How do I get funded?

#1 hmm how about self funded. i don't think anyone fill fund you if you don't already have 1 game under your belt. you might find one but it might be hard. if they cant see that you have already finished a game and are dedicated to building a game then why would they fund you.

its there money you are talking about they fund people to put there name out there. not to have some random people come in and wanting money and never finish it.

#2 In a nutshell, you need a design document and a prototype. No one is going to invest in your dreams - you need to be able to show them precisely what they're getting, and that you can deliver it.

Oh, and don't kid yourself. You're going to be giving up a lot of pennies. Sponsors aren't doing it for charity, they're going to want a piece of the pie.

#3 If thats the case then no one can start their studio... right? Atleast not if they are rich. Because MMORPGs cost 100s of thousands of dollars.

#4 @Bhargav - No one said you had to start your studio with an MMORPG. Start it small, and use the profits from your early, smaller projects to develop your MMORPG prototype. Having a number of successful projects will also help establish a track record for your studio - something potential partners will be looking for.

You're beginning a very long journey here - you need to take it one step at a time! :-)

#5 you might want to read this as well.

www.garagegames.com/community/forums/viewthread/84535

#6 @Sherman- Thats what I thought, but either way, I will have to have some money in my pockets or I should be forgetting this wonderful dream. Torque3d, I can get the $250 version, but I can't do all the fun stuff (Get funded, earn up to 250K etc) but I think I will get a job that will kill my body [A.K.A Mcbobbles. P.S: I spelled it wrong but you know what it rhymes with ;)] buy the $250 version and make small FPS games for the internet with ads or something on it.

Sherman do you have a game studio already? As in, you are funded and got titles out.

P.S: I read that thread. I was doing step 1 first.. which is research. I finished a book. I am getting into the bussiness and emotioneering part soon.

#7 @Bhargav - Yes, of course you're going to have to work a "day job" while you're getting started. I'm doing it right now. In fact, everyone I know who owns their own business started out that way, working a day job to pay the bills until their own company started turning a profit.

No one said it would be easy.

#8 @Sherman. Thanks. Me and my buddy will start a job. Get all the stuff we need (our needs) and then turn some money into Torque and some coding books. I think it'll be better for us if we code the game our selves wouldn't it? You think its better to do coding or programming (money wise. Which one would cost us less to get done by others)

#9 Well, I've been a programmer for 25+ years, and as far as I know, coding and programming are two different names for the same job. :-)

It doesn't really matter though. You should focus on whatever you're best at. If you're a programmer, do that yourself and find a good artist to partner with. Or vice-versa. The idea is to build up a team of friends; no one person will have all of the skills needed to build a game, but the team as a whole should.

One benefit of doing it this way is minimizing expenses. That's pretty important, because you're not making any money yet. :-)

Another is that working with friends is more fun than managing employees. That's especially important when you're tired from a day job - you'll want it to feel like relaxing and unwinding, not like a second job.

A lot of people don't make it past this stage, and don't especially care if they ever do. A big payoff would be nice, naturally, but it's still a fun hobby to share with one's friends, even if you never make a dime.

#10

Quote:I was doing step 1 first

I think I need to elaborate on Step 1: You don't start with funding. I'm hovering around Step 6, and I still can't get funding (for a lot of reasons, the economy not being the least of them). So in these cases, you need to be ready, willing, and able to go it alone (able meaning that you can get things done without millions of dollars).

What I really meant about Step 1 in that thread was that you need to research what an MMO is, because I can tell that you think that an MMO is as "fire and forget" as a single player game (which also is not, but that's neither here nor there). An MMO is a service, and that means that when you are done with it, you have to stay with it for years and keep a few thousand people (or a few hundred thousand if you've got a hit) happy, which is a very hard thing to do, because they don't all agree on the direction they want you to go.

What you should be doing is learning about what an MMO does and is behind the scenes, and not just the AAA MMOs out there, but also the Indie MMOs, of which there are many (Google is your friend). Once you've learned that, then if you think you can do it, you need to have a skillset. Having an idea is probably the worst skillset, even if you have really good ideas, because you have no ability to do anything with them, and people on your team want you to be able to do something more than just tell them what to do. Once you fix your sights on art, coding, scripting, or writing (and you'll be writing hundreds of pages of stuff, literally), then you can start using whatever your skill is to start working on it, and then present what you have done to others who can then say "gee, he knows how hard it is, has a handle on what still needs to be done, and has already done some of the things needed within his abilities to do, maybe I'll help him".

All this goes for any kind of game- not just an MMO, but MMOs are different because they're not just something you "stop" working on until you shut down that last server.

What I recommend is that you start with scripting and art, and then decide which you like best and develop those skills before you circle back to whatever project you want to do. Learning a skill while trying to make an MMO is a recipe for disaster.

#11 Ted I already know what you said. I read a book already about how MMOs work and what it takes. I know its a service. And I know I have to treat it as if its "their" game and not mine just because I made it. I also know that its hard to keep everyone happy.

What I didn't know how ever is the part when you told me about the skill and the last two paragraphs.

I am just shocked of what the costs might be thats why I wanted to post this. Just to find out how people (You guys) get/will get/got fundings.

Sherman told me to make a smaller game before I make an MMO. Which is an excellent idea. But I would need plenty of different stuff for that too (Story, music, background music, voice actors, sound effects such as bullets). I think my lesson here is, you cant make money without having money.

