[macosxnerd101]

Having been there, done that myself (as I'm sure many of our other members have as well),"it should be simple" usually involves feeping creatures. If you nail down the specifics of the features and talk to developers, you will probably get a more accurate answer. At the very least, double their ETA.

[Sergio Tapia]

(Hell I estimate something, then multiply that number by 6! - but don't tell my boss)

[ur twin]

My plan for funding really is to get about half way on the game, and then introduce it to the public through "Kick starters". Most of you guys have to be familiar with Kick Starters...

I can seek investment from Venture capitalist but that's something I see doing AFTER Explurse is finished. Right now I have an agreement with 4 3D artist, the agreement is that they will help with the 3D aspects of Explurse as long as our next project is a 3D space flight game, they will of course help with that as well and get to put their ideas into it. They are all apparently fans of Freelancer (The game) and want to make something similar to it, but with modern graphics.

Because this was something me and my friend had wanted to do in the first place, we happily agreed. I've ran a blog for Explurse for just a few months now, and the response I've gotten back from people has been amazing. They want this game, there is clearly a demand for it, but we need more coders.

I'm not a coder, but I'm also not an idiot. I understand my place and my role in this project, I am in no way giving people dead lines, that is up to the actual coders to decide. If I decide to add some new feature to he game along the way or make a change to the game's design then I will always consult with them first.

I have spent dam near a year thinking about this game every single day, going through idea after idea and thinking about all the little details. There is a much more solid plan then I may be leading onto, but i'm not sharing it on here.

We're looking for people who not only have the skills, but also have the passion to create top-quality games of multiple genres, we know what we want to do after Explurse, and it is possible, but we need to expand our team and that's why I'm coming here. We do not have the funding, we are a START UP but there are ways to get this funding later on. With a dedicated team who understands the payoff of this project, we don't need funding at this very moment, we need to get about half way before we can even talk about funding.

Realistically, I have no idea how long this game could take with 4 coders... but Jacob (my friend) seems to think he can do it in 5 months by himself. His problem is motivation, and it is that way with ANY project he works on. He needs the support of other coders.

[creativecoding]

What are you going to do?

And what is "Kick Starters"?

Quote

I can seek investment from Venture capitalist but that's something I see doing AFTER Explurse is finished

That doesn't help much. The point is that you would have the money to pay your team.


And why don't you have a game development studio now? That would help you so much.

This post has been edited by creativecoding: 10 October 2012 - 06:07 PM

[no2pencil]

creativecoding, on 10 October 2012 - 09:02 PM, said:

And why don't you have a game development studio now?

That's what he's here for, is to recruit 'top notch' game developers that want to work on wishes & promises.

Talk is just talk, but only made money spends.

& encase it has escaped you up until this point, that is why you have no funding for this project, because it isn't ideas that push development, it's developers. Anyone & everyone has ideas.

[ur twin]

Not many people have ideas that WORK. The most ironic thing I always see is that coders have the skill, but not the ideas, that's why there's so many shitty games out there.

There is no point in me having a studio right now, and I want a proper studio. MAYBE, just MAYBE if I could form the team and get my company going then I might be able to get investments before Explurse is done.

[atraub]

First of all, everybody has ideas, most of us just don't have time. I have an idea for a unique ios/android game that won't make me rich, but will offer some fun and unique arcade style gameplay. I also have an idea for a marketing/advertising business that I believe will generate millions (seriously, millions bro) and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. The difference is, professionals understand what it takes to make an idea like this a reality. That's why people like us start drafting business plans rather than drafting naive programmers.

Secondly, if this is a web based game written in C++ and Python, what will you use as your web framework... WT? I gotta tell ya, WT is not particularly fun to use and I have no idea how you'd use it for something like this.

Thirdly, I've had a few drinks tonight.

This post has been edited by atraub: 10 October 2012 - 06:44 PM

[nathanpc]

Developing games isn't something easy or something that can be made in 3-4 months, it takes a bunch of really talented people and usually a year to come out with something great and which people will like.

You can't think that you'll have 600k players on the first year, only a really small fraction of games can reach that goal. If resources are limited you need to start small and grow over time, don't try to start big otherwise you'll probably fail trying.

As far as I can see you should think about starting the core of the game engine, create a nice UI, then make it simple and fun. After you have that you can start to expand, add more complexity and more fun to the game (on future updates), this way with a small dedicated team you'll be able to get a finished game.

