... is pretty accurate, IMO.
Given that it's a small download, with a lot of free content, what have you got to lose? I became totally hooked on the game when I first played it.
Please note that we added support for LUA scenarios in the Age of Mythology expansion pack, The Titans. Which isn't a real answer to your original question, but as you might infer from it, we are spending more time and effort on making sure that LUA works on our future titles.
(I was the lead programmer on AOM & AOM:Titans and wrote the relevant LUA code for the game)
6.002 was one of my least favorite classes (I ultimately went 6.3, the comp-sci variant of the CS/EE degree at MIT) because, well, it's so disconnected from reality. I've found almost zero utility out of it. The other "core" 6-double-oh classes (6.003 = signals, 6.004 = build a simple computer) are vastly, vastly, more useful.
This article on CNN has the same basic content, a few more details, but infinitely less painful to read than the cornball "humor" in the Yahoo article.
"... new features aimed at making email a key function of the device."
In otherworks, RIM and the Blackberry are starting to eat their lunch and they are trying to fight back.
The Blackberry does exactly what the Palm made it's initial success for; a small, focused device that does a few things extremely well rather than trying to do everything. Palm has really lost their focus in this regard lately, so I'm glad to hear they might be trying to get back on track.
Our producer on Age of Mythology, David Rippy, is also one of the old-school Ensemble Corp guys. He periodically tries to convince me (jokingly, of course) that we should rewrite our game engine in Delphi...:-)
I can't agree with the first point enough. Ideas are cheap. Even good ones. They're free, literally. Teams are expensive, they need salaries, computers, places to work, etc.
It's true that a publisher will pretty much ignore you if all you have is a high concept and no proof of execution or skills to do same (experience is best, but failing that, a good demo is the proof in the pudding as it were). But don't ever make the mistake of believing that the publisher will somehow see the inherent brilliance in your idea. Ideas are cheap.
Though, unlike some of the other grim posts you see here, I don't think it's quite as horrible as all that. There is a thriving small developer market even with all the shakeouts, especially among the smaller and midsize publishers. Sure, you're not going to get an Ion Storm excessive deal, and you're not going to have 8-digit (or even 7-digit) marketing figures that way, but it is an excellent way to get your name out there, and it can be done. Don't get disheartened!
Yeah, Ensemble Studios spun off of Ensemble Corporation (a DB consulting firm that after a long and byzantine series of mergers and acquisitions eventually became MarchFirst) because a few people starting prototyping the original Age of Empires as an after hours project.
ES has been very successful for a number of reasons, but key among them were getting lucky with a very talented set of people (Age of Empires was the first game out for almost everyone on the project!) and the fact that the game could be bankrolled off of the success of Ensemble Corp. Having the resources to hold our ground in negotiations with MS for Age and Age 2 was tremendously useful.
There is a lot of great strength in not coming from a traditional gaming shop background, but you definitely would be well advised to use the resources out there on the net, like Gamasutra. Publishers are your greatest ally once you get them on your side, but you have to keep in mind that your interests and theirs don't always dovetail. You have to guard your own interests, but not keep them at such arms' length that you fail to take advantage of the tremendous experience and opportunities that they represent.
Another studio stories I'm familiar with from personal experience: Irrational Games (System Shock 2, Freedom Force, The Lost) was initially funded with nothing more than a few months savings from the three founders (myself, Ken Levine, and Jon Chey). We parlayed that into some minor consulting contracts, and then parlayed that funding into a bigger contract using our contacts from LookingGlass. Lack of funding hurt us a lot, and we spent a lot of energy just figuring out how to stay alive.
But the upside of that is that we had no external debtors or angels so we HAD to figure out how to make everything work ourselves. We worked well under pressure, so it turned out fairly well. We also didn't have to sell our souls to anyone. I would advise very strongly against taking VC money if you can at all avoid it, because you're just shifting major influence and power in your company over to someone who doesn't have your long term best interest at heart.
Actual negotiations with publishers work in a fairly straightforward method; you make contact with the relevant people, arrange a presentation, and begin the lengthy process of negotiation. It can be hard to get those initial contacts without a lot of experience, but they are very valuable. You *will* need a lawyer to handle contract negotiation once that gets started, or else expect to spend a lot of time doing it yourself.
