Andy Gahan continues his quest to run his own micro studio... and hits two big hurdles
[Go here to find all entries in Gahan’s diary]
During my discussions with the prospective programmers I had been thinking about my game ideas a lot. I’ve continued talking to my programming partners, and I’ve pretty much narrowed the candidates down to one person.
He sounded great, he was a contractor, so could choose when to work, he was around about my age, had similar interests and really liked the racing concept I have.
He was interested in racing games and had some great initial ideas on how we could do things. We spent a week or so bouncing ideas back and forth and things were going pretty well.
Things were going pretty well until things started to go quiet. I thought something was wrong. After a fair bit of silence it turned out that he had taken on a major contract, then after further discussions it was pretty clear that I was on my own again looking for a programmer.
My main game idea was a racing game set in the future 20 years or so. Whist organising the initial concept art and doing some initial planning, I realised that it would need a lot of effort to do it justice, much more than I may be able to pull together for our first release. So reluctantly I accepted the fact that my best game idea would not be my first release.
I realised that I needed to develop something smaller because I really needed to finish any project that I started. After all, I couldn’t survive indefinitely without cash, so I needed to make a change.
Whilst the quest for my programmer continued, I was meeting up with a lot of my artist friends over lunch and discussing the future. A lot were in the same boat as me, having recently been made redundant and they were keen to hear my ideas.
I really want to make games a different way than I had in the past, and I was very keen to work as a collective rather than a hierarchy. This supported the idea of collaborating on projects rather than paying people.
We discussed this concept of equal effort - equal share of the profits, and pretty much everyone I spoke to was keen to get involved. I went through the various ideas I had on the table and the racing title was very well received by all.
So although I have taken a bit of step back with my search for a programmer, I was getting a very encouraging response to my racing concept and also the way that I’d like the company to run.
People were very keen on working on a title at a time, and not being tied to the company. They could choose to do the next project or not, and they would be rewarded in relation to the effort they put in. I really like the idea of people taking a break from work if a game does well and then choosing to jump back on board when they are ready to complete a new project.
Total money spent so far: £250
Negatives
No programmers (still)
The best game concept is too big to do as a first title
Positives
Some great artists interested in getting involved
The artists really like the collaborative approach
how do you protect your ideas?
@Pam: You don't need to protect your ideas, nobody will steal them because they're just ideas. If you really want to protect them, you can sign a mutual NDA.
Read this:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_221/6582-Why-Your-Game-Idea-Sucks
You are right Wolfos. Everybody has great game ideas and ideas are "cheap".
When talking to everyone, I ave them sign a mutual NDA 1st - It won't necessarily stop people from stealing ideas, but it is a deterrent.
Also most studios have a police of not looking at game ideas that are sent to them - they just put them in the bin. This protects them from people wanting a payoff when the studios releases something they think is a rip of their idea.
Some studios have a policy that if you submit an idea to them as an employee, but the game doesn't get made - because you were employed with them at the time, they now own the idea. So, if you leave, you're not able to make that game as the idea no longer belongs you.
