An Idea, a Dream and cynical reality
by Graham Evans · 01/09/2006 (7:13 am) · 3 comments
Greetings all and welcome to my first ever entry.
I think that 2005 was a turning point for me in my desire to be involved in the games industry, and maybe it was a true dawning of the age of cynicism as well, which hopefully can be tempered by experience.
I have been "into" computer game since the 70's (Yes, I am that old) and I remember happily dropping coins into a space invaders machine when they first came out. I have seen the rise of corporate thinking with massive production projects taking over from the independent programmer in a garage with an idea.
Yet there's one important word in that last paragraph that, until recently, was still worshiped and revered in my mind.. idea.
2005 taught me one major, and very important lesson.. If I'm trying to get funding to build a team and a game, I'm wrong.
In order to develop a game, or to get funding to develop a game these days, the idea is worthless, it's irrelevant. The ONLY thing that the people with money to invest want to see is a polished demo with whiz-bangs and sparkly effects whether related to the story or not. (Told you I was getting cynical, didn't I).
How does that fit with my personal goals in life... well, I have two options, one is to go my own way and operate on a shoestring, but believing that I have ideas that can be developed, or I can play it their way and just go for developing the flashiest and most bizarre demo ever and when asked what the story is, just pat a folder on the desk next to me and say.. it's all in here and as long as they are watching the screen, that's good enough.
Morally, it's harder. I'm not like that, but I am also a realist, and I know that although I can dream up ideas and stories and link everything together, I also know that I am not a graphics artist and I am not a serious programmer.
However, I also know I can learn (I have always enjoyed learning, I'm lucky that way) and having been involved in 3d, games and virtual reality for over 10 years now in various roles and positions and I honestly believe I have reached my defining moment in my career.
I need to downsize my plans from this point forward and concentrate on even smaller baby steps that I had originally planned.
I am going to build my game, the one I have been planning for 15 years in my mind. To do this, I will LEARN to be a graphics artist, and I will LEARN to be a programmer, if that's what it takes, and I will gladly accept any help that comes my way and return that help in kind. If I find an artist or programmer to help when I need that, that will be great, and maybe, just maybe, I will be able to help them in some way as well, if not, it will just take me longer.
I will stick with my principles and build a demo that suits my ideas so that I can link it together for my own integrity and personal satisfaction, and if it takes another 5 years to get a quality demo put together, then that's what it will take, and at that point I will take the demo, and the (irrelevant) idea to the suits.
It's a long road ahead, but I look forward to exciting and frustrating times ahead, and getting back to what I consider to be the most important aspect of any game.. an idea that works.
Perhaps this will one day see the light of the world as a finished product, perhaps not. Maybe it will get funded, perhaps I will be working on this for the rest of my life in my own garage as a project of 1, but most importantly, even though in the corporate marketplace the "idea" has become unimportant, no-one can take away the power of a person to dream and to believe that they can accomplish what they set out to do and to do what they believe is right.
Welcome to 2006 and Happy Indie development to all.
Regards
Graham
I think that 2005 was a turning point for me in my desire to be involved in the games industry, and maybe it was a true dawning of the age of cynicism as well, which hopefully can be tempered by experience.
I have been "into" computer game since the 70's (Yes, I am that old) and I remember happily dropping coins into a space invaders machine when they first came out. I have seen the rise of corporate thinking with massive production projects taking over from the independent programmer in a garage with an idea.
Yet there's one important word in that last paragraph that, until recently, was still worshiped and revered in my mind.. idea.
2005 taught me one major, and very important lesson.. If I'm trying to get funding to build a team and a game, I'm wrong.
In order to develop a game, or to get funding to develop a game these days, the idea is worthless, it's irrelevant. The ONLY thing that the people with money to invest want to see is a polished demo with whiz-bangs and sparkly effects whether related to the story or not. (Told you I was getting cynical, didn't I).
How does that fit with my personal goals in life... well, I have two options, one is to go my own way and operate on a shoestring, but believing that I have ideas that can be developed, or I can play it their way and just go for developing the flashiest and most bizarre demo ever and when asked what the story is, just pat a folder on the desk next to me and say.. it's all in here and as long as they are watching the screen, that's good enough.
Morally, it's harder. I'm not like that, but I am also a realist, and I know that although I can dream up ideas and stories and link everything together, I also know that I am not a graphics artist and I am not a serious programmer.
However, I also know I can learn (I have always enjoyed learning, I'm lucky that way) and having been involved in 3d, games and virtual reality for over 10 years now in various roles and positions and I honestly believe I have reached my defining moment in my career.
I need to downsize my plans from this point forward and concentrate on even smaller baby steps that I had originally planned.
I am going to build my game, the one I have been planning for 15 years in my mind. To do this, I will LEARN to be a graphics artist, and I will LEARN to be a programmer, if that's what it takes, and I will gladly accept any help that comes my way and return that help in kind. If I find an artist or programmer to help when I need that, that will be great, and maybe, just maybe, I will be able to help them in some way as well, if not, it will just take me longer.
I will stick with my principles and build a demo that suits my ideas so that I can link it together for my own integrity and personal satisfaction, and if it takes another 5 years to get a quality demo put together, then that's what it will take, and at that point I will take the demo, and the (irrelevant) idea to the suits.
It's a long road ahead, but I look forward to exciting and frustrating times ahead, and getting back to what I consider to be the most important aspect of any game.. an idea that works.