The philosophy we had at Irrational was that we were willing to "loss lead" our first game to make a good reputation and then leverage that in the future. It's been pretty successful.
Here at Ensemble, we had such tremendous success with our first few products, we were always able to avoid any real funding crises, and now that we are with Microsoft full time, we can finally stop worry about the whole publisher dance altogether. Dealing with publishers does take very real time; don't just assume that someone can handle all the business side of things and the publisher side of things in additional to their normal programming tasks (or whatever).
In the end, running a game company isn't too different from running any other kind of software shop at the high level. Proper business mangagement can make a world of difference, and publishers can see and respect that kind of discipline. Of course, you have to have the talent to back it up too!
It is very difficult to get mindshare (from publishers and equally important in some ways, the press / fans) early on, so be prepared to invest a lot of up front time in your demo. Polish, polish, polish! A well polished demo and a professional presentation go a long way towards convincing a publisher that you are serious about this, not a bunch of kids in a garage (even if you are).
The mindset/attitude we always founds best was, "this game is going to be a hit with our without you; this is your big chance to get on the bandwagon". Salesmanship 101, I guess, but that stuff can make a difference.
I wish the best of luck to anyone setting out on this long and crazy road. Launching a game company requires a blend of luck, talent, connections, and resources, but if you have the calling it can be very worthwhile. Just don't neglect the business side of things for the game side of things!
-- Lead Programmer, Ensemble Studios (and an ex-Irrational Games founder / programmer)
Rollercoaster Tycoon, arguably one of the most successful games of the past 3 years, was written by, I believe, 1 programmer, 2 artists, and a sound guy. Starships Unlimited (www.apezone.com) is one of the best "4x" space games to come out since MOO2, in my opinion, and was done by one guy (it's sold direct, and has no marketing campaign, so hard to compare sales).
Sure, you're not going to write Baldur's Gate III or Half-Life 2 in your garage, but you can make some damn fine games. Besides, like with writers, if you have a calling for this stuff you can't NOT do it. I've been a game developer (programming + some design) for almost 10 years now, and if they stopped paying me to do it, I'd still be working on my own stuff at home.
Even if you don't write the next Rollercoaster Tycoon, having the experience of really trying to make a polished and complete demo is immensely useful as both resume fodder, something to break you out of "the pile" of discarded resumes, and is just damn good practical experience.
Don't get me wrong, the industry has some awful spots in it and some glaring flaws (excellent developers struggle to even turn 1 cent in profit while crappy publishers can screw people over left and right, market crap, and still turn a great profit). But I wouldn't trade it for the world. You need something to get your "shot" at a live or phone interview, but after that, you have to let your inherent talent, competence, and passion carry you through.
The "I like to drive so it must be fun to make cars" analogy *is* a good one. Making games can be a lot of hard work at times. But if you have the calling, it can be very rewarding as well.
-- Rob "Xemu" Fermier
Lead Programmer, Age of Mythology
www.ensemblestudios.com
(Irrational Games, Looking Glass Technologies in prior lifetimes)
Re:Okay - so what did you do about it?
on
Lawsuits Suck
·
· Score: 1
Wow, it's *really* worth your time to follow this link. I've never really followed politics much except at the "cable TV news shows" level, but following this through led me to discover that my representative (Dick Armey, R) happens to actually have a webpage that includes his position on a number of internet privacy issues!
I was happily surprised to see that even though he was a Republican, he seemed to come down on the right side of many of those issues.
Anyways, the moral of this story is that even if you are too lame to actually write your representative, at least surf on over there and gather some data...
I definitely second the mention of Nadesico (though I believe it is called Martian Successor Nadesico here in the states?). Well written, great characters, good story, and there is an anime-within-an-anime that is good for some wonderful fourth-wall-breaking of the series poking fun at itself. Unfortunately, it isn't out on DVD yet that I know.
Of course, I guess all my old friends there are now ex-employees...:-( Anyways, I left the company a while ago, to help found Irrational Games, the company that did most of the actual development of System Shock 2 (LG provided the engine and a couple of key people), I was the lead programmer on that game and a programmer on the original System Shock (as well as some minor contributions to Thief, Terra Nova, and Flight Unlimited). It is incredibly sad to see a great company like LG be forced to close down shop. I'll always remember fondly my time there.
