your guns is what's going to make you successful. Deviating from your path will likely lead to more deviation.

8. Make a business plan. A lot of devs have looked at me funny when I tell them that we have a business plan. We actually have TWO business plans, but that's because there is THAT much planning necessary. A business plan does several things for you:
- It sets a clear path of execution from start to finish for your goals
- It brings out issues in structure, finances and vision very quickly
- It helps you organize and budget your resources properly
- It proves to money people that you know exactly wtf you're doing
I was skeptical on the business plan front until my business guy pounded me on the head enough times to spend a few months working on it with him. Now, it is the company bible. When it's more complete I'll make it available to everyone in the company to see and they can comment on it as well as make decisions that help keep us in line as well as recommend when we need to update it to reflect current thinking.

9. Work only with the people you want to work with. Don't take on someone just because they can do a required task, or because they will fund your company or bla bla. A bad partnership is one of the worst things in business and we've seen plenty of examples of companies that have fallen apart because core individuals can't work things out. Especially at this early time, camaraderie is most important. That being said, don't be afraid to cut bunk. If someone isn't working out, phase them out. You have zero room for freeloaders.

10. Motivate your people with progress. Get a wiki going. Get a regular email chain. Have dinner parties. Whatever. Especially when people are working for free or for very little, seeing ongoing progress and continued solidarity is key. This is definitely true for full production as well, but even more pivotal here.

11. Don't be afraid of game agents. There are some good ones out there. ISM is an example. Think of them as lawyers in court, only the court pays for them, and they kick ass. We're not using anyone yet, but we've definitely talked to some that really know what they're doing. These guys can take your product to people you could never normally reach and evangelize the hell out of you. They can also take a deal prospect and make it even sweeter for you.

12. Hold on to equity like it is your life. It basically is.

When it comes to graphics in video games, a good art director makes more of a difference than technology(both hardware and software) in making a video game look good. Photorealisim in games does nothing for me. So you copied reality. Good job, that doesn't make you special. Anyone can do that.

Come up with a slick, distinctive style that sets your visuals apart from the ho-hum wanna-be realistic graphics that mask their shortcomings with light bloom effects? Now I'm impressed!

Games With Remarkable Art Direction:
Okami(Capcom PS2)
Viewtiful Joe(Capcom, PS2-GC)
Killer 7(Capcom, GC)
No More Heroes(Capcom Wii)
Hotel Dusk(Cing NDS)
Jet Grind Radio/Jet Set Radio(Sega Dreamcast-Xbox)
Rez(Sony PS2)
Panzer Dragoon(Sega Saturn-Xbox)
The Neverhood(Neverhood PC-PS1)
Psychonauts(Doublefine PS2-PC-Xbox)
Grim Fandango(LucasArts PC)
Graffiti Kingdom(Garakuta Studio/Taito PS2)
Paper Mario(Nintendo GC)
Final Fantasy III Remake(Square-Enix NDS)
Kingdom Hearts(Square-Enix PS2)
Cubivore(Saru Brunei GC)
ICO & Shadow of the Colossus(Sony PS2)
Viva Pinata(Rare 360)
Parappa the Rapper(Sony PS1)
Loco Roco(Sony PSP)
Exit(PSP)
Trust Bell/Eternal Sonata(Tri-Crescendo 360)
Darwinia(PC)
DEFCON(Introversion PC)
XX/XY series(Sega NDS)
Odin Sphere(Vanillaware PS2)
Aquaria(Bit Blot PC)
flOw(PS3)
Limbo(???)
Naruto Narutemit Hero & .hack series(CyberConnect2 PS2)
Vib Ribbon(Sony PS1)

Will add more as I find them...

Got an email from Apple Computer at work the other day. They've received my request and are looking into it.  I wonder how much a debug iPod costs?  I wonder if they'll force the company to buy a Mac? Everyone in the company except for the audio guy loathes Macs.  Yes, even the artists.  Both of the 3D modelers are some of the most vehement Macintosh haters in the company.