Perhaps this will one day see the light of the world as a finished product, perhaps not. Maybe it will get funded, perhaps I will be working on this for the rest of my life in my own garage as a project of 1, but most importantly, even though in the corporate marketplace the "idea" has become unimportant, no-one can take away the power of a person to dream and to believe that they can accomplish what they set out to do and to do what they believe is right.
Welcome to 2006 and Happy Indie development to all.
Regards
Graham
About the author
Recent Blogs
• Happy New Year 1879• End of Year Thanks and Pics
• If at first....
• And we go forward.
• Always Learning.
#2
01/09/2006 (12:41 pm)
Good luck man! I pretty much ruled out funding from way back when I first started reading all those 'break into the game industry' articles circa 1997. A lot of sources let me know right from the get-go that the idea wasn't the most important thing. Getting it playable and then being able to go the extra million miles to get it polished is. I still here stories from people today who speak of designing their ultimate game on paper and then selling the idea. It's sad when I have to tell them that stuff doesn't fly anymore. With the abundance of tools and community though you really shouldn't be hindered. I'm sure you'll get the game of your dreams done! 
#3
Nah, not cynical at all. It's simply how the world works. Remember, put YOURSELF in the situation as the investor. We'll keep it a low number, and say you've got $20,000 you want to invest - but you REALLY want to see it turn into more than $20,000 when its over. You've got a hundred guys telling you what great ideas they have, if you'll give them the $20,000. None of them have guarantees, so any one of them could lose you the $20,000 and you'd be back to nothing, forced to take a part-time job at McDonalds asking people if they want fries with that (just in case losing $20,000 didn't seem scary enough to ya).
How are you going to invest your money?
Same deal - getting a team together. Let's say you are really talented at one thing in game development. Art / Level Design / Programming / Writing / Marketing, whatever. Pretty much where you are RIGHT NOW. You've got a killer idea, a dream game you really want to make. You KNOW it would rock. And then, there's this other game you'd really like to make, too...
NOW - imagine there's a hundred people who want you to put YOUR game on hold so you can help them with THEIR games. One guy's got this kick-butt "Massively Multiplayer Knitting Game," and this other guy has a game called, "Guess the Number of Jellybeans" that he KNOWS will sell hundreds of thousands if only someone of your talents could help him out. What's it going to take for YOU to put your dream game on hold to go help them out? To make things more interesting, lets say you HAVE helped out a few of these guys in the past - but every time you do, you put in a couple hundred hours of work, but the guy running the project gets bored and ends development without telling you. And you've received no pay.
What's it gonna take?
For me, it would take this FOR SURE:
* Confidence in the LEADERSHIP of the project (thus the demo and your track record).
I would also want one or more of the following:
* A real excitement for the project
* some significant financial renumeration (which I could then put back into my own project)
* Some "owed favors" by people with talents in areas I was lacking, so that I could call upon them to help me with my own project.
01/09/2006 (1:36 pm)
Quote:In order to develop a game, or to get funding to develop a game these days, the idea is worthless, its irrelevant. The ONLY thing that the people with money to invest want to see is a polished demo with whiz-bangs and sparkly effects whether related to the story or not. (Told you I was getting cynical, didnt I).
Nah, not cynical at all. It's simply how the world works. Remember, put YOURSELF in the situation as the investor. We'll keep it a low number, and say you've got $20,000 you want to invest - but you REALLY want to see it turn into more than $20,000 when its over. You've got a hundred guys telling you what great ideas they have, if you'll give them the $20,000. None of them have guarantees, so any one of them could lose you the $20,000 and you'd be back to nothing, forced to take a part-time job at McDonalds asking people if they want fries with that (just in case losing $20,000 didn't seem scary enough to ya).
How are you going to invest your money?
Same deal - getting a team together. Let's say you are really talented at one thing in game development. Art / Level Design / Programming / Writing / Marketing, whatever. Pretty much where you are RIGHT NOW. You've got a killer idea, a dream game you really want to make. You KNOW it would rock. And then, there's this other game you'd really like to make, too...
NOW - imagine there's a hundred people who want you to put YOUR game on hold so you can help them with THEIR games. One guy's got this kick-butt "Massively Multiplayer Knitting Game," and this other guy has a game called, "Guess the Number of Jellybeans" that he KNOWS will sell hundreds of thousands if only someone of your talents could help him out. What's it going to take for YOU to put your dream game on hold to go help them out? To make things more interesting, lets say you HAVE helped out a few of these guys in the past - but every time you do, you put in a couple hundred hours of work, but the guy running the project gets bored and ends development without telling you. And you've received no pay.
What's it gonna take?
For me, it would take this FOR SURE:
* Confidence in the LEADERSHIP of the project (thus the demo and your track record).
I would also want one or more of the following:
* A real excitement for the project
* some significant financial renumeration (which I could then put back into my own project)
* Some "owed favors" by people with talents in areas I was lacking, so that I could call upon them to help me with my own project.
Torque Owner Adrian Tysoe
If you can get those things, your chances of selling that whiz bang demo stand a far greater chance. Those are some of the things I found when I worked for a well funded experienced independent developer in the Bay area a couple of years ago. Even though we had dozens of completed titles, we hadn't completed a game together and in the eyes of the publishers weren't a proven team despite having at least 100 years of experience between us and the core team having grown out of Atari and Midway.