ATTN: spags of all sorts

[Cait M. R.]

I'm a game designer, as some of you no doubt know. And my first game's priorities have changed multiple times. I finally brought the expectations of my ally in design and I to a somewhat reasonable level however, and we want to do an iPhone game first.

Problem is that we lack everything we need. We're just designers.

We badly need a coder (ObjC knowledge required -- blame Apple) and an artist (either versed in extremely low-poly 3D or detailed 2D spritework) as well as a couple musicians -- preferably a celtic violinist/fiddler and a breakbeat/DnB producer. No doubt this is going to get a lot of "what do I get out of it", to which I will answer: your name in the credits and a large percentage (probably like 10%-25% per person, depending on the number of people involved) of the money that we get from sales. We're working literally on a zero-dollar budget, so we have nothing to offer until we make our first sale. Sorry.

Interested parties may contact me via PM. Thanks!

[the other anonymous]

1. Find a video game production company.
2. Pitch your design.
3. Profit.

-toa,
home-brew as in beer

[Cait M. R.]

1. Find a video game production company.
2. Pitch your design.
3. Profit.

-toa,
home-brew as in beer

Profit, and lose creative control over it because I have to satisfy the investors? You don't have a single decrepit braincell in your godforsaken skull, do you? If I wanted to make money making games I'd be working for Epic Games. But I want to have FUN making games I would want to play, so you can eat shit and die.

-- null & void
volatile as in sniper rifle

EDIT:

Sorry about the reaction. I've just heard that exact same suggestion at least 20 times in just the past month, so it's become a split-second gut reaction to scream incoherently at anyone suggesting it. I could go in depth about what an awful idea it is, but I'd rather not bother because it's an entire thread's worth of discussion.

Either way, sorry. That is all.

[the other anonymous]

No, I'm sorry. Creative control can be fun.

1. Hire people to do the work for you.
2. Advertise.
3. Profit!

-toa,
profitable as in speech

[Cait M. R.]

The hiring people is what this thread's for, and I can't seem to find anywhere to advertise that gets me people worth a damn

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So...if a game designer doesn't actually write the game, what precisely does he DO?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So...if a game designer doesn't actually write the game, what precisely does he DO?

Concept.

Null & Void, what my ex used to do when he was looking for programmers to subcontract on a project he was working on was he would either do a Web search for programmers, look at their portfolios, and then approach the ones he liked with a job offer, or he would ask people he'd worked with on other projects for recommendations.

Since you're not a programmer yourself, what you'll need to do is approach programmers with the project and ask for bids. Whatever you do, don't take the lowest bid; programmers are notorious for underestimating the hours they'll need for a project. Expect to go over by half, at least. Lowest bid almost always means less competent programmer, and you'll spend more on your project by the end.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Concept.

By "Concept", do you mean the storyline, etc?  Or just the general idea?

[Cait M. R.]

Concept.

By "Concept", do you mean the storyline, etc?  Or just the general idea?

Nigel is only half-right to begin with. Game designers tend to be more like film directors -- they make the general idea then sit there and make sure everything fits together as it's being made. Generally they're the makers of the gameplay decisions, the writers of the storyline and the people who decide the art direction as well.

In my case I do all that, and then I also do play-testing (of the boring sit here-and-try-to-break-the-game sort as well as the "tweak this to make it more fun" variety), interface design and TRYING to learn the meaty-bits of the process from what the others are doing so I can do them myself next time.

It's a bit on the lazy side, I'll admit, but it's a necessity unless you want a gigantic turd. Since the designer makes sure things fit together, they keep two-three seperate artists from making completely different things and make sure the coder knows he's coding an FPS, not a turn based strategy game.

[Cait M. R.]

As for bidding, Nigel, the zero-dollar budget makes that a bit hard. I guess I'll be building up assets for the engine while I wait to have enough money to grab a programmer the paid-up-front way.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

As for bidding, Nigel, the zero-dollar budget makes that a bit hard. I guess I'll be building up assets for the engine while I wait to have enough money to grab a programmer the paid-up-front way.

You've got the same problem we have with The Project.  Trying to find a way to do this on zero budget ain't gonna work, trust me.  Even if you get it written, good luck with distribution.

[Telarus]

I can offer art skillz. I have Maya, and Photoshop, and am interesting in thing I can put on a resume. Haven't done any low-poly work yet, but I have lots of resources and people @ school I can tap for tutorials, etc, etc.

[Cait M. R.]

I can offer art skillz. I have Maya, and Photoshop, and am interesting in thing I can put on a resume. Haven't done any low-poly work yet, but I have lots of resources and people @ school I can tap for tutorials, etc, etc.

This would be extremely lowpoly, like early days of 3D, because it's for the damn iPhone. Of course, my other idea is highpoly but then just save the animations as sprites and use those, and that might be the better way to go about everything in the end anyway.

Are you good at animation? I have another 3D artist offering their skills but they said they aren't very good at animation. I could have them do props and you do active pieces (characters, fauna, etc), if you can animate, and that'd work perfectly.

[Telarus]

Well, I have some experience animating characters in Maya, but haven't gotten to the class where we build our own rigs yet. My email is telarus(at)gmail.com if you want to email me more specifics.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

As for bidding, Nigel, the zero-dollar budget makes that a bit hard. I guess I'll be building up assets for the engine while I wait to have enough money to grab a programmer the paid-up-front way.

Well, good luck with that, Mr. "Game Designer".