Fortunately, as has been commented on elsewhere, the talented people that are the heart and soul of LG will be able to land at any number of other companies. There are some great developers right there in Boston, plus I'm sure anyone there will have no problem staying in the industry if they want to move to CA or TX. Still sad though -- incredible games are a result of a gestalt effort, a true synergy. There has to be the right mix of people, and ideas and an environment that can be the catalyst.
LG had all those elements, but unfortunately never received commercial success to match the critical success. Why exactly that is is a long discussion in and of itself, and no one can really be sure, but marketing, accessiblity, genre, poor timing, and hardware reqs no doubt all had a component. However, the Underworld games, and the System Shock games, and Flight Unlimited all made a fair amount of money for LG. Unfortunately Terra Nova and British Open Golf were *REALLY* bad failures and nearly took the company down with them.
Honestly, it's incredible that the company has survived as long as they have, doing expensive, ambitious games without a ton of commercial success to match. But every time before, they were able to make it through. I guess eventually their luck ran out. Again, a sad day...
One other note in regards to rights: Electronic Arts owns the IP and the source code to the System Shock games and the Underworld games. So anyone hoping for a public release of it is probably out of luck (and really, anyone with that kind of energy is really better served channeling it towards a new game with modern technology).
Even though I haven't been directly invovled with LG for a year or so, it is still incredibly touching to see the reaction the public and press have had to this unfortunate turn of events. It's nice to know that even if we aren't all driving around Ferraris that our games were appreciated -- that is what truly counts.
(For reference, I'm no longer with Irrational Games either -- I don't want anyone to think I am speaking for them)
While I was no longer with the company (Irrational) at the time, having a bit of a window into the situation I can safely say it is *nowhere* near as simple a situation as that posting about the wood/coffin/nail makes it out to be, in regards to the relationship between Irrational and LG. Most of the developers didn't have to see the relationship between the two companies, as it was kept out of the way so that the developers could focus on, well, developing. However, the relationship did get extremely strained at times, and definitely was not as onesided as Irrational just unexpectedly pulling out.
Besides, if the advances LG was getting were going to go to Irrational for development (ie, the team was not internal to LG), then the loss of that income was matched by a loss of costs as well, so while they were denied some hypothetical profit, that's the most you can account for in that regard.
From an ex-Irrational and ex-LG programmer...
Re:Why weren't more people there?
on
Protesting DMCA
·
· Score: 1
I, for one, never heard about it until after it happened. Of course, I'm unlikely to be able to fly out to DC (from Dallas, TX) on short notice anyways, but I would have been happy to spread the word to my friends in the area to try and encourage things.
So that brings up two questions that perhaps someone can help with: 1. What websites out there can I use to find these sort of organizations in the future (or is Slashdot sufficient)? 2. What can those of us who cannot practically make it to DC do to help show physical support for this issue?
(Just to wear my bias on my sleeve, I'm a game developer who has been in the biz for about 7 years now).
The meatspace analogy would exactly be the persons responsible for maintaining order in the space of the auction -- the city government, police, etc. You can be certain that if there were a public auction of illegal goods, and someone notified the cops of this but their response was "sorry, we're not responsible", heads would roll.
As someone who makes games for a living, I think that this is an important issue that has to be responded to. While there will always be outlets for pirates to traffic in their illegal goods, aiding and abetting such practices, especially under the guise of electronic freedom, is just encouraging amoral behavior.
One interesting, somewhat related anecdote from longer ago in the games industry: when Ultima Underworld came out for the PC, it had no copy protection. It sold reasonably well, especially for the time. However, it sold around (IIRC) about 1.3 times as many hint books as copies of the game! Somehow, I doubt people were just buying extra copies of the hintbook.
The fact is that we are at a point in the cycle of copying technology such that casual piracy is a big threat to the livelihood of the software developers. As a society, we have to do everything that we can to work against people just looking to steal others' work, lest we lower the quality of generated work overall.
