I quit my tech job 3 years ago and opened my own game studio. Our game is officially launching next week and now I am working to help other game developers pursue their passion. AMA!

What do you think about post secondary education? Like University and college for aspiring game developers?

If you had the choice and you knew you were going to be a game developer, then would you have still gotten a BA? Would you choose a different program?

Hello, thanks for your question! My attitude towards post-secondary education has changed over the years and from the time I went to university to now the programs have changed.

I think getting an education in this field is very important for many reasons, the type of analytical, business, technical, creative, thinking needed is best suited to education from a post-secondary environment.

When I went to school there were no "game design", "game development", etc programs you went into a general program and then had to learn the rest on your own. With today's program offerings, I think post-secondary is a great choice for getting into this field.

With that said, I find that most post-secondary education does not teach students about the reality of business. If you're looking to open your own studio you will need to know things like how to do taxes? How do you manage cash flow? How do I negotiate the best possible rates or contracts? How do I handle employee conflicts or issues that can arise? How do I set non-toxic, inclusive policies? etc. I find post-secondaries teach students how to be "workers" not business owners (at least in my limited experiences)

As well as focussing on industry-specific knowledge such as game engines like Unreal or Unity it requires those wanting to be in this industry to learn tech on their own. So as with many things today, it requires extra work "a side hustle" if you will allow it. This industry changes and there are so many things to learn. I think university helps but it isn't the only thing you need.

TL;DR

I think university is important as a part of a balanced game developer's career, but only a part.

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Thanks for your question!

omg thanks for this thoughtful reply. One more thing, how did you learn most of the stuff you know about business?

I learned by working in the field and observing how a successful mentor did it. Don't be afraid to learn from mentors or advisors! It's really one of the keys to success in this industry. I talk with my mentors at least 1x a month and I have one or 2 for each of the important parts of my business.

That makes sense I always get worried about messaging my mentors too much or being a nuisance but its nice to know that talking once a month is normal.

Thanks for your answers! Best of luck on your launch by the way!

Thank you, and don't worry about messaging your mentors or anyone really, your persistence and intelligence will impress people and open doors. But definitely learn where the boundaries are! I've stepped over them a few times and it isn't pretty lol. I wish you the best of luck in you endeavors and write me back when you've achieved your success! I'd be happy to be the first to congratulate you :)

What are some technologies that you feel brought the most value or progress to the development of your game, and what are some technologies that turned out to be time wasters or dead ends? -- Pick anything you like, from tools to programming languages to paradigms.

Hello there!

Ok so I'd say the game engines is a definitely one of them, we used Unity for our current game but the same principles apply to UE as well. The Game engines include so many elements such as design paradigms, asset design restrictions, how to implement various points elements of your game.

One big element that worked well for us was the ability to create our own tool in Unity that allowed for the game designers to change aspects of the game (such as balancing) without going into the code. There are limitations to creating your tool but when something like a regeneration spell healing for too much caused and for 30 minute boss battles... well it helped to have that tool readily available to us.

A dead-end for us - state machine designs for A.I. implementation in Unity. Not that it was bad it just didn't work with our implementation. We use some "nifty" A.I algorithms to help the AI learn player actions that we found extremely cumbersome in unity state machine. Really it's meant more for NPC actions and enemy actions in a game.

Hopefully that answers your question, and thank you for discussing with me, it was great to reflect on some of things that worked / didn't work :D

Thank you very much for putting so much thought and reflection into answering my question! Yes, this is really an inspiration for me. You totally understood what I was asking for, that's really great.

No problem, thank you for taking the time to ask your question! Really appreciate it.

How do you even start to get into game developing? Or rather how do you grow skills that are useful to development with no experience? Like I'm just some 29 year old municipal laborer is it even reasonable for me to think about trying to learn/get into game dev?

Hello and thank you for question!

Being 29 and a municipal laborer doesn't hold you back at all. I was older than you when I started my studio, Warren Buffett was 56 when he made his first Billion, age is just a number. As for the work situation, read the story of ConcernedApe the guy who made Stardew Valley. He was working in retail (I think it was Starbucks but don't quote me on that I could be wrong) and he built his dream game on his own time over 4 years. It's one of the biggest indie hits of all time.

If you are passionate about game development then don't let doubts hold you back. You have to at least give it reasonable shot.

how to start: What do you want to do in Game development? Do you want to be a producer? Do you want to code? Do you want to be an artists? etc.

One of the simplest ways to start is by downloading one of the tools and doing the tutorials. Unity and Unreal both have awesome tools. Watch YT for lots of tutorials on how to do what you want to do, Then join a game development community on Reddit and start asking more questions.

Really it all starts with you taking the step to do it. One path is to start after work and weekends learning. Once you have become proficient enough, make a small game on your own. Then make another and another. Publish them to a store (Steam, iTunes, GooglePlay, etc). Focus on something interesting 1 aspect that is really cool about your game and do that part very well (almost like a demo).

Then you have to options to start building your own game under your own studio or to start applying to studios in a junior role. The path is a struggle to be honest but if you enjoy it and learn from it, it's really rewarding.

