Former Sony Liverpool developer Andy Gahan offers an earnest view on going alone
[Go here to find all entries in Gahan’s diary]
Having found myself on the wrong side of a redundancy (or right, depending how you look at it) I’ve decided to take responsibility for my own destiny and set up a small company to develop games and to outsource artwork.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time, but like a lot of people, it was far too comfortable being paid every month to take the plunge. So after the send off from Sony, I sat down and started to flesh out a few ideas for games.
At the same time I called up an accountant and asked him to register a company for me – you can do this yourself if you like, but as they would be doing my accounts, I thought I’d get them to do the work whilst I worked on the games. I decided to call the new venture The Pixel Bullies – I had toyed with another name but thought that the Bullies name sounded a bit more fun. So after a phone call and a few hundred pounds spent, the Pixel Bullies were born.
To have a look at what company names are available you can search for them on the Companies House website in the UK, just log onto companieshouse.gov.uk and search for the name you fancy – it’ll show you everything similar to it too.
After a couple of days working on some game ideas, I had a few ideas that I thought I could take further. So I put together a couple of high level design docs (intended for my eyes only), and thought about how I could develop these games.
I had no problem with the art side of things, as I was an artist for almost 15 years, but in lead roles for the latter half. I knew my way around Photoshop and most 3D packages pretty well as I had written books on the subject, so I was on my way.
I have managed teams for the last 10 years of my career too, so I was happy that I could run a project. As a Senior Development Manager at Evolution Studios working on the WRC and MotorStorm franchises running multiple internal and external teams, I was happy that I could run a small team of my own.
The only problem I have is that I have no programmers. This is compounded by the fact that no programmers were made redundant when I was, so all the good guys that I knew for the last 15 or so years, were still happily employed – or so I believed.
So I’ve set about looking for programmers that might want to work with me on something.
Total money spent so far: £250
Problems to solve: No programmers
andy@thepixelbullies.com
thepixelbullies.com
Sounds exciting. If I could programme, I would probably join you. Tis the marketing industry that calls my name. I wish you the best of luck, you deserve it :)
Sounds exciting. If I could programme, I would probably join you. Tis the marketing industry that calls my name. I wish you the best of luck, you deserve it :)
I think marketing is probably the biggest issue indie developers have - if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Hi! I wish you good luck with your new company. If you need music for your games I would be glad to make it. Visit my website if you want to listen and contact me. www.sozinho.se
Thanks!
Well done Andy, it always takes some balls to go it alone..... so good luck to ya
Good luck with everything, and I just want to say thanks for showing your process of starting a company. A group of friends and I are wanting to start our own company too and this will be a great help for the journey.
Andy, I would love to help, but with Art Direction, Development Manager, and outsourcing skills, it sounds like my help would be redundant to you.I will follow and watch and cheer you on.
I'm a programmer! .NET development mostly :p but was gonna start on my own indie game in 4-5months actually xD been saving up for the past 2years so I can quit my job... and if I don't try I'll never know ^^ Will probably run out of funds before the game is finished though but oh well, gotta chase the dream :)
I wish you all the very best Andy, if I was a programmer I would be more than willing to assist you in your venture.
Hi all, thanks for the positive comments.
Matt, you've got exactly the right idea - make sure you can support yourself for long enough to release your game and add 50% just to be sure. I guess you can start looking at engines, ideas, art tests and stuff in your own time too.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to fire them too me - I'll do my best to answer them. It would be cool for me to ask questions too, as I've not made games like this before. Feel free to look me up on twitter AndyGahan and ThePixelBullies now has an account too.
Nice article, I'm a programmer by the way, but no engine level stuff yet.
I can handle myself with a pre-made engine, though.
