How Many People Here have actually sold an game they developed.
by Gary Roberson · in Technical Issues · 11/21/2004 (2:20 pm) · 12 replies
Ok, I've been a member on this site since October. I know how difficult it is to start a new project, or to get something done, especially when your budget is limited, your time is occupied by real world issues (mortgage and car payments, family time with the spouse/kids, maintaining your working relationships on the day job if you have one), but my question here are:
How many people here have actually developed and sold an game?
Were you alone or did you have help?
How long did it take you?
How many games did you sell and what were their titles?
(Please no financial data please, I'm not golddigging yet.)
My motivation is that I've been on many game forums (this one, Blitz Basic, GameDev, and 3D Gamestudio) and I see a lot of talk, a lot of examples, obviously some of you guys know what you're talking about, because the products exist, and the code obviously does what the author claims, but so far no one has come forth and given a list of the games or products that he or she has worked on!
Thanks, guys.
How many people here have actually developed and sold an game?
Were you alone or did you have help?
How long did it take you?
How many games did you sell and what were their titles?
(Please no financial data please, I'm not golddigging yet.)
My motivation is that I've been on many game forums (this one, Blitz Basic, GameDev, and 3D Gamestudio) and I see a lot of talk, a lot of examples, obviously some of you guys know what you're talking about, because the products exist, and the code obviously does what the author claims, but so far no one has come forth and given a list of the games or products that he or she has worked on!
Thanks, guys.
About the author
#2
None(yet)...
Products:
trueScape v1 and v2
trueGrass
strataScape
edgeTurn
snapRoll
mapExporter
Well, those are mine... Had at least that many plugins either on the drawing board or in development for hair geometry, l-system, trueScape 3, something similar to Paint Effects in Maya, edgeExtrude(which was actually done, but a bug in trueSpace made it unusable, so someone else released it with that bug instead and I lost out).
And aside from the persistent world I have listed above that I'm working on, I also have an "interesting" RTS and a break-out style game on the drawing board.
Really Amanda, it's volume: Not all of your ideas will get realized, but all of the great inventors and innovators had so many ideas that people forgot about the thousands that never worked out, but never forgot about the one or two that did. And that is what this site is all about ;)
11/21/2004 (3:18 pm)
Games: None(yet)...
Products:
trueScape v1 and v2
trueGrass
strataScape
edgeTurn
snapRoll
mapExporter
Well, those are mine... Had at least that many plugins either on the drawing board or in development for hair geometry, l-system, trueScape 3, something similar to Paint Effects in Maya, edgeExtrude(which was actually done, but a bug in trueSpace made it unusable, so someone else released it with that bug instead and I lost out).
And aside from the persistent world I have listed above that I'm working on, I also have an "interesting" RTS and a break-out style game on the drawing board.
Really Amanda, it's volume: Not all of your ideas will get realized, but all of the great inventors and innovators had so many ideas that people forgot about the thousands that never worked out, but never forgot about the one or two that did. And that is what this site is all about ;)
#3
Right now I am working on BoomBall and dRacer-which took first place, best of show, singleplayer game at the IGC. We are also working on ThinkTanks for the x-box xarcade.
In answer to some of your questions.. ThinkTanks was made primarily of a team of 3 over the span of a year, and the labor of all involved totally about 18 man months.
ThinkTanks was our first game as an independent studio.
11/21/2004 (4:57 pm)
I have worked on and shipped ThinkTanks.. as well as the BraveTree Content Packs (but those are not games)Right now I am working on BoomBall and dRacer-which took first place, best of show, singleplayer game at the IGC. We are also working on ThinkTanks for the x-box xarcade.
In answer to some of your questions.. ThinkTanks was made primarily of a team of 3 over the span of a year, and the labor of all involved totally about 18 man months.
ThinkTanks was our first game as an independent studio.
#4
Yes Ace, I have seen that page.
This gives me some idea on how much time I should spend on developing my games, and what to promise my clients, investors, etc.
11/23/2004 (8:37 am)
Thanks Joe and Ted.Yes Ace, I have seen that page.
This gives me some idea on how much time I should spend on developing my games, and what to promise my clients, investors, etc.