Another option is to take courses online, this will help you learn in a more structure environment and can help you build a network of like minded people that perhaps you could start a studio with?

So yes it's reasonable for you to think you could try it. Try it with very little investment, and make sure you can sustain yourself, then decide if you can make the jump to a professional. Many studios are looking for so many positions if you have the right skills. I'd even say go look at a studio you want to work for see what their job postings are looking for and learn that technology. Build a demo with it, and then apply. (keeping in mind that AAA generally want people who've worked on triple AAA)

Hopefully that answered your question. There is no harm in trying, even if you don't like it, or don't continue. Trying is the only way to know for sure.

Warren Buffett was 56 when he made his first Billion, age is just a number. As for the work situation, read the story of ConcernedApe the guy who made Stardew Valley. He was working in retail (I think it was Starbucks but don't quote me on that I could be wrong) and he built his dream game on his own time over 4 years.

You're leaving out the part that he'd just graduated from college with a computer science degree and worked on Stardew to add to his portfolio for job searching. He also had a lot of experience with music and art as a hobby growing up. He didn't develop all the skills needed for his game within those 4 years you mentioned. It was a lifetime of effort, and the belief that anyone can start from nothing and get to that level within a few years is unrealistic.

Also, Warren Buffet had a net worth of $1 million at age 30 (equal to ~$10 million today) which I don't think just anyone can accomplish from nothing. I understand you're trying to motivate them, but I think you should use more attainable examples so expectations aren't so high.

Thanks for your comment!

I used those examples to inspire me into what I'm doing today, do I expect to be as successful as either ConcernedApe or WarrenBuffett? I do not, but I still aspire to their level. It's all about stepping stones to success, "Shoot for the Stars" and all that. If we don't aspire to be the best and only the "attainable" then I don't believe we put in the effort we should. Let's not misconstrue aspirations vs. what's the next attainable "step" in the path to success. I've also been fortunate enough of achieving life long goals in my previous work, only to be disenchanted when I got there not knowing what I was going to do next due to my aspirations not being high enough.

So no I think the examples are well worth mentioning. You've clarified them even further so thank you for that!! We may not all be ConcernedApe.. but if we work on specific parts of the game, have great parnter coders, artists or sound people, they can make and deliver a game which many people never do! It's possible to achieve something great, even if it isn't the next Stardew Valley.

Aspiring to be the best is not setting expectations.. it's looking at what's possible and saying I will do my best to constantly improve.

Thank you for your comment again!

Which kinds of gamers would you say would most enjoy your upcoming game?

I've enjoyed many of the same games you have, and the concept sounds promising. If executed well, your game could be a game changer for the (currently somewhat struggling) RPG genre. I hope it will make good on that promise, and do well!

Hi there, Thanks for your question!

I'd say gamers that enjoyed retro rpgs would like it the most. This is our first game as a studio, it isn't a game-changer (yet) we are learning. It's a fun 10 hour RPG that has a cool AI that changes things in the game. If we are successful we hope to continue to iterate on this genre and really make something crazily different. We already have designs for a much larger game changer game for this series. This is our first step on our way to that.

Keep in mind that RPGs are the most expensive and difficult to make of the games, it needs a story, graphics, gameplay, everything. Usually, it requires a lot of iteration to get the game right. Look at Final Fantasy as an example compare the first one to VII remake. It takes time to do it right, but when it's done right it's magic.

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Thanks again!

That makes a lot of sense. Good to see you're in it for the long haul.

Best of luck to your team!

Thank you kindly. I will pass on your words to the team and I wish you a ton of luck as well!

How long did it take for you to open the game studio? What did you have to do?

Hello and thanks for your question!

My history is a little odd I didn't get into game development in a "typical" way. I started out as a software developer, moved to project management for professional services, got a "lucky" break to get into a studio, learned the craft as a PM, then moved to produce.

So I learned how a studio ran based on another studio that took about 5 years. Then one day after having earned that company a few million dollars, I realized I could do this on my own.

I incorporated my studio and applied for government funding (I'm from Canada and we have highly competitive programs that allow game developers to fund their projects with help from the government). I put all the knowledge I had gained into one application and won. We have won a few and lost a few.

The MOST important part about this: It comes with highs and lows. Don't go crazy spending your money on the highs... and don't give up on the lows. When I say don't give up, at the lowest points we had to come up with new ideas, and think how we could change "lemons into lemonade". (Sorry for that reference).

It's about keeping a balanced approach and looking for solutions to what seem like company ending problems. There are times I said to myself I'm just going to shut this down. Yet I'm still here.

The next important part, Imposter syndrome it's real and gets to most of us. Don't let that feeling bring any of us down or cloud judgment.

And one more: There is a purveying attitude in new indies that "my idea" is the next big thing and people want to keep their ideas quiet. While it is important to protect IP (with NDA's, etc) Asking for help, discussing with others in the industry, and forming partnerships are how this industry succeeds.

so to summarize:

1) Get experience

2) Learn, Learn, Learn

3) Figure out the cashflow, the best you can

4) Don't try to build outside too far outside your means (2 people do not build an MMO like WoW or ESO)

5) Keep balanced in your decisions.