I'm somewhat of an artist and I've been doing some of my own concept art.  The in-house concept artist is pretty amazing; part of me is morbidly curious what he'd come up with if I gave him a description of the main character's personality and the traits I'd want her to visually embody.  There are some characters out there that really make me think "damn I wish I drew that first!" every time I look at them.  Feeling like someone ran in and plagiarized your thoughts before you even got a shot to write them down has to be one of the most frustrating feelings ever.  Especially  when you're someone who takes pride in being creative and original.

I picked up a 2 gig memory stick for my PSP today. I need to transfer the save files from my 32 meg stick over.  Times like this make me really wish the PSP would have 2 memory stick slots.

Anyone out there know about developing games for you?  The news that iTunes will sell games is completely, effing amazing and yes I want to be part of it.

If anything, I wish I'd known about this sooner and possibly gotten a launch title in.  Of course, I wouldn't expect for the company whose operating system was long ignored by game developers to have solicited development.  Then again, Apple is also notoriously secretive of these announcements and such.

No matter! There's a dedicated portal, an incredible installed userbase and the potential is pretty good.  There are quite a few gamers out there that have iPods(she says, sullenly raising her own hand...)

I marched right up to my boss today and straight out told him I had a proposal.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call Apple and see if I can get an iPod SDK and iTunes APIs, plus go through whatever motions I'd need to in order to become a licensed developer.

Apparently, at the Austin Games Conference, having MMO makers rant has become somewhat of a tradition.  I'm not exactly an MMO fan.  MMOs are a fairly stale rut as far as American MMO production is concerned.  Here, take a bunch of spiffy weapons, spangly particle effect spewing spells and ugly monsters. Have at you. Expect to do banal, repetitive(putting it mildly) tasks to build up your time sink - excuse me, character - so they can get to a piece of the virtual world teeming with more beasts which have statistically insignificant chances of dropping Incredibly Shiny Stuff(tm.)

I cannot deny that World of Warcraft is a runaway financial success.  6 million people, all of whom are paying to play by the month and in some cases, by the hour.  Asian markets are often given a myriad of payment options for their MMOs.  The profit is enormous, but so are upkeep expenses.  Maintaining continuous development teams, vast arrays of servers and other equipment, etc. etc. etc.  Even then, the MMO rants make one thing blatantly clear.  There's a lot of of WoW Envy going on.

Should I somehow be thrown on an MMO project, I'd be more interested in developing a flexible platform which could be tweaked into several games, which I'd target at different audiences, mainly non-WoW players. I've tried to keep up with several online games; it's not very easy when I have a regular job, a court & science show addictions to feed as well.  Getting someone to play your game *and* WoW comes across as a rather fruitless venture.  I've had people turn down real life social gatherings for WoW raids. 

The other thing I find interesting is how resistant a lot of MMO devs can be to player behaviors.  Oh no, evil Chinese gold farmers are ruining economies.  Korean and Japanese online game publishers have for the most forgotten about beating these issues and are whole heartedly joining them. 
The game pubs are selling gold. They're selling swords. Why let some punk on eBay or Yahoo! Auctions earn mad profits selling virtual items when that money could be going into YOUR pocket instead?
Hell, I'd charge small amounts of money for premium services, extra avatar customizations and things that really didn't give the premium payers a tremendous edge over the freebies.  It's not like I've got a dongle that says "swipe credit card here to win battle!"

There are great, alternative revenue streams.  When most publishers are becoming increasingly conservative and thus quelching innovation, think outside of the retail package and monthly subscription for revenue.  A lot of the innovations of Asia are powered by easy, highly accessible microtransaction systems. Japanese people swipe their cell phones across bar-codes to buy things, subscribe to newsletters, you name it!  Koreans seem to have all manners of net-currency accounts easily rechargable offline as well as online.

I do recall in the 90s right before the Dot Com bust, there were companies offering Web Money serivces where you could pay offline to get money to securely spend online but they never really caught on. You couldn't use them in many places, unlike the Asian systems.  Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade are a good move in this direction and the Nintendo Wii will have a similar system set up.  Hopefully these systems will usher in an era of better gaming.