#5
Starshatter took approximately seven years of part time activity from concept to gold master. I worked almost entirely alone for the majority of that time. In the last year or so I brought in a friend to help with the art direction, and my wife wrote the music.
Starshatter was developed almost entirely from scratch in C++. I did not use Torque or any other game library, although I did use a few open source toolkits for common services such as compression and streaming audio.
11/24/2004 (1:42 pm)
I have.Starshatter took approximately seven years of part time activity from concept to gold master. I worked almost entirely alone for the majority of that time. In the last year or so I brought in a friend to help with the art direction, and my wife wrote the music.
Starshatter was developed almost entirely from scratch in C++. I did not use Torque or any other game library, although I did use a few open source toolkits for common services such as compression and streaming audio.
#6
You must have one hell of a wife. Did you support yourself working for McDonalds? (LOL)
11/24/2004 (1:45 pm)
Seven years!You must have one hell of a wife. Did you support yourself working for McDonalds? (LOL)
#8
11/24/2004 (5:22 pm)
Wow seven years alone? You should speak of perseverance at some IGD congress :-)
#9
11/24/2004 (6:54 pm)
That makes me feel soooooo much better about working for three years on my project, hehe =)
#10
11/27/2004 (1:51 pm)
Yes, John the screenshots to Starshatter do look awesome. Looks like it'll be on my must-buy list next year. Your next venture should be to ink an deal with Paramount studios to do an online version of Star Trek. With subscription gaming becoming popular nowadays, (look at Everquest, Lineage II, Counterstrike, etc.) you shouldn't let Star Wars Galazies grab all the glory. (I'm really surprised why Paramount haven't contacted somebody yet to do an online version of Star Trek)
#11
11/27/2004 (2:43 pm)
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Paramount was actually in negotiations with someone now, it is an area of profit they can tap for that brand.
#12
Absolutely.
"Did you support yourself working for McDonalds?"
Well, of course I have a "real job". I'm a project manager and software engineer for a small services firm in southern California. Actually, I worked at Interplay for a while before starting on Starshatter. But the pay is much better, and the work is often more interesting in mainstream software development.
Starshatter is still somewhere between a hobby and a side business for me. As I like to point out to my wife, as hobbies go at least this one A) keeps me home and B) makes a little money on the side.
"Your next venture should be to ink an deal with Paramount studios to do an online version of Star Trek."
Last I remember, Activision has the unified Star Trek license, so there's not much I can do there. However, Starshatter is pretty mod-friendly. I know of several different user-made mods including Babylon 5 and Star Wars. You can see some of the screenshots at this fan site:
http://www.starshattercentral.com
Anyway, thanks for the kind words!
I've already started working on the next point-release of the graphics engine. It should be out sometime in the first quarter of next year. Here's a WIP screenshot of the graphics engine as it is used in the 3D modeling program that goes with the game.
http://www.starshatter.com/shots/Magic21.jpg
11/29/2004 (10:22 am)
"You must have one hell of a wife."Absolutely.
"Did you support yourself working for McDonalds?"
Well, of course I have a "real job". I'm a project manager and software engineer for a small services firm in southern California. Actually, I worked at Interplay for a while before starting on Starshatter. But the pay is much better, and the work is often more interesting in mainstream software development.
Starshatter is still somewhere between a hobby and a side business for me. As I like to point out to my wife, as hobbies go at least this one A) keeps me home and B) makes a little money on the side.
"Your next venture should be to ink an deal with Paramount studios to do an online version of Star Trek."
Last I remember, Activision has the unified Star Trek license, so there's not much I can do there. However, Starshatter is pretty mod-friendly. I know of several different user-made mods including Babylon 5 and Star Wars. You can see some of the screenshots at this fan site:
http://www.starshattercentral.com
Anyway, thanks for the kind words!
I've already started working on the next point-release of the graphics engine. It should be out sometime in the first quarter of next year. Here's a WIP screenshot of the graphics engine as it is used in the 3D modeling program that goes with the game.
http://www.starshatter.com/shots/Magic21.jpg
Torque Owner Ace
"Sold" to me is a multiterm, i have sold/released several projects for free, practice runs if you will , i only gained experience, not money, what kind of price can you put on that ?
Most of my work was done alone.
www.planetquake.com/noescape/Download.htm