Ask Producer - Where to Start?

[leunas]

Questions:

Hello and thank you for your time. I was wondering if I can have your input on game development for indie game dev teams. Well I guess I can take my situation for example; I was thinking of starting a Game project from scratch. But I have no idea where to start. The project and plan is going to be built from the ground up.The problem is I have to start entirely from scratch. I mean I don’t even have a team put together. I was planning to start a collaboration between other indie game developers. Finding a means of funding is important but where is really hard. Is finding a local publisher most important right now?

I want to become a game producer. Right now i dont have any experience in the gaming industry. I will tell you where i exactly stand. I have a bachelors degree in Science majoring in Mathematics, from India and now i am studying at Academy Of Art University, San Francisco pursuing bachelors degree in Art (emphasis in game design)

I have taken classes like game level design, Unreal Scripting some Maya classes and texturing class. I definetly have some idea of how a game is developed.

But on top of that i personally feel and i know i have good management and buisness skills which comes naturally to me.That is the reason i want to get into production. What do you think i need to do right now to get into the gaming industry in the production dept.

Answer:
I will write a more detailed article about how to start game development, but before I do that I give some information to use right now.

I believe the first thing to concentrate on both cases is to concentrate on developing your first game. Focus on developing a game. Learning and reading is good, but without action it’s worthless. Finding a team is not necessary in the beginning: just start programming your game, you’ll find the right team members later.

If you want to know how others are doing games, then start asking them and reading information about game development. Forums such as indiegamer.com are great way to start. Devmaster.net offers plenty of options for game engine, so you don’t really have to start from scratch.


www.gameproducer.net/2006/07/25/ask-producer-where-to-start/

[Stuff]

I kinda disagree about the answer. For me, having a team that is passonate about making it in the game industry, and making a good quality game, is a driving force behind me. I'm prone to not finishing a project that I started, usually storywriting, I just kinda run outta gas after a while and maybe I'll pick up the project months later.
It sounds like this guy knows what he's doing. So why so much doubt? A team is very important, to bounce ideas off of, moral support, for times when you get writers block. And I don't care who you are, everyone gets writers block.
[glow=red,2,300]What do you think leunas?[/glow] About needing a publisher right off the bat? We will need one sooner or later. Where will we get one? And for all projects? Or just ones close to finishing? What actions can we take? Since this guy says it's so important.

[leunas]

The author's take is from a programmer's standpoint. Obviously, if you don't know how to program, you will need someone who can.

Naughty Dog(Crash Bandicoot) started out with with one programmer and one artist, so having a team is nice but not necessary.

Having a passionate team is a great thing, but how many people can you find that are actually "passionate"? I have the same problem to this very day!

As I have said, it doesn't matter how many people join the project. I'd rather have myself and the project leader work on it and be productive, than to have 20 people who do nothing but screw around.

Quality over quantity

[Stuff]

leunas said:

Having a passionate team is a great thing, but how many people can you find that are actually "passionate"? I have the same problem to this very day!

As I have said, it doesn't matter how many people join the project. I'd rather have myself and the project leader work on it and be productive, than to have 20 people who do nothing but screw around.

Quality over quantity

Yeah that's great, to have such inspirations. No offense, but when you put it like that, it seems there is no ammount of hard work that is satisfactory. Perhaps its just me, but if we push ourselves too hard, we'll burn out too quickly. I wouldn't want that to happen to any group member.

[leunas]

Did you mean 'aspirations'?

While burning out is a bad thing, the problem is that people who have yet to do anything to even start the process. How are they to burn out?

I'd rather worry about people burning out than people slacking off.