Let's take Minecraft as an example. The first released version had no monsters and the crafting was extremely limited, over the time more things started getting added to the game, then when it was "playable" it was released as alpha, that's when it became popular and the development process got fast.

[ur twin]

The problem with "starting small and expanding later" is that this is a persistent universe,m the game never ends unless it's shut down... Adding new features to the game after it's been launched is difficult, and if we fuck things up we could lose a lot of players. Many of the features would greatly disrupt the game play that has already been established. We have a few things we will add after the game is launched, but they're not going to affect gameplay at all.


I HAVE been considering what you guys have been saying on here, and I will say this:

If we can get 3 more coders on the team, and possibly people with other skills, then I will make the company official and will do everything in my power to get funding for the start up company and pay them. We don't have to start on the game, i just need people on the team so I can say "Hey look over here Mr. Investor! I have a team and we're ready to make a game!! Invest with us"

[jon.kiparsky]

So, just out of curiosity, if your guy can do it in five months, and three or four developers would bring that down to maybe three months - why not just let your guy develop it?

[ur twin]

jon.kiparsky, on 10 October 2012 - 07:11 PM, said:

So, just out of curiosity, if your guy can do it in five months, and three or four developers would bring that down to maybe three months - why not just let your guy develop it?

He has major motivation issues, and has no wish to do it by himself. I can understand that, it's a lot of work for 1 guy.

[fromTheSprawl]

You have to start doing the game. The gaming industry is a cutthroat business, and if you don't show at least a proper prototype or a mockup of the game, no one's going to invest on it. The investors need to know that it can really be done, not just some pipe dream.

[atraub]

ur twin, on 10 October 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

The problem with "starting small and expanding later" is that this is a persistent universe,m the game never ends unless it's shut down... Adding new features to the game after it's been launched is difficult, and if we fuck things up we could lose a lot of players.

Sorry, but if your "lead programmer" believes this, GET OUT NOW. There's a simple way to overcome this problem that any professional should be aware of... have a minimum of 3 instances of the game! 1 for development, 1 for testing, and 1 for production. You design the updates and run initial tests on the development branch, you do realistic testing on the test branch, and then you deploy to the production branch.

For example, if you want to add a new character class, you create and test the update on the development branch. When it feels good, you apply the update to the test branch and make sure nothing breaks during the installation process. You then can put it onto a beta branch for public testing OR you can run it straight to the production branch.

This is not rocket surgery.

[ur twin]

atraub, on 10 October 2012 - 07:17 PM, said:

ur twin, on 10 October 2012 - 09:57 PM, said:

The problem with "starting small and expanding later" is that this is a persistent universe,m the game never ends unless it's shut down... Adding new features to the game after it's been launched is difficult, and if we fuck things up we could lose a lot of players.

Sorry, but if your "lead programmer" believes this, GET OUT NOW. There's a simple way to overcome this problem that any professional should be aware of... have a minimum of 3 instances of the game! 1 for development, 1 for testing, and 1 for production. You design the updates and run initial tests on the development branch, you do realistic testing on the test branch, and then you deploy to the production branch.

For example, if you want to add a new character class, you create and test the update on the development branch. When it feels good, you apply the update to the test branch and make sure nothing breaks during the installation process. You then can put it onto a beta branch for public testing OR you can run it straight to the production branch.

This is not rocket surgery.

We already very much know this, but the fact still remains, it would be hard to add nay real changes without pissing off at least some o the players base. We have looked at starting small, but have decided against this.

[jon.kiparsky]

ur twin, on 10 October 2012 - 09:14 PM, said:

jon.kiparsky, on 10 October 2012 - 07:11 PM, said:

So, just out of curiosity, if your guy can do it in five months, and three or four developers would bring that down to maybe three months - why not just let your guy develop it?

He has major motivation issues, and has no wish to do it by himself. I can understand that, it's a lot of work for 1 guy.

So the prospect of being the half-owner of a major game studio isn't enough to motivate him to put in five months of concentrated work? What are we learning here?

If motivation is what he needs, figure out what motivates him and buy that - lots of it. Cake, cocaine, prostitutes, a cuddly puppy and a cuddly prostitute to take care of it - doesn't matter. If you believe what you're saying - if he can actually deliver on that estimate and this is actually the game you're trying to crack it up to be, this will be cheaper than any other option you have available to you, and you can finance anything on credit cards for six months and pay it back when they back up the first truckload of money.

If you don't like this idea, think about why. What don't you believe about what you're telling us?