To Sum Up: My Place in the Tribe

Started by guest2859, September 30, 2010, 05:57:24 PM

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guest2859

Okay, before you take this the wrong way, I'm not leaving. I just needed to put in a little something.

I learned making the indie game company inside the tribe isn't going to be as easy as I thought. I thought it just took a computer, a few monitors, a desk and an office, but have I ever been horribly wrong.

A guy came to our school last week, he graduated from our school, and have become a video game designer. (Look up his work, he did Cowboys Stadium in the latest Madden game) Now, he did a powerpoint presentation, and we got to see the office of a game designer.

Well, for a 10x10 room, you get maybe 6 inches of moving space. Turns out I'll need to become a good free-hand artist, something I can't accomplish anytime soon.

So, to sum it up, here's what I'll be dealing with. (...And Txontaw if he ever shows back up)

I'll need 2 desks: The computer desk w/ bookshelf and the desk for artwork
The high-speed computer with 1-2 monitors for the actual game part
These things called development kits. Bacially a PS3/Xbox360, but that makes discs instead of read them. (~$20,000USD)
The programs to make games
The books that have coding
And to top it off, the high source of electricity.

And, well, I found myself in a pretty bad place financially. Remember when I said 2019 to get to the tribe? Yeah, I don't even know anymore. So, I'll try to see as much as I can go without on this.

Key'ìl Nekxetse

Depending what sort of development you're interested in, you can get away with doing it on the cheap fairly easily. I've spent a few years doing Flash/Python/C++ games programming as a hobby, and I like to use a reasonable PC, two screens (which is helpful) and plenty of open source. But when I'm away from home, I also develop on a Netbook, which works fine. ;)
Please note that I've made a negligible amount of money! :-[
Depending on what you're doing, you can get away without being able to draw too well, just look at Minecraft and its developer Notch, who does most of that with pixel art.
He's making around £100,000 a day! ???
Key'ìl Nekxetse on "The Revolutionists"
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Esmond

100k sterling pounds a day? You can't be serious. That's 3mil sterling pounds a month!

Anyway Tirea, I reckon you'll need render farms as well. But being a one man company, what games do you intend to make actually?

Help preserve Nature.

Key'ìl Nekxetse

Er, render farm for something using realtime 3D? Not for anything I've ever heard of. ???
I know! Most of the indie dev world must be jealous of Notch right now. :o But he works really hard on it and it is a great idea.
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Esmond

Do cutscenes need rendering? I dunno I'm just guessing. :)

Maybe I've been playing with V-Ray too much.

Help preserve Nature.

Key'ìl Nekxetse

Ah, I hadn't thought of cut scenes! Some people use graphics from the game, some people do use rendered graphics.
You can rent render farms, but I'm not sure how much they charge.
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Nantxe'lan

despite that i don't like pre rendered cutscenes...
i think realtime animated game engine cutscenes would do the job at least at the beginning. if the game is well done and has an appealing plot, i don't think people mind if the cutscenes are not pre rendered...
"All I ever wanted in my sorry-ass life was a single thing worth fighting for."
"Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move."
Atxkxe - I somehow love this word.

Oeru syaw Nantxe'lan taluna oeri txe'lan 'efu na txe'lan nantangä.
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Key'ìl Nekxetse

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Esmond

I'm more of a pre-rendered cut scene guy. But if game devs can achieve the sort of quality that Mass Effect 2 does (their cut scenes are graphics from the engine but they're very good) then I don't mind. =)

Help preserve Nature.

Txontaw

Quote from: Tirea Ikranä Aean on September 30, 2010, 05:57:24 PM
So, to sum it up, here's what I'll be dealing with. (...And Txontaw if he ever shows back up)

Don't worry, I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. :)

Here is my take on your list;

I'll need 2 desks: The computer desk w/ bookshelf and the desk for artwork
This is more like two desks; One for me one for you, both of which are large enough to serve as a drawing table and to hold the computers, as well as a separate bookshelf.


The high-speed computer with 1-2 monitors for the actual game part
Two high speed computers with two screens each. There's no way we'd effectively function with just one computer. The computers would be about 2000 total, custom made, and the screens...I dunno about the screens, I haven't done much research into that.


These things called development kits. Bacially a PS3/Xbox360, but that makes discs instead of read them. (~$20,000USD) -- This is optional; there's plenty of money in PC games. It'd only be useful if a successful PC game would work on PS3/360.

The programs to make games
Flash and an IDE is pretty much all that is necessary to make both casual Flash games as well as larger projects.


