Hi, I left my secure job at Sony after 10 years to set up an indie dev studio - It took 2 years to fund and complete our latest game - AMA

If your game is anything like this AMA, I assume you were very enthusiastic about it initially, then lost interest, and eventually emotionally abandoned it altogether.

I have been pretty positive about it for most of the time apart from when we had a dip in progress and I found it tough. If you have enough money to fund the whole dev process, that would be easy, but we had to do work for other studios to bring cash in to help us finish the game. We have been finished for a while now on ios and android - but we need to wait to get the windows phone version out first as we got some funding from Microsoft at the end of the project - they get exclusivity for 90 days

AMA or advertising ?
I dont see any replies here.

I've removed the post until OP starts answering. Thanks for reporting it, everyone.

Thanks - I'm new to reddit, but finally got the hang of it. I thought my post would be scheduled, not just come straight on :)

So far, looks like the latter.

EDIT: wrong again

[deleted]

Thanks Alex. Yes, I think my baptism of fire is over. I didn't expect such a response so quickly. Thanks to everyone that posted.

[deleted]

The 1st game was Sudoku Logic - it was just 2 developers -me and a programmer. It's not a free app so it's not done very well - we did make some money on a deal with Samsung though to get it working with their S-Pen technology - primarily for the Korean market

Hey all - I'm now offline... Thanks for all the posts, it was a fantastic response to my 1st day on Reddit - thanks to you all for taking the time to ask questions. I'll still reply to any questions on this, so feel free to ask away or message me. Thanks again - Andy Gahan (The Pixel Bully)

How hard is it to make a career in gaming in general?

no, there are millions of roles and different places to work. It's also easier than ever to get started. I've written a bunch of books on it and run a free forum on www.3d-for-games.com where we all help each other improve our skills. We even work with universities , getting them valuable experience working on our games as part of their course. Plus if you're skilled and want some experience, I can help people with that too.

Was it easy to get into it when you first did, or are you saying it's easy now? Because from my experiences, it seems damn-near impossible to get into anything now. I graduated from Art Institute of Atlanta in 2012 (I know, I know) with a BFA in Game Art & Design, and have had zero luck getting any gaming-related work. I think my biggest mistake was focusing environments, because a teacher recommended it - he said "everyone wants to do characters, but there is much more to do in environments than characters - yet all I see are character art roles. Also, learning characters and the tools that help more with them (ZBrush omg) seem to easily translate to environments, but not vise versa. Anywho... it seems that if you go indie, or into a smaller studio, you need to know how to do just about every role they may need, because they can't afford to hire someone for each. And if you want to go somewhere big, you need to be incredibly talented in one thing, and decent in relevant areas, but you won't touch those so much. I don't hear a lot of success stories of game art college grads landing jobs easily (I know it shouldn't be easy, but you get my point, right?) or much at all. Also, with studios shutting down like no one's business and all of the available jobs being eaten up by those affected, how are we to compete? Maybe it's my location, I don't know. Atlanta is growing in games, but it's still nothing too special. Big and small studios alike seem to think people from Blizzard or Naughty Dog are going to quit their jobs and go work for them and are extremely stingy on hiring details.

And shit, I wish we had some studios around here who gave a damn about us when I was in school. Sadly, no one likes the Ai name, and everyone stayed away from us and flocked to SCAD instead.

So basically, a question, and a long rant, maybe you might have something to say about.

Oh, and as far as my work goes towards this; I wouldn't say I'm a bad artist, but I'm no god-send either. I think I'm good enough for a smaller studio, at least, though, sept I lack the skills to perform every single job title they may have.

I'd love to have a look at your work. I'll be completely honest and maybe able to help you.

[deleted]

You've got some really nice work there - don't be disheartened. PM me and we can discuss how I can maybe help you out, and get some experience on some games for your CV.

