Building a studio from scratch: Week 4

Week 4

So after almost a month of searching, I think I’ve may have found a programmer that sounds promising.

There is a slight time difference between us, but as I often work late into the evenings, I thought that it would be cool to try something out.

We started to discuss simple game ideas like air hockey, but we soon realised that the market was saturated so we started some ideas around an air hockey/pinball hybrid. We got a playable demo running really quickly, just a couple of days, which was great, but we soon realised that the idea wasn’t so hot, so we dropped it.

I was really encouraged by the speed of the development and we were both getting on well, so even though the idea was binned, I was happy that we were progressing.

We were looking at the popular games on the iPhone and we started to bounce ideas around for a new concept. We found that we were both interested in Scuba Diving, so we started to work on some ideas with an underwater theme. I loved the classic ‘Scuba Dive’ on the Spectrum (pictured) and I did a load of research to see what was currently available, and what had been done in the past.

So after a few days of generating ideas, research and discussions we started to work on an idea for an underwater maze game.

At the same time I thought it would be a good idea to look into what support small businesses could get locally. Where I live there are a few organisations that I thought could help – Skillset (www.skillset.org) and the North West Development Agency (www.nwda.co.uk). I found a bunch of other interesting business start-up info too, all well worth a look…

Startup Weekly – Stories from start-ups around the world

Business Link – Great info from the government on tax, payroll, etc

HM Revenue & Customs – Registering as self employed or not, etc

Stratups – Juggling jobs, start up whilst working, etc

I was amazed and really pleased that there was so much information out there. After all, I hadn’t really been involved in payroll, tax, and stuff like that before, so although it felt like there was a lot to take in, at least I knew the info was there when I needed it.

I bookmarked lots of sites in a new Business folder in my web browser and I set about working on loose concepts and ideas for the game.

Total money spent so far: £250

Negatives
The first working demo was ditched as the idea didn’t work very well.

I’m probably going to need an artist to help out as there is a lot of the business side to consider.

Positives
I might have found my 1st programmer – I’ll keep an eye out for others though, just in case!

The Pixel Bullies
andy@thepixelbullies.com
www.thepixelbullies.com
Twitter – @AndyGahan