Privately funded company looking to build a game prototype

#21 This is a good example of a professional? introduction. though William Ko has not made any further post on this site. Guess he didnt have any money or thought we would throw ourselves at his feet.

#22 Everyone have a good game idea, few have the know how to get started, and very very few have the know how to see it finished... Once people learn how hard it is, they often just give up...

#23 Alot of interesting things have come up in this thread. As far as contract work and payment and such. I will just use myself as an example as I have been doing contract work for many different people, companys, groups of people from here at GG for awhile now (Its my full time job).

One thing that I myself have picked up and its noted above. Is that most companys and people that have an idea for a game that come here are just starting out. Now that is in no way to say that every job posting here is a startup company / someone just starting out. I have had medium sized companys come asking for a quick turnaround on throwing togeather abunch of resources so that the rest of there team can jump in feet first and get to prototyping.

As a general rule of thumb for myself. I tend to not take contracts that want to pay by the hour. While I can understand why some people and companys want to do it this way. Its just not the way I tend to do stuff. I have a system where I get all the information I can as far as all the work that needs to be completed. I then take that large sum of work and break it into sections or as I call them Milestones. We then figure on a fixed price based on how long I think the project will take, how fast the customer wants it completed, any expenses I will occure from it, general phase of the moon and what the current going rate is for contracted programmers. This fix price we tend divide up among the milestones (as best as possible and based upon the amount of work that will go into each milestone).

At the completion of each milestone I recieve payment for the work I did and the customer recieve that milestones worth of work. This way the customer is only paying for what is completed and can actively start work useing the work they paid for. I dont have to wait around tell the end of a contract to recieve payment (bills have to be paid regradless if I am just starting a contract or nearing the middle or end of one).

So far everyone I have dealt with loves the setup and I have yet to hear any complaints or problems from it.

I just tend to try and find solutions so that I do not get scammed for a set amount of work. (Within a week or a month of work one can complete alot of work) Nothing worse then spending 80+ hours on a project only to turn around and not get paid for them 80 hours. Now I am not saying this guy is trying to take the code and run just putting the cards out there on the table is all.

#24 @Taras - "Left Behind" looks great! I love the subject matter. I'm going to have to try it. (thinks to self) "Will I be left behind?"

#25 > @Taras - "Left Behind" looks great! I love the subject matter. I'm going to have to try it. (thinks to self) "Will I be left behind?"

Thank you :-)

#26 @Taras - this is a very slick production. What codec/player is the video done with? I am enjoying it so far - I'm still on the tutorials.

#27 Dear Andy,

> @Taras - this is a very slick production. What codec/player is the video done with? I am enjoying it so far - I'm still on the tutorials.

Please check your mailbox for answer on your question.

Thank you.