How many years have you been in the gaming industry? How does working in an indie studio pay comparing to working in a big corporation?

hello all - I've been in the games industry for over 20 years - I left a well paid job at Sony top earn nothing. Without funding you have to support yourself until the game ships and starts to make money - hopefully I'll make some money this year!

How did you get your start? What suggestions do you have to people wanting to get started in the industry?

I was in college and some developers came in looking for a couple of guys to work over summer. I jumped at the chance. At the end of summer they offered me a job. I took a year out from attending university and it turned into 22 :) To get started, pick a role you fancy doing, talk to me (or another professional) and they'll point you in the right direction. Buy some books, watch some videos, and get started. Use engines like Unity, and you'll be developing games in no time, or helping out on them. It's easier now than it's ever been.

I'm sure this is a loaded question, but what is the biggest downside to working in the AAA industry?

The biggest downside to AAA development is the lack of control or say you have. I was pretty senior when I left so I got to put a lot of my ideas in, but as a junior artist, in some studios, you get next to no input. On the plus side, it can be stable pay and you get to work on massive products.

I know a lot of people who are unhappy working on AAA titles. There is a lot of pressure on you, some companies 'CRUNCH' for 6 months at a time and they expect 60+ hours a week, and sometimes 7 days a week.

No-one wants to try to be creative in that sort of an atmosphere. A lot just end up putting the hours in reluctantly and slacking off as much as they can, which slows the development down even more!

What was your biggest "road bump" (problem) in developing a game?

Cash was the biggest issue. It's easy to develop games when you have lots of cash - it's a whole different story when you run out. A lot of small teams hit this problem. They get together, start a game, run out of cash, have to get jobs, the whole thing falls apart and there is a half finished game that never gets completed.

Where can i play one of your games?

OK, at Evolution Studios, my last games were the MotorStorm series on Playstation 3. You can play Sudoku Logic on iOS, but you'll have to wait for Formula Force Racing - you can see it here though... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGiI8cgP3Hw It'll be out this month on Windows phone, then all mobile platforms 90 days after that. Find us on facebook and I'll send a load of free copies out to you guys if you want them :)

Makes me happy that you support Windows Phone! My favorite OS so far :)

drop me a message - I'll sort you out a free copy - you could be the very first person to play it as it's currently hidden on the windows phone store waiting to launch :)

Just did my good sir!

remind me - what was I gonna do for you? thanks Andy

I'm guessing...the game? O.o

[deleted]

sorry, I was reading the mail with no history :)

What do you like most about working in an indie studio, and what did you like most about working for a major studio?

working for yourself is great - the freedom is fantastic - it's tough to keep everything going and keeping it all going. Cash flow is everything in a small business, and when you run out everything stops - some projects stop and never get restarted.

What did you do for health insurance when you left your secure job?

For health insurance - i'm based in the UK, so most of our healthcare is free on our National Health Service - which is really good.

which is really good

As a Brit I laughed

:) well it can be if you take the A&E out of the equation :)

I checked the page but I can't see any trailer or information about your game.

Which page? you can see Formula Force Racing on youtube here... www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGiI8cgP3Hw

Why did you choose such an uncommon os such as Windows phone to be exclusive on? If you are looking to be successful you need sales numbers, or ads in your game with a premium version ad free.

It was only as we managed to get some funding. It's been tough not releasing on iOS and Android - especially as we hit a load of problems ion windows phone. I think we're done now though, and the funding will help us kick off the next project.

1) What are your incentives for the developers? Did you offer stock options?

2) How big is the remote team? What was your strategy in terms of project management? I'm curious on what was your approach in terms of doing game development for a small startup.

My incentives were pay, to begin with - Formula Force Racing is a pretty big project for a small developer, so my team got lots of work out of it. I've taken all the risks though, so no stock options as yet. I'm the only person who's not made any money so far, but the project belongs to me. I'd like to form longer lasting relationships with stocks and stuff, but it's a tough decision to carve off part of a project to someone - especially if you then fall out - check out Phil Fish and Fez as a good example of a partnership going sour and the problems it causes!!!