Slashdot Mirror
This game is *definitely* worth a look. The synergy between the boardgame and card mechanics is some of the best pure gameplay I've ever seen.
/ index.html
... is pretty accurate, IMO.
Given that it's a small download, with a lot of free content, what have you got to lose? I became totally hooked on the game when I first played it.
This positive Gamespot review:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starchamber
Please note that we added support for LUA scenarios in the Age of Mythology expansion pack, The Titans. Which isn't a real answer to your original question, but as you might infer from it, we are spending more time and effort on making sure that LUA works on our future titles.
(I was the lead programmer on AOM & AOM:Titans and wrote the relevant LUA code for the game)
Thank goodness.
6.002 was one of my least favorite classes (I ultimately went 6.3, the comp-sci variant of the CS/EE degree at MIT) because, well, it's so disconnected from reality. I've found almost zero utility out of it. The other "core" 6-double-oh classes (6.003 = signals, 6.004 = build a simple computer) are vastly, vastly, more useful.
An overdue change, if you ask me.
This article on CNN has the same basic content, a few more details, but infinitely less painful to read than the cornball "humor" in the Yahoo article.
"... new features aimed at making email a key function of the device."
In otherworks, RIM and the Blackberry are starting to eat their lunch and they are trying to fight back.
The Blackberry does exactly what the Palm made it's initial success for; a small, focused device that does a few things extremely well rather than trying to do everything. Palm has really lost their focus in this regard lately, so I'm glad to hear they might be trying to get back on track.
Our producer on Age of Mythology, David Rippy, is also one of the old-school Ensemble Corp guys. He periodically tries to convince me (jokingly, of course) that we should rewrite our game engine in Delphi... :-)
I can't agree with the first point enough. Ideas are cheap. Even good ones. They're free, literally. Teams are expensive, they need salaries, computers, places to work, etc.
It's true that a publisher will pretty much ignore you if all you have is a high concept and no proof of execution or skills to do same (experience is best, but failing that, a good demo is the proof in the pudding as it were). But don't ever make the mistake of believing that the publisher will somehow see the inherent brilliance in your idea. Ideas are cheap.
Though, unlike some of the other grim posts you see here, I don't think it's quite as horrible as all that. There is a thriving small developer market even with all the shakeouts, especially among the smaller and midsize publishers. Sure, you're not going to get an Ion Storm excessive deal, and you're not going to have 8-digit (or even 7-digit) marketing figures that way, but it is an excellent way to get your name out there, and it can be done. Don't get disheartened!
Yeah, Ensemble Studios spun off of Ensemble Corporation (a DB consulting firm that after a long and byzantine series of mergers and acquisitions eventually became MarchFirst) because a few people starting prototyping the original Age of Empires as an after hours project.
ES has been very successful for a number of reasons, but key among them were getting lucky with a very talented set of people (Age of Empires was the first game out for almost everyone on the project!) and the fact that the game could be bankrolled off of the success of Ensemble Corp. Having the resources to hold our ground in negotiations with MS for Age and Age 2 was tremendously useful.
There is a lot of great strength in not coming from a traditional gaming shop background, but you definitely would be well advised to use the resources out there on the net, like Gamasutra. Publishers are your greatest ally once you get them on your side, but you have to keep in mind that your interests and theirs don't always dovetail. You have to guard your own interests, but not keep them at such arms' length that you fail to take advantage of the tremendous experience and opportunities that they represent.
Another studio stories I'm familiar with from personal experience: Irrational Games (System Shock 2, Freedom Force, The Lost) was initially funded with nothing more than a few months savings from the three founders (myself, Ken Levine, and Jon Chey). We parlayed that into some minor consulting contracts, and then parlayed that funding into a bigger contract using our contacts from LookingGlass. Lack of funding hurt us a lot, and we spent a lot of energy just figuring out how to stay alive.
But the upside of that is that we had no external debtors or angels so we HAD to figure out how to make everything work ourselves. We worked well under pressure, so it turned out fairly well. We also didn't have to sell our souls to anyone. I would advise very strongly against taking VC money if you can at all avoid it, because you're just shifting major influence and power in your company over to someone who doesn't have your long term best interest at heart.
