Starting a gaming company. - Games

[QUOTE][I]"Just how did FacePunch start?"[/I][/QUOTE] I asked myself. Then I thought about FacePunch. Then I realized I want to be like Garry! Has anybody here got any experience with this? How hard is it to start a small gaming company to make little money? I have basic knowledge of Unity too and I know that compared to other engines, its mostly easier. Cheers, Sam

What games have you made earlier? Is this only you or do you have friends who work with you? [editline]10th March 2014[/editline] If these questions are hard, then it might not be the time to even think about starting a company.

[QUOTE=paul simon;44185670]What games have you made earlier? Is this only you or do you have friends who work with you? </QUOTE> Yeah, I have a few people I work with. My friend Ellis is the art related things and some modeling and I'm the main programmer and creator. I've only made tiny games though. Gone when my HD died:(

how old are you? not saying being young makes it impossible but there's certainly a huge wall to climb if you are.

[QUOTE=SammyTeee;44185722]Yeah, I have a few people I work with. My friend Ellis is the art related things and some modeling and I'm the main programmer and creator. I've only made tiny games though. Gone when my HD died:([/QUOTE] If you don't have anything to show then I'm afraid very few are going to believe you. A portfolio saying "sorry, lost all my stuff in a HDD crash" will not impress anyone. There are no excuses in this line of work. You should not start a gaming company, there's absolutely no need for it at this stage. However, do keep working on projects and create some games with your friends. If you get good at it, and other people like what you make, then you might consider creating a company. Best of luck to you.

[QUOTE=lintz;44185739]how old are you? not saying being young makes it impossible but there's certainly a huge wall to climb if you are.[/QUOTE] I'm going to be truthfully honest, I'm 13. But for my knowledge of technology so far, it's pretty impressive for my age I'd say.

Make sure you have a steady source of income that isn't tied to your game developing. Have patience, get your name/games/mods out there, help other game creators by lending them your talents, make friends who will spread your name/game. You shouldn't create the company before you have a product to show, you have to put one foot in front of the other and make sure your vision isn't compromised by greed. No one wants to be a part of something they feel is a cash grab and the only way to be genuine is to genuinely put hard work into whatever you do. It's taken garry YEARS to get here, don't think you'll have your own Facepunch within 5 years, you have to face reality and get to work. Or win the lottery.

[QUOTE=paul simon;44185805]If you don't have anything to show then I'm afraid very few are going to believe you. A portfolio saying "sorry, lost all my stuff in a HDD crash" will not impress anyone. There are no excuses in this line of work. You should not start a gaming company, there's absolutely no need for it at this stage. However, do keep working on projects and create some games with your friends. If you get good at it, and other people like what you make, then you might consider creating a company. Best of luck to you.[/QUOTE] Thanks dude! I'll always remember this... Cheers, Sam

[QUOTE=SammyTeee;44185808]I'm going to be truthfully honest, I'm 13. But for my knowledge of technology so far, it's pretty impressive for my age I'd say.[/QUOTE] starting to learn this early is great. just keep at it and see where it takes you, starting a company at this stage is probably a bit too ambitious. make some projects with your friends in your spare time and start forming a portfolio, it'll be a good headstart.

[QUOTE=SammyTeee;44185808]I'm going to be truthfully honest, I'm 13. But for my knowledge of technology so far, it's pretty impressive for my age I'd say.[/QUOTE] Hey, at least you got the grammar for it.

It's doubtful you'll be able to make a successful gaming company. Running a company isn't about being good at making games and knowing how to use technology, you hire people to do that for you. You'd need to know how to manage businesses, funding, etc. It's normal around your age to overestimate yourself, hell when I was 13, I wanted to be a cop, astronaut, and surgeon at the same time. As a result, you shouldn't start thinking about what you want to do with your life right now.

kid i'm going to be pissed if you became a dev and I see you're games going for $60 with a bunch of dlc and season pass shit every year. don't do that shit

[QUOTE=ForDaNords;44186168]It's doubtful you'll be able to make a successful gaming company. Running a company isn't about being good at making games and knowing how to use technology, you hire people to do that for you. You'd need to know how to manage businesses, funding, etc. It's normal around your age to overestimate yourself, hell when I was 13, I wanted to be a cop, astronaut, and surgeon at the same time. As a result, you shouldn't start thinking about what you want to do with your life right now.[/QUOTE] He has the passion for it at least and a little skill so he might be successful, however this is to be seen. MIGHT, I must make obvious.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you do have an idea of something to get started with correct? And I don't mean an idea as in "I know the bare basics, I'm gonna make a TicTacToe/*Object* Clicker/Flappy *Object*/etc type game and make millions!".

Can I be the idea guy.

well it's best to start when you're young, but if your role model is Garry i'd be a bit concerned start something small with friends and try to get better as you go

1. Stop signing your posts. 2. Keep learning to code. 3. Learn C++. 4. Have an actual career you can live off of unless you actually get big with games. 5. Your friend will probably abandon you in this, learn to at least make decent programmer art, that way you can showcase your code to other people later when you might actually need a real artist. 6. You will make a lot of throwaway crap games, don't fucking delete them, save the code, you never know. 7. You will NOT be an instant success with your "super great indie game idea." In reality, it'll probably blow dick, but you'll be a lot better at coding by the end. 8. Bug fixes come before features. 9. Bug fixes come BEFORE release. 10. There will ALWAYS be bugs at release. 11. Learn C++. 12. Don't be discouraged, it's a long road of learning to code and you'll probably spend many years being unable to pump out a giant AAA release game, most games like that have multiple coders or a LOT of time invested. It is a LONG process. 13. Game design document is your most important feature, if you don't have a game design document, you need to make one. Mapping out your planned features is more important than coding them in.