The remote team can be as big as I like - or can afford - I always make sure I can pay for any work before it starts, so there are no problems with freelancers - they submit an invoice and I pay it the same day. I know how much of a chore it is waiting for payment on work you did months ago. As for project management - I keep it simple. I have an Excel file with all the work and all the estimates (costs) on a and we decide if we can do it as a team. If it looks like it'll be tough, we usually rethink it all.

Do you have your personal office or do you work from home?

I am lucky enough to have a good sized home office where we can meet if necessary. But most people prefer to work from home, so that's how we usually operate. We're all very professional, so we don't need to be watched, and we communicate through the day on Skype.

I'm doing game dev on a strictly hobby level. I'm a software engineer by day, so I'm acutely aware of feature creep. This is something I'm struggling with on my current project (which I hope to release into obscurity in the various app stores) how big is big enough and how big is too big, and how do you tell the difference?

For us, how big is enough depends on what we are trying to be as good as. My target for Formula Force Racing was Real Racing 3 by EA - it's an awesome game. Now, visually, I don't think we quite got there, but with the funds and time we had I think we've done a great job. I believe our game is more fun and more accessible than theirs though, which was my main aim. You need to make sure you can finish your game without getting bored, hating it or it never getting done. Make a plan. 6 months, 1 year, etc and stick to it - choose your release date - stick to that. Now plan whatever you can that fits into the time scale - cut stuff out that doesn't fit. take it seriously and work out how many hours a day you need to be working on it. It can be tough if you set deadlines - but if you don't, it'll run and run....

Any suggestions for someone who loves video games on ways they can develop or write story lines for games as a hobby? How I would do so or where to start as far as animation or design?

buy some books on what you're interested in. subscribe to blogs. Get involved in mod's or talk to some friendly game developers like me on some tips and advice. If you put ideas up on www.3d-for-games.com/forum me and the group will give you honest feedback - and don't worry, no-one is gonna tell you anything is bad - we'll just suggest things that might impriove your work :)

What did your family/friends said about about your idea of going indie?

Were they supportive or were they like "you're crazy you'll end up broke"?

Yeah, leaving a well paid job was tough. Some friends and family thought I was mad. If it's successful though, even moderately, it'll be well worth it. If it's not? Well, I'm already trying a new approach to development, and it seems to be working pretty well on the new game.

Congratulations on your success! Starting out on your own is daunting, and it's always inspiring to hear of success stories on your own.

Question for you: how did you guys handle working remotely? Did you guys split up work, or did you use remote tools to carry on design conversations?

Well, it could be a massive flop!!! We think we've made a good game. My son and his friends love it, which is great. To see them jumping up and down on the settee whilst playing, shouting, OMG look at that, Awesome, etc - its cool. It shows that we got it right.

Working remotely we use asset server in unity which gives us source control as well as the ability to see what each other is submitting. We use Skype a lot, share screens, chat. And some of us live quite close so we meet up when we can too.

Do you plan on becoming a larger studio in the future or staying exclusive to Microsoft for a long time?

No long term exclusives. This one is just for 90 days. If they wanted to do a deal for an Xbox One game, then that would be different. It would be great to do a FANTASTIC version of Formula Force Racing that really exploits the new generation of consoles.

May I have a job?

Drop me a line - I'm sure you can help somewhere. Pay? Well that's a different story :)

Please no micro transactions.... please

There is 1 micro transaction in the game - it's an 'unlock all' which opens up all championships, all vehicles and all car paint - it's set to the lowest price it can be. This is just in case people want everything now, or are struggling on the later championships, but want to unlock the hidden new race tracks.

Okay that's good, will the game cost money or do you run off of advertisements?