Actual negotiations with publishers work in a fairly straightforward method; you make contact with the relevant people, arrange a presentation, and begin the lengthy process of negotiation. It can be hard to get those initial contacts without a lot of experience, but they are very valuable. You *will* need a lawyer to handle contract negotiation once that gets started, or else expect to spend a lot of time doing it yourself.
The philosophy we had at Irrational was that we were willing to "loss lead" our first game to make a good reputation and then leverage that in the future. It's been pretty successful.
Here at Ensemble, we had such tremendous success with our first few products, we were always able to avoid any real funding crises, and now that we are with Microsoft full time, we can finally stop worry about the whole publisher dance altogether. Dealing with publishers does take very real time; don't just assume that someone can handle all the business side of things and the publisher side of things in additional to their normal programming tasks (or whatever).
In the end, running a game company isn't too different from running any other kind of software shop at the high level. Proper business mangagement can make a world of difference, and publishers can see and respect that kind of discipline. Of course, you have to have the talent to back it up too!
It is very difficult to get mindshare (from publishers and equally important in some ways, the press / fans) early on, so be prepared to invest a lot of up front time in your demo. Polish, polish, polish! A well polished demo and a professional presentation go a long way towards convincing a publisher that you are serious about this, not a bunch of kids in a garage (even if you are).
The mindset/attitude we always founds best was, "this game is going to be a hit with our without you; this is your big chance to get on the bandwagon". Salesmanship 101, I guess, but that stuff can make a difference.
I wish the best of luck to anyone setting out on this long and crazy road. Launching a game company requires a blend of luck, talent, connections, and resources, but if you have the calling it can be very worthwhile. Just don't neglect the business side of things for the game side of things!
-- Lead Programmer, Ensemble Studios (and an ex-Irrational Games founder / programmer)
Rollercoaster Tycoon, arguably one of the most successful games of the past 3 years, was written by, I believe, 1 programmer, 2 artists, and a sound guy. Starships Unlimited (www.apezone.com) is one of the best "4x" space games to come out since MOO2, in my opinion, and was done by one guy (it's sold direct, and has no marketing campaign, so hard to compare sales).
Sure, you're not going to write Baldur's Gate III or Half-Life 2 in your garage, but you can make some damn fine games. Besides, like with writers, if you have a calling for this stuff you can't NOT do it. I've been a game developer (programming + some design) for almost 10 years now, and if they stopped paying me to do it, I'd still be working on my own stuff at home.
Even if you don't write the next Rollercoaster Tycoon, having the experience of really trying to make a polished and complete demo is immensely useful as both resume fodder, something to break you out of "the pile" of discarded resumes, and is just damn good practical experience.
Don't get me wrong, the industry has some awful spots in it and some glaring flaws (excellent developers struggle to even turn 1 cent in profit while crappy publishers can screw people over left and right, market crap, and still turn a great profit). But I wouldn't trade it for the world. You need something to get your "shot" at a live or phone interview, but after that, you have to let your inherent talent, competence, and passion carry you through.
The "I like to drive so it must be fun to make cars" analogy *is* a good one. Making games can be a lot of hard work at times. But if you have the calling, it can be very rewarding as well.
-- Rob "Xemu" Fermier
Lead Programmer, Age of Mythology
www.ensemblestudios.com
(Irrational Games, Looking Glass Technologies in prior lifetimes)
Wow, it's *really* worth your time to follow this link. I've never really followed politics much except at the "cable TV news shows" level, but following this through led me to discover that my representative (Dick Armey, R) happens to actually have a webpage that includes his position on a number of internet privacy issues!
I was happily surprised to see that even though he was a Republican, he seemed to come down on the right side of many of those issues.
Anyways, the moral of this story is that even if you are too lame to actually write your representative, at least surf on over there and gather some data...
I definitely second the mention of Nadesico (though I believe it is called Martian Successor Nadesico here in the states?). Well written, great characters, good story, and there is an anime-within-an-anime that is good for some wonderful fourth-wall-breaking of the series poking fun at itself. Unfortunately, it isn't out on DVD yet that I know.