I am just a teen which sucks. I thought I should start developing on this "dream job" from my teenage so I have experience.

I am going to get a job, buy some more books about programming and art and after that, I will get back to some one here and start working on a smaller game (maybe FPS).

#12

Quote:I think my lesson here is, you cant make money without having money

That's true. You usually need to put something into a business before it generates money. However, remember that there's ways to get around things without spending a lot of money. Story is a minimal expense depending on the type of game (but not for an MMO), background music can run you several thousand dollars, you don't need voice actors, and there are inexpensive sound libraries available out there.

Have you done any scripting tutorials for TGE or TGEA yet? If not, that's as good a place to start as any. Do the tutorials and then try implementing some of the scripted resources on the site. Once you have a handle on how the language works, then try to implement some of the gameplay ideas you want to make work in script (most can be done solely in script). After a while, you'll find you can bring a lot of your ideas to life with just programmer art and clever scripts.

And even if you decide not to use Torque, you can move on to using other engines and other languages such as Lua, Python and C++. At that point, you'll probably be a few years older than you are now, and you'll find that you have a toolset of skills that will allow you to get work in the game industry, or to start working on your idea.

But to be clear: As an Indie, you're most likely not going to get funding unless you fund yourself (day jobs are not a bad thing). I'm not saying not to try, but you have to keep to the sales rule that 1 out of a hundred people you pitch to will buy. The problem with that is that you're probably going to run into far fewer than a hundred investors, so the odds a are a fair bit worse.

#13 Thanks ted. I think I am going to learn something (either Art or Programming) and do some freelance work while I am reading books of gamedevelopment to get some small amount of cash. And then, I will be trying to develop some small web browser games I guess. Then, when I have around $50,000, I will start thinking of working on the MMO.

I have another question though, what scripting tutorials are you talking about? I cannot find any on the site. Are they in the documentation that we get with the engine?

#14 www.garagegames.com/documentation

these are the documentations they are the same documentation that comes with the engine you want to buy.

#15 So he is talking about the torquescript part right?

#16 In my opinion, the only financial investment you need to make initially is buying the engine and maybe some books as resources.

Quote:...music, background music, voice actors, sound effects such as bullets

Open source and freeware are your friends in this arena...as is any search engine. And there are quality 3d modelers out there that don't cost a dime, which you should atleast become familiar with.

Start small and don't expect to make a huge profit from the start, take the profits that you do make and invest them in your studio, and don't ever expect it to be easy.

I don't have my own studio, yet. I'm still a noob, but business is business.

#17 By the way...

Quote:I am just a teen which sucks

I WISH I had my teenage years back to begin developing these skills! I'd be on a cruise ship right now with my laptop, coding or modeling while sipping a (insert alcoholic beverage)!!!

#18 Being a teen has its positive points. Your living expenses are far lower than those of an adult - your parents are (probably) providing you with all of the necessities, such as a place to live, food, clothing, etc. You get several months of free time each summer when school's out; a working adult (in the US) rarely gets more than two weeks vacation per year.

One aspect of learning to make games is learning to make the best use of available resources. Right now, as a teen, your most abundant resource is free time. You have more of that right now than you'll ever have as an adult. You can use that to your advantage, doing most or all of the work yourself that an adult would have to hire someone else to do.

#19 I completly agree with you Sherman. I think I should start a small project right away. Is there anyway I can assemble a team of new folks who need to start up their studio but they need some credibility? Basically an "Ultimate Alliance" hehe.

#20 >Being a teen has its positive points. Your living expenses are far lower than those of an adult - your parents are (probably) providing you with all of the necessities, such as a place to live, food, clothing, etc.

When I was a teenager, I remember spending $3000 US building up a car engine. That was a significant portion of my annual income from the crappy, part-time jobs that teens have. The thing is, now that my wife and I are both well paid, professional software developers, there is actually less play money to throw around. Mortgage, saving for retirement, kids, etc. comes into play. Plus there is the fact that every married member of the community is familiar with; convincing the spouse that it is ok to spend that money. I’ve not yet preordered T3D because I’m still working on the spousal acquiescence.

@Bhargav – There is something else to contend with. Every game development forum I know of has a precession of starry eyed teens who want to make an MMO. Sometimes they stick around, learn skills and get somewhere; but usually not. Your first challenge is not to be regarded as a gamer with designer dreams, but as a designer. This means a couple of things:

Firstly, it means that you must learn either programming or the art side. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard “I can’t program, so we need a programmer”. People with ideas, but not the skills to implement them are a dime a dozen. You’d be surprised at how many people form “teams” or groups and make themselves the project manager; not because they know anything about project management, but because they obviously can’t wear any other hats. Learning the skills to implement your idea already separates you from the pack. Yeah, you also have to learn project management along the way, but you won’t need it for a long while yet.

Secondly, you’ll need some experience. The usual refrain is that one should build a single player or even 2D game first before trying an MMO. There is an alternative. Try working on a text MUD or modding Neverwinter Nights. People like Raph Koster and Damian Schubert got their start building text MUDs. They afford a lightweight way to try out your ideas. Neverwinter Nights has been corralled into being a de-facto mini-MMO platform and has a vibrant “persistent world” community. You can learn a LOT about the ins and outs of designing, building and running an online world with NWN.