It will cost money - something like 1.49 - although I will be doing lots of price drops and free weekends and stuff.

exclusive on windows phone

The new Windows Phone isn't as terrible of a platform as it used to be, but it has almost no market share and I can't imagine ever wanting a Windows phone over Android or iOS.

Are you worried that exclusivity to a platform with only 3% market share has made your game dead on arrival?

Or does it not matter because you already got paid by Microsoft so you don't care if no one ever plays your game?

Hopefully on a small marketplace we can be a big deal. We've worked really hard on the game and would really like it to do well on all platforms, windows phone especially. Microsoft are working really hard to get developers on board. I believe that 60% of the projects pitched in the UK on their AppCampus funding campaign have been funded - I don't think any other platform holder is doing anything like that. They are offering between 20,000 and 70,000 euros in free, don't want any money back funding, which is very cool. I think the pot started at 18 million euros. Nokia are a partner, you can go over to Finland for training and stuff to working with the Nokia and Microsoft guys.

Do you have a windows phone? if so, drop me a line and I'll sort out a copy of the game for you for free :)

Do you feel like your game will do better being exclusive to windows mobile? Not an expert but I though using windows mobile was the equivalent of voting for the libdems

BOOM! well the Lib Dem's are kinda in power!!! Its only for 90 days - we'll be out on all mobile formats plus Mac and Windows 8 90 days after the Windows Phone launch.

Whats your opinion on the indie market now? How does the PC and PS4/XBone compare for indie titles in your opinion?

It's never been easier to get into development, but all the great free games that you can get have really de-valued the games. Yes $60 is a lot to pay for a big game, but $2 isn't for a mobile one. Its crazy that some people won't spend $2 on a game, but will buy a $5 coffee.

There are a lot of indies working on Xbox One ate the moment - I've seen 65 developers announced - it may be even more now. PC gaming has always been accessible due to the hardware, but Microsoft are really working hard with their ID@Xbox program. And with engines like Unity - it couldn't be easier to get started and published.

A lot of small developers need to start to do better games in my opinion. The amount of clones for games like flappy birds and 2048 is ridiculous. I think the app stores should help to protect copyright and ideas. It's shameful that a game can be copied, even before it's released and sold on the same store.

How did you get into gaming? Path? How competitive is the gaming industry?

I fell into it. I was in college and some developers came in looking for a couple of guys to work over summer. I jumped at the chance. At the end of summer they offered me a job. I took a year out from attending university and it turned into 22 :) The gaming industry is as competitive as any other. it's a great career though. The games market however is very competitive. Most games don't make much money at all.

I assume you liked Sony considering how long you were there. Would you say it was worth it? I'm employed by them as well (in a different industry) and it's been an extremely positive experience so far overall.

Yes, it was a great place to work. I spent 10 years at Evolution Studios. Sony bought Evolution Studios, but the work life stayed pretty much the same. When I was working on the WRC games, I got to travel the world photographing the rally tracks and drivers which was fantastic. The MotorStorm games were great too - really good top be working on launch titles for consoles and stuff. I got to the point that I wanted to have a crack at game dev on my own - so, far, it's the best experience I've had working. The freedom is really good, but there are obvious financial down sides. So far it's good, and fingers cross it always will be :)

Good luck to you! Pixel Bully looks like it will do well. Did you ever do any work with Sony Online Entertainment? Planetside 2 might have the highest learning curve of any shooter I've ever seen, such a cool/fun/difficult game.

I'll have to have a look at that - thanks for the tip.

No, I didn't really work with SOE.

What is the most important skill an audio student considering a career in video game audio should have?

I guess while you're still studying, it would have to be to be able to talk to developers and get an understanding of what they are looking for.

PM me and we can have a chat offline about the audio issues I had for Formula Force Racing, and also what we're looking to do with the new game. I'm more than happy for you to get involved if you like.

Same goes for any other students looking to get into the games industry - PM me and I'll help where I can.