The books that have coding
I already have a lot of these.


And to top it off, the high source of electricity.
This is the biggest problem. I think that a combination of all three (solar, hydroelectric, wind) would provide enough sources of electricity to have constant power. Human power (a bike, or something) could help too, and it would be a good source of exercise, since we'll prolly be the guys that don't get out much. :P
"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, Ladies and Gentlemen." - Colonel Quaritch


Key'ìl Nekxetse

I think you're wrong, you could use cheaper equipment. But I'm tired right now, so I can assemble a sensible argument.
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Txontaw

"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, Ladies and Gentlemen." - Colonel Quaritch


Key'ìl Nekxetse

#12
I'm not convinced you really need to spend that much on computers, you don't need a high end machine for development or testing, and you are likely to want a low end system aswell, because that's a lot closer to what customers may be using.

Two monitors is good, I really like being able to see more display. If you're trying not to spend much and not use power, though, they're probably a bad idea.

Flash is good software, but it's overpriced, so personally I much prefer Open Source alternatives. If you want to find out about it, look at Haxe (http://haxe.org/) as a start. There's plenty of good stuff for free (you don't need to buy Photoshop!).

The point about not needing an expensive way to author discs for PS3/360 is a good point.

You really don't need to pay for an IDE, there are plenty for free. I've used a few, in particular I liked Geany for being lightweight and compatible with most things, and Eclipse, which is great if you're working with Java.

Books are good, and you probable can't get away without them very easily. If you've got a good enough internet connection, some languages provide online reference, which is usually good.

If you want any recommendations for Open Source software to look at, just ask. I've spent time using a few things, including Python, Haxe, and Java.
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Txontaw

Considering I already have both Flash and Photoshop, I don't think that is an issue. And I've tried many free alternatives, but I much prefer Photoshop. And open source Flash alts don't provide the graphical side as well, which is an issue when you want to do complex animation as well as coding. We'll also need some sort of purely graphical program, like After Effects, combined with something like Sony Vegas for editing. With those, I'd be willing to go with a free alt if it's good enough, because I haven't gotten attached to them.

And on the computers, 1000 is what a friend of mine paid for a top notch gaming computer. Mine is prolly worth about 600, and as of now it is a sucky development platform. Though I get what you mean

Also, I never specified that we'd need a paid IDE, I simply said that we'd need one. I haven't done much research into these, since I've never been a huge coder, and the only language I do know well is AS3.

As for books, I already said I have quite a few. AS3, C++, C#, Java, Javascript, PHP, etc...
I also have several on game theory.

"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, Ladies and Gentlemen." - Colonel Quaritch


Key'ìl Nekxetse

Open Source can't provide the GUI parts of Flash yet, so if you need those and you've already got Flash, use it!
I don't like Flash's way of bolting code to graphics, I prefer writing code and adding graphics, so I prefer Haxe. That's just my opinion.
Computers are variable, I think my main PC was under £200, and it works pretty well, for gaming and development. Probably an issue for later though.
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Txontaw

I dunno what you mean by bolting graphics to code. I always write the classes first, then create the sprites in Flash to use the code. But that's just me.

"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Pandora, Ladies and Gentlemen." - Colonel Quaritch


Fnua Atxkxe

There's always a chance that by the time you get this idea off the ground there is going to be someone in a pretty decent computer in the tribe anyway, so you could use theirs, it's maybe not that big a worry right now, ive spent about 5k on mine and I'm sure there're more insane people out there ;P Anything we have right now will probably be outdated by then anyway D:
Anyone feel free to add me on msn or skype: [email protected]

Oe kamä ìlä oeyä txe´lan ulte fìtsenge leiu oel hu ayngati ma oeyä smukan sì smuke ulte nga ma Coga, nì´ul to fra´u ^_^

Predict

Way outdated. I'm sure we can rely on someone having access to something suitable. Also, what do you get for 5K? :o I've just built (the parts are still in boxes, but that's a technicality) a new PC at a cost of about 600 and it seems pretty decent.

Fnua Atxkxe

liquid cooling, core i7 975, 12gb ram etc, plus had to buy all the monitors and stuff again, got 3d which is really cool ^^ was a year ago though
Anyone feel free to add me on msn or skype: [email protected]

Oe kamä ìlä oeyä txe´lan ulte fìtsenge leiu oel hu ayngati ma oeyä smukan sì smuke ulte nga ma Coga, nì´ul to fra´u ^_^