If you're making a few smaller games, you could make some mobile games. You don't an entire company to make some fun phone games, and you could make some money to put away for the future.

[QUOTE=Agoat;44186999]If you're making a few smaller games, you could make some mobile games. You don't an entire company to make some fun phone games, and you could make some money to put away for the future.[/QUOTE] Doubtful. Mobile games are a horribly saturated market of shit and coding for mobile platforms is pretty much a waste of time. If he wants to succeed at a CAREER in game development, he shouldn't make mobile games. They're a fad that will die hard as soon as the next great thing comes about. You forget how short lived the popularity of mobile games is, as well as their pitiful market share. Trying to make ANY money at this stage in his coding career is a fucking joke and he will be met with terrible failure. He should focus on learning to code, nothing more at this point.

I think if you're starting from nothing, no experience, no business background, then mobile games are the obvious first step these days. First off, it can be done by one person, or a small team. Second, it can be done cheap. Third, it can be done relatively fast. If you can't get a couple of mobile games done and for sale in a reasonable amount of time, you'll know a career in the games business is not for you. You don't even have to worry about making money at first, just prove you can design and FINISH a game or two. From what I've seen that's where most people fail if they try and fail to get into games development- actually producing anything. If you do make a couple of games, then you should have learned enough to make the next step.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;44187193]I think if you're starting from nothing, no experience, no business background, then mobile games are the obvious first step these days. First off, it can be done by one person, or a small team. Second, it can be done cheap. Third, it can be done relatively fast. If you can't get a couple of mobile games done and for sale in a reasonable amount of time, you'll know a career in the games business is not for you. You don't even have to worry about making money at first, just prove you can design and FINISH a game or two. From what I've seen that's where most people fail if they try and fail to get into games development- actually producing anything. If you do make a couple of games, then you should have learned enough to make the next step.[/QUOTE] Except it doesn't matter if you can finish a simple mobile game if you're still unable to code anything in a relevant language. Not only this, but learning to code is more important than knowing the ins and outs of game design. One does not need the other, coding can at least be used as a career in another field if game design isn't what he wants. Learning game design now is fucking worthless and a waste of his time if he finds out he doesn't like it, that totally fucks him back in terms of making money or something from his effort. There's a reason we have the ideas guy joke, the guy who can design the game only is fucking worthless. Having an actually helpful skill is way more important.

Do you guys recommend any sites, etc to learn C++?

[url]http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/[/url] [url]http://www.cprogramming.com/begin.html[/url] [url]http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html[/url] [editline]9th March 2014[/editline] Even learning Visual Basic or Unity is more productive than mobile games, really.

[QUOTE=draugur;44187062]Doubtful. Mobile games are a horribly saturated market of shit and coding for mobile platforms is pretty much a waste of time. If he wants to succeed at a CAREER in game development, he shouldn't make mobile games. They're a fad that will die hard as soon as the next great thing comes about. You forget how short lived the popularity of mobile games is, as well as their pitiful market share. Trying to make ANY money at this stage in his coding career is a fucking joke and he will be met with terrible failure. He should focus on learning to code, nothing more at this point.[/QUOTE] You're absolutely right! Making money is a terrible idea, and even though the fad is still around for a little while longer he shouldn't touch it. It'd be awful to have experience and a few dollars in his pocket, especially while he's got a roof over his head and doesn't have to pay any bills. We'll also roll with the assumption that we're all implying he should only make mobile games for the rest of his life. Don't worry about it, you've got it. [editline]10th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Novangel;44187253]Do you guys recommend any sites, etc to learn C++?[/QUOTE] I've been on [url]http://www.codecademy.com/[/url] , it's pretty neat!

[QUOTE=Agoat;44187344]You're absolutely right! Making money is a terrible idea, and even though the fad is still around for a little while longer he shouldn't touch it. It'd be awful to have experience and a few dollars in his pocket, especially while he's got a roof over his head and doesn't have to pay any bills. We'll also roll with the assumption that we're all implying he should only make mobile games for the rest of his life. Don't worry about it, you've got it.[/QUOTE] I've programmed for several years now, making tons of games in C++, none of which got me a job despite having learned so much from them. Then I made a very simple, stupid little mobile game in a few hours and that alone got me my job.

It doesn't matter how many shitty games you make for free, but if you can get your name out there someone might pick you up because self publishing requires a lot more business sense than programming.

Good luck.

tbh i'd start with making a mod team, make some terrible mods then go into actual gaming.

[QUOTE=Agoat;44187344]You're absolutely right! Making money is a terrible idea, and even though the fad is still around for a little while longer he shouldn't touch it. It'd be awful to have experience and a few dollars in his pocket, especially while he's got a roof over his head and doesn't have to pay any bills. We'll also roll with the assumption that we're all implying he should only make mobile games for the rest of his life. Don't worry about it, you've got it. [editline]10th March 2014[/editline] I've been on [url]http://www.codecademy.com/[/url] , it's pretty neat![/QUOTE] He is 13, he lives with his parents and will for at least another 8 years or so. Sure he could make a little mobile game and make some money and he can do that. What draugur is saying is that he should focus on learning coding more than learning how to make games. That way if he decides I don't want to make games he can use his coding skills and get a job that requires coding.

Not only that but ageism is a massive problem in the professional world. No one is going to work with you because you're young. You will get screwed over by everyone and anyone simply because you have not yet attained an arbitary number of years in existence.