Enthusiasm and passion are most important in my opinion. Get involved, wherever you can - I'm working with a fantastic short film with a lot of great industry professionals (www.milafilm.com), just through chatting with an animator on twitter - who turned out to be the director of the short :)

Favorite game on the Spectrum?

Jet Set Willy or Chucky Egg :)

The biggest downside to AAA development is the lack of control or say you have. I was pretty senior when I left so I got to put a lot of my ideas in, but as a junior artist, in some studios, you get next to no input.

On the plus side, it can be stable pay and you get to work on massive products.

sorry, I'm new to reddit - I think I've sussed out replying properly now - apologies :)

How did you fund over 2 years of dev? Seems like alot of money would be needed without any coming in.

Yes, it can be tough. We did a fair bit of work for a few other companies which brought money in (race tracks, characters, models, cars, etc). I pumped all the profits back into the company to keep the game driving forwards. It can be stressful at times, but you just need to find solutions to the problems as they come up - there are usually a few options. I decided that I'm going to do this from now on regardless of what happens. If I fail at something, I'll just have to work double hard, or double smart to make sure that failure doesn't happen again.

The 1st game was Sudoku Logic - it was just 2 developers -me and a programmer. It's not a free app so it's not done very well - we did make some money on a deal with Samsung though to get it working with their S-Pen technology - primarily for the Korean market

Why did you leave Sony? Was it the pay or lack of job creativity or something else?

I wanted a new challenge. I'd spent 6 years or so doing MotorStorm games and the same problems coming up time and time again was frustrating. Working at Sony/Evolution Studios was great, they are a very talented team and I made some great friends there. I'm really looking forwards to Drive Club coming out. It was early in production when I left, so it'll be good to see it finished.

hello all - I've been in the games industry for over 20 years - I left a well paid job at Sony top earn nothing. Without funding you have to support yourself until the game ships and starts to make money - hopefully I'll make some money this year!

If this new game you are developing is successful, what other dream game do you think you will make?

I'd love to take Formula Force Racing to Xbox One. I might need a break from it though 1st as I've been looking at it for 2 years. We have a new arcade shooter in prototype at the mo, which is completely different and a welcomed break.

What made you think that signing an "exclusive" deal with Microsoft would help you ? Since Windows phones are <5% of the market.

It was only as we managed to get some funding. It's been tough not releasing on iOS and Android - especially as we hit a load of problems ion windows phone. I think we're done now though, and the funding will help us kick off the next project.

Guessing marketing isn't your speciality...?

lol - well I have to start getting good at it. Windows Phone has opened a few doors for us and we're a registered Xbox One developer, so hopefully there will be an Xbox One version of Formula Force Racing off the back of the phone deal :)

Hey, I'll be glad if you can answer my query..
I have no technical know-how regarding game development, but I am currently in a situation wherein it is my responsibility to hire a few mobile game developers.
The task would be to finish 3 mobile games every 3 months (Arcade games, shooting games etc. ). How should I go about making a team? (How many people can execute a game in the said time frame?) What would be the decisive parameters to hire a mobile-game developer?

Thats a really tall order!

3 games every 3 months... thats 1 game per month for a "few" mobile game devs...

You will need more than a "few" to make anything quality at that rate.

A good 1/3rd of your time should be tweaking the game, making it fun, and enjoyable... Fixing that little frustrating bug, or making that tweak to the currency system. Maybe change the skill stack of a player ect.

I completely agree with blackley1, except I think you need even more time for polish.

I just wrapped up on a sixteen week project developing a mobile game for a children's museum. We were a team of six: a producer/designer, an artist, a tech artist/programmer, two more programmers specializing in database construction and a UI programmer. We spent 6 weeks designing and iterating until we had what we thought would be the final product, and then we spent 10 weeks polishing and tweaking. I should mention we were play testing designs starting on week 2. Trust me, this still did not feel like enough time.