Of course, I guess all my old friends there are now ex-employees ... :-( Anyways, I left the company a while ago, to help found Irrational Games, the company that did most of the actual development of System Shock 2 (LG provided the engine and a couple of key people), I was the lead programmer on that game and a programmer on the original System Shock (as well as some minor contributions to Thief, Terra Nova, and Flight Unlimited). It is incredibly sad to see a great company like LG be forced to close down shop. I'll always remember fondly my time there.
Fortunately, as has been commented on elsewhere, the talented people that are the heart and soul of LG will be able to land at any number of other companies. There are some great developers right there in Boston, plus I'm sure anyone there will have no problem staying in the industry if they want to move to CA or TX. Still sad though -- incredible games are a result of a gestalt effort, a true synergy. There has to be the right mix of people, and ideas and an environment that can be the catalyst.
LG had all those elements, but unfortunately never received commercial success to match the critical success. Why exactly that is is a long discussion in and of itself, and no one can really be sure, but marketing, accessiblity, genre, poor timing, and hardware reqs no doubt all had a component. However, the Underworld games, and the System Shock games, and Flight Unlimited all made a fair amount of money for LG. Unfortunately Terra Nova and British Open Golf were *REALLY* bad failures and nearly took the company down with them.
Honestly, it's incredible that the company has survived as long as they have, doing expensive, ambitious games without a ton of commercial success to match. But every time before, they were able to make it through. I guess eventually their luck ran out. Again, a sad day...
One other note in regards to rights: Electronic Arts owns the IP and the source code to the System Shock games and the Underworld games. So anyone hoping for a public release of it is probably out of luck (and really, anyone with that kind of energy is really better served channeling it towards a new game with modern technology).
Even though I haven't been directly invovled with LG for a year or so, it is still incredibly touching to see the reaction the public and press have had to this unfortunate turn of events. It's nice to know that even if we aren't all driving around Ferraris that our games were appreciated -- that is what truly counts.
(For reference, I'm no longer with Irrational Games either -- I don't want anyone to think I am speaking for them)
While I was no longer with the company (Irrational) at the time, having a bit of a window into the situation I can safely say it is *nowhere* near as simple a situation as that posting about the wood/coffin/nail makes it out to be, in regards to the relationship between Irrational and LG. Most of the developers didn't have to see the relationship between the two companies, as it was kept out of the way so that the developers could focus on, well, developing. However, the relationship did get extremely strained at times, and definitely was not as onesided as Irrational just unexpectedly pulling out.
Besides, if the advances LG was getting were going to go to Irrational for development (ie, the team was not internal to LG), then the loss of that income was matched by a loss of costs as well, so while they were denied some hypothetical profit, that's the most you can account for in that regard.
From an ex-Irrational and ex-LG programmer...
I, for one, never heard about it until after it happened. Of course, I'm unlikely to be able to fly out to DC (from Dallas, TX) on short notice anyways, but I would have been happy to spread the word to my friends in the area to try and encourage things.
So that brings up two questions that perhaps someone can help with:
1. What websites out there can I use to find these sort of organizations in the future (or is Slashdot sufficient)?
2. What can those of us who cannot practically make it to DC do to help show physical support for this issue?
(Just to wear my bias on my sleeve, I'm a game developer who has been in the biz for about 7 years now).
The meatspace analogy would exactly be the persons responsible for maintaining order in the space of the auction -- the city government, police, etc. You can be certain that if there were a public auction of illegal goods, and someone notified the cops of this but their response was "sorry, we're not responsible", heads would roll.
As someone who makes games for a living, I think that this is an important issue that has to be responded to. While there will always be outlets for pirates to traffic in their illegal goods, aiding and abetting such practices, especially under the guise of electronic freedom, is just encouraging amoral behavior.
One interesting, somewhat related anecdote from longer ago in the games industry: when Ultima Underworld came out for the PC, it had no copy protection. It sold reasonably well, especially for the time. However, it sold around (IIRC) about 1.3 times as many hint books as copies of the game! Somehow, I doubt people were just buying extra copies of the hintbook.
The fact is that we are at a point in the cycle of copying technology such that casual piracy is a big threat to the livelihood of the software developers. As a society, we have to do everything that we can to work against people just looking to steal others' work, lest we lower the quality of generated work overall.