How do you fund that game prototype?

https://gamediscoverability.substack.com/p/how-do-you-fund-that-game-prototype

by polm23 • 5 years ago

51 24 5 years ago

gamediscoverability.substack.com

yetihehe2• 5 years ago

TL;DR: by having some free time, saved up funds (or "lottery" like kickstarter) and then just doing it.

It's like with prototypes in any other area. You have idea, you either convince someone that it's good (typically with alredy working prototype, which precludes funding for prototypes) or use your own time/funds. I wish there could be other way. Maybe someday UBI will give us that.

faeyanpiraat• 5 years ago

It might be controversial, but are you sure the current way is wrong?

If you did not have to consider financial viability of a project, then more people would make more random stuff, which of course would produce more useful stuff, because the sample size increases, but there would also be more useless garbage.

The question is whether and in what direction/magnitude the signal to noise ratio would change in the UBI scenario.

yetihehe2• 5 years ago

It might be controversial, but are you sure the current way is wrong?

No, current way is the most optimal I can think of in current situation. There are better ways, but not widely implementable currently.

As for more garbage - yes, there would be more noise, but ALSO more signal (in my humble opinion). Signal in this case is useful things, which would be multiplied by usability, which is a net win for me.

tubularhells2• 5 years ago

These privilege bashing articles are really cringe. At what point do we call this sexism/racism?

angrais• 5 years ago

Can you provide some examples from the article where sexism and racism occurs? I'm not seeing it

xu_ituairo• 5 years ago

Up to you whether you think this is racist, but the article does invoke generalizations about race and gender through this quote here:

[To be honest] I think most local white dudes don't think of a prototype as something they "funded". They ”just made it” because they had time, space and hardware. Did their other job/parents covering tuition/lack of dependents to support/etc allow that? Yeah, but they can't see how it paid.”

Personally, I imagine class or wealth has more to do with being able to bootstrap a game than skin color. And I imagine the barriers to entry have been lowering steeply.

wtf_is_up• 5 years ago

white man bad

tobr• 5 years ago

“Privilege bashing”? Christ, how can it be “bashing” to have a candid discussion about why some people are able to turn their passions into a business, while others can’t? Your reasoning is dangerously close to “the real racism is suggesting that racism would ever be a factor in anything”.

Tade02• 5 years ago

Because more often than not it misses the mark - heavily at that.

The article mentions skin tone, but doesn't go too deep into why that might influence things - just assumes that this is the case.

Meanwhile, as an eastern European, I see typical examples of how social class influences one's options.

To clarify my point: we're predominantly white over here and yet experience the same kind of problems, which leads me to think that it's probably not skin tone, over which Americans left and right seem to be so fixated, but other things.

Yes, there's racism - that's abundantly clear. But there's also poverty, inequality and an associated lack of access to education. Maybe we would have made more progress as a species if we stopped focusing on easily identifiable features?

smoe• 5 years ago

I agree with you, but in my opinion, articles like this could generally do a better job separating between privilege and the ridiculous amount of work and commitment it can take to make it in art, especially as an independent.

Anecdotally, from the people I know making a living (so not being rich, just at least getting by fully on their own) as independents in music, sound design/engineering, illustration and writing have one thing in common: A 10+ year grind behind them working (either to earn money or practicing) 16 hour days, over weekends, almost no vacations or going out, investing everything in materials instead, living in tiny apartments or with their parents, taking shitty day jobs to earn enough to eat, etc.

Where the privilege comes in, is when due to ones socioeconomic status they can't make the above sacrifices even though they would have the necessary perseverance to get through.

From my perspective, we definitely need to do better pretty much globally in providing more equal opportunity within societies. But even if this aspect wouldn't exist, people are also just too naive about how much hard work is involved in these types of careers no matter how passionate or talented they think they are. For every one "white dude" that made it, there are probably thousands that didn't, because they spent most their free time playing video games and smoking weed but are blaming it on something else.

jimmySixDOF• 5 years ago

It's a Chicken-or-the-Egg problem. You need talent and resources to develop your Prototype but those talents and resources improve dramatically if there is a Prototype to play with. Catch 22. The Makers Dilemma. A microscale version of what Peter Thiel calls "Zero to One" - as in getting from nothing now to something new. The post is based on a great tweet thread full of inspiring stories of grit and determination; but as far as starting up anything in any person's garage anywhere, you may just as well be saying that water is wet.

Danieru• 5 years ago

talent and resources to develop your Prototype

Developing the required talent and resources is best done working a day job. Go work as a cog in a game making team, they'll cover your weaknesses and build your strengths. Attempting to make a game while also "making your skills" will result all early work being vastly interior to later work.

If getting employment on a team is impossible that points to a bigger issue: you need at least 1 skill to get hired but you need 12+ skills to finish a game. Short of devs in locations without studios, most developers should start their career making portfolio pieces to get a job.

Too often people think of Indie dev as an intro into the industry: but that is like starting a restaurant to "break into" the food service industry.

Impossible• 5 years ago

It's reasonable to expect someone who is new to the industry to make a small game, so a better analogy might be expecting someone to be a decent home cook before getting a good service job. I agree though when you start talking about game dev as a business. Although people start successful businesses from cooking in their home, it's highly unlikely that they'll get it off the ground, let alone be successful.

sokoloff• 5 years ago

Same way you fund any other 5-to-9 creative micro-business or passion. If you’re an unknown, no one is lining up to pay you to develop a prototype of your game idea, any more than they would if you were getting started in fine art or music.

How do other people fund their band practice or painting or pottery passion? If you already have a computer and can program, your prototype probably costs less money and time than what those endeavors cost those artists.

failrate• 5 years ago

Self fund your prototype. Do not spend a lot of money on programmers, designers, and artists. Time box your prototype. No more than a year.

mathgladiator• 5 years ago

I'll provide my answer: work in high stress low supply work and build capital. I've spent a decade in infrastructure. Beyond the ego lift of working on big things, it's not fun work.

The good news is the grind is open to all skin colors! Slap that pager on your hip and prepare for a rough night!

Once you have enough capital, you can leverage the market to provide an infinite funding stream. PLUS, as a disciplined engineer, you have the highest cost skill along with the ability to not make mistakes.

The risk is that you may find yourself giving into avarice and enjoying that high income stream from the enterprise market.

How do you fund that game prototype?

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