If you really want a schedule like that, you need to structure your teams well, making sure each team has the skills it needs to make the game it is working on. I'd say bare minimum a designer, an artist, a programmer, and a sound designer (sound is so effing important!). If you can double up, get another artist or programmer. For this project, I'd argue for teams of six, with everyone able to wear multiple hats. On some level you will also need someone to handle production for these teams to streamline their process. Depending on the size of the game you want (and if you want a game a month, they WILL be small games) you need to work multiple teams simultaneously on a revolving cycle (check out how Telltale developed the "Walking Dead" games). You should have another small team for solely for play testing (you may think you know what's fun, but you never really find out until you put your game into a user's hands...). And you will need to continue streamlining your process as you go, finding out where the kinks are and straightening them out. And no matter what you plan, expect EVERYTHING to take 35% longer than you budgeted. In my experience this rule is recursive: if your plan takes a 35% buffer into account, the actual project will take 35% longer than that. At least.

Small teams mean small budgets, but they also mean BIG interpersonal issues. There's no place to hide on a team of 6 (as opposed to AAA teams that number in the triple digits), so if you don't pull your weight the whole project immediately suffers. Similarly, if your artist and your programmer can't get along, production will suffer. You need people who are committed, cooperative, positive, patient, but most of all self-motivated and honest with their team. With this tight schedule you don't have time to screw around... There's a lot more emphasis on initiative when you have a small team, and you will want to hire some veteran talent to lead this team.

And on top of that, you need to be doubly sure of your hires in a small team. If you have to loose a programmer in mid development on a big title, the sixty other programmers can pick up the slack over the next 16 months of production until you find a new hire. Loosing a member of a small team with no backups means production can be completely halted while you restaff...

I don't know your situation, but I think a better course of action for you is to plan for and develop one mobile game on a quick time table just to see if this is even possible for you.

Okay, I'm actually working myself into an anxious frenzy just thinking about your task at hand. If you really want to make this happen, do some more research, talk to some more people, and look at the schedules or post-mortems for games you've played to see exactly how big of a thing you are jumping into. Check out Gamasutra.com, they have a great post-mortem section, and some awesome articles about game development. And good luck!

great reply

yes, small quick games, might not be of a high quality - unless the developer is using code they've done before.

This is a pretty big question, so I'd be happy to discuss further offline if you like. The best thing to do is to recruit experienced developers with a track record of the type of game you're looking for. Next, create a good brief, so they know exactly what you want, and so they can't deliver any old crud and expect paying. Have milestones attached to payments, so you can abort the project if it's not going well.

I can help you with this for sure if you need more info

[deleted]

We will be out on iOS, Android, Balckberry and probably Mac and Windows too. the exclusivity is only for 90 days after release.

[deleted]

I lived off my wife's salary and some savings. We did outsource work for other companies during development to help fund everything too which brought some cash in. If you do something like this with no savings, or worse debt, you'll probably fail. Unless that is you do it part time, after your day job. You'll need to find people to work with that have the skills you don't. It's possible to get people to collaborate (work for free) but it's tough to make those relationships work, especially over a longer period. Far too often, someone ends up losing out or getting bored and leaving. This can be a game ender if they have half of the rights. If you have any debts, try to pay them all off before you start a proper business.

You quit Sony to pursue your dream of making a phone game that's exclusive on windows phones.

No - I quit Sony to set up a dev studio to make games. The latest game - Formula Force Racing is only exclusive to windows phone for 90 days - then it'll be on all mobile formats and Mac and Windows too.

I think there's a spelling mistake on your games page: instead of "coming soon" it says "comming soon"

thanks, I'll get that changed :)

Are you forty?

yes, why? :)

For health insurance - i'm based in the UK, so most of our healthcare is free on our National Health Service - which is really good.

How long until you fail to answer a question and piss off reddit and cause another 'Rampage' style backlash against all your hard work?

sorry - I'm new to Reddit - I didn't realise that I would be approved so quickly and popped out - apologies. Hopefully I'm doing better now