I recall an interview from one of the ID software artists that said "If you sign up with a publisher, all you are getting is a salary to finish your game....the aim at ID is to make money off of our own games..."
My first suggestion would be to write the game itself. In your spare time, on your savings, girlfriend's money, whatever. Then put a demo version up on the internet. If people like it allow them to order the game online. Deliver the full version online too. The cost for doing (excluding your time) is about 25 dollars a month.
As for publicity, aggressively distribute your press releases to each and every game magazine you can think of. Suggest to them that you will cooperate with them for a review, a feature or an interview. Give interesting statistics about ur company. If your game is interesting, they will definitely call you.
This has worked for me cos I have written and published a new animation editor for Maya called Titan
doing things by the way you shake the mouse is not new.
back in 1997, there was a now defunct company called pointix which had a product by the same name (i think). they had patented what they called "glicks". you could run a command or drop a popup menu if u drag the mouse along x or y axis, u could also do a P and a mirror-P.
alias|wavefront (http://www.aliaswavefront.com/, also http://www.billbuxton.com/) has a very useful gesture based menu called "marking menu" in its Power Animator and Maya software. basically u drag in one of the 8 directions (W, E, N, S, NE, NW, SE, SW) at the end of which there is a command. its very nicely implemented. u hold the space bar in any window and drag in the direction. if u persist holding the space bar, the marking menu pops up, so u can select it. this is very useful in the earlier stages when u r learning the menu. when u have become familiar, u just drag along the direction and the command is selected. i think it would be terribly cool if marking menus are implemented in general purpose GUIs.
the grafiti on the palm pda and sensiva (http://www.sensiva.com/) are similar but worthy examples.
the getsture based stuff from lionhead is based on these previous works...whether it advances this significantly, i dont know cos i have not played the game.
One of Extreme's key tenets requires programmers to release a nuts-and-bolts version of its product to the customer first and then continue to build additional features afterward. This immediately remedies the time-to-market problem, and customers wind up with a less buggy product to which features are added as the customer demands.
The customer is part of the problem. You cant expect him to provide the solution
As the designer of the software, its your responsibility to understand the problem and provide the solution.
When I design software, I take this approach:
What features would achieve the goals of the user. At this stage I dont think about how I am going to implement them.
When I have a list of features to work with, I design the user-interface of the program on paper This process takes several weeks to months and continues to evolve during development too.
Build small prototypes with a few important features implemented roughly If they are working decently, you gain confidence. If not, you go back to the drawing board. Either way you can throw the prototype away cos you didnt write the code with all your heart. These are just experiments
Start developing the full project and keep modifying along the way
Stop when you cant program anything new. Revise the written code instead
Maybe most of you know all this, I just tried to summarise what I did to develop my product.
Thanks
I am a visual effects programmer developing software for the film industry for 4 years.
I tell you, if you show this software to the fx companies (the like of ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks et.al), publicly they are going to ask you : "so, whats new?". privately, they are going to laugh at it and list a 1000 required features that is missing in OpenFX.
Even if the features are missing, its okay. Animation production is a slow process. If OpenFX can accelerate it at least 10 times, people will give it a spin. To me, OpenFX is just re-inventing the wheel (nurbs, raytracing, kinematics) and thats not good enough.
Money is important in animation production. If something is free and does at least as good as Maya/Max/Softimage then studios will jump to use it. But if the software is not going to give the quality of FX that we see in the theatres today, money is no object to the studios. They will return to Max/Maya or Softimage.
Slashdot Mirror
who said there are no ads on bbc? millions of times i have watched loan companies, insurers, car manufacturers advertising their wares on it.
hello thad,
do u foresee a day when you have digital actors that use AI/neural networks/fuzzy logic etc to take commands and perform for directors?
the work of natural motion (http://www.natural motion.com) seems heading in that direction!.
I recall an interview from one of the ID software artists that said "If you sign up with a publisher, all you are getting is a salary to finish your game....the aim at ID is to make money off of our own games..."
My first suggestion would be to write the game itself. In your spare time, on your savings, girlfriend's money, whatever. Then put a demo version up on the internet. If people like it allow them to order the game online. Deliver the full version online too. The cost for doing (excluding your time) is about 25 dollars a month.
As for publicity, aggressively distribute your press releases to each and every game magazine you can think of. Suggest to them that you will cooperate with them for a review, a feature or an interview. Give interesting statistics about ur company. If your game is interesting, they will definitely call you.
This has worked for me cos I have written and published a new animation editor for Maya called Titan
doing things by the way you shake the mouse is not new.
back in 1997, there was a now defunct company called pointix which had a product by the same name (i think). they had patented what they called "glicks". you could run a command or drop a popup menu if u drag the mouse along x or y axis, u could also do a P and a mirror-P.
alias|wavefront (http://www.aliaswavefront.com/, also http://www.billbuxton.com/) has a very useful gesture based menu called "marking menu" in its Power Animator and Maya software. basically u drag in one of the 8 directions (W, E, N, S, NE, NW, SE, SW) at the end of which there is a command. its very nicely implemented. u hold the space bar in any window and drag in the direction. if u persist holding the space bar, the marking menu pops up, so u can select it. this is very useful in the earlier stages when u r learning the menu. when u have become familiar, u just drag along the direction and the command is selected. i think it would be terribly cool if marking menus are implemented in general purpose GUIs.
the grafiti on the palm pda and sensiva (http://www.sensiva.com/) are similar but worthy examples.
the getsture based stuff from lionhead is based on these previous works...whether it advances this significantly, i dont know cos i have not played the game.
cheers,
The customer is part of the problem. You cant expect him to provide the solution
As the designer of the software, its your responsibility to understand the problem and provide the solution.
When I design software, I take this approach:
Maybe most of you know all this, I just tried to summarise what I did to develop my product. Thanks
man, i am against this extreme programming cos i want to pick my nose in peace in my cubicle while i am thinking deeply on the problem. nuff said.
dont u guys think ESR has got nothing better to do than write this kind of shit?
and if i read that shit, i am even worse. poojyum
lovely posts all around!
guys, u got to identify yourself and tell me which studios u r working for?!
jag
AC!!!
:)
i never thought u were a maya user!!
are you an animator or a modeler or a texturer or what?
and where do u live? UK?
i have been a avid fan of your posts
i am a maya plugs developer myself and working on a new animation plugin :
check out: http://www.poojyum.com/titan/
jagan.
This is a stunning post my friend.
I am a visual effects programmer developing software for the film industry for 4 years.
I tell you, if you show this software to the fx companies (the like of ILM, Pixar, Dreamworks et.al), publicly they are going to ask you : "so, whats new?". privately, they are going to laugh at it and list a 1000 required features that is missing in OpenFX.
Even if the features are missing, its okay. Animation production is a slow process. If OpenFX can accelerate it at least 10 times, people will give it a spin. To me, OpenFX is just re-inventing the wheel (nurbs, raytracing, kinematics) and thats not good enough.
Money is important in animation production. If something is free and does at least as good as Maya/Max/Softimage then studios will jump to use it. But if the software is not going to give the quality of FX that we see in the theatres today, money is no object to the studios. They will return to Max/Maya or Softimage.
Jagan