6) Don't let fear, stubbornness, or commitment to a singular game or idea hold you back. Be willing to change, adapt, and survive.

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Thank you for the question!

Thanks for this! I always found starting businesses a tricky thing to do especially in the creative industry since there's no clear path to take. It's just as you said imposter syndrome has probably been the biggest factor that's been stopping me from moving forward more so when I see all the amazing artists in my industry. Hoping I can produce my own studio eventually.

No worries, I completely understand. If you have put in the time and effort to be an artist, then do not worry. Art is very subject everyone likes different things, and everyone's style is different. Looking at an incredible artists works is inspiring but doesn't define you or your work. There are a ton of games out that are super successful without the "best graphics". Lean into your strengths and push your style. Then your studio can build around that or you can add more artists to either diversify or specialize (or both). Good luck on your endeavours!

Thanks for your advice! I'm going to just push myself forward one step at a time. Much appreciated and best of luck on your future projects.

Thank you very much and best of luck to you as well!

"lemons into lemonade"

Bugs into features? I kid, I kid. Thanks very much for these AMAs!

LOL I've seen it happen in a positive way many times... but also the negative haha, Thank you for stopping by to talk with me today!

I know I'm late to the party but what can I do to support you guys?

Hi PrimetimeDanny!
The number one way to support us is by playing our game and leaving a constructive review. Making a game is already one big task but getting people to play your game is a whole other task. Reviews help us immensely by showing us what we can improve on and also by giving us visibility on steam to other players.

Of course this isn't possible for everyone so we greatly appreciate it when community members support us socially by following us on our development journey, participating in our contests/give aways/discord discussions or retweeting and liking our posts every so often. Honestly every little bit helps when you're a small game studio!

Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for your question!

Two questions:

1. From reading reviews on Steam, one of the unique throwbacks I see in Wheels of Fate is timed button presses, a la the Paper Mario series (or the OG Super Mario RPG). What made you want to incorporate this mechanic when most current turn-based RPGs have moved away from it? I'm personally a fan of the concept, but it can be polarizing.
2. What are your and your studio's views on modding and modding support? A robust mod creation kit can greatly extend the life of a game, but I'd assume it doesn't translate 1-1 into more sales and thus you have balance the development time to create the kit against the potential revenue increase from it. Is heavy modding out of reach for all but the biggest games that can afford to front the capital and development time for proper modding tools?

Hello bgottfried91, thanks for your questions:

1)It is super polarizing you are right. We wanted to create a throwback and Paper Mario RPG was one of those inspirations as was games like Grandia. We have put it there because we loved it. However, we have since added in the ability to all the game to play the QTE event on it's own (with a slight penalty) for those that hate it. Really it's just something we loved in those games. Hopefully we accomplished it standing out even if we have to give some players the option to not participate.

2) I was a heavy modder in Neverwinter Nights back in 2002 to 2008. I believe in modding, I think it's one of the best ways to keep a game going long term and engaging with a community. So I'm with you there. We have plans to allow for moddable content we have the framework already in place with tools for game designers to change game elements. It's a long term goal of mine to create an entire franchise that is moddable. I absolutely love the creativity that modders show everyday and it's a great way to break into the industry, 2 things I support highly.
So to answer your question: No it isn't just something that large companies can do, there are tons of smaller games as well, Roblox, Minecraft, Garry's Mod, Stardew Valley, RimWorld, even Counterstrike which was a mod created for half like were all started by indies. If the company setups the foundation to do it then it can happen. However, you are right that modding doesn't necessarily translate into capital and there is a lot of support costs with allowing moddable content (kinda a double edged sword).

From our perspective it's just a matter of time and success if we have enough revenue to support us, we will build modding capabilities. If not in this version or the next one (or the one after), because we have our framework created right from the start and it's part of our long-term goals, given the chance we will make it happen.

Hopefully that answers your question and thank you for asking!

What kind of game would you like to see more of, but can't since it is intrinsically an unprofitable sort of game to make?

Hello!

That's a super interesting question

I'd really love to see new and innovative MMO's or bigger multiplayer games. They are so expensive and complex to make and many of them fail so players are skeptical and burned by the experiences. Which then scares investors. Wouldn't it be amazing to say have a concurrent 64 player game that has depth of story and content but also allows you to change the narrative or story on the fly. Unfortunately we aren't there yet, but we believe AI will change that. Which is why we as a company are focusing in that realm of game development.

Hopefully that answers your question! Thanks for stopping by to talk with me today.

What would be the budget and yearly burn rate for such a game in your estimation?

A game like that depending on the size and quality level, easily between $5M to $10M for a solid game focused on the core mechanic with the AI and an explorable multi-player world. (not huge, open world, everything rendered in super realistic UE5, etc). Bigger than that i.e. Cyberpunk 2077 or ESO, with everything working and interconnected with long term multi-player content over $100 - $300M for the first iteration and then a substantial amount of yearly development revenue to maintain and create new content.

These are just educated guesstimates, that are in line with current development budgets. It's really about changing the way we design the games than adding more money to it.

Being in IT and the business side of things, I have always been more curious about the creative aspects to game design. What is your approach to the overall creative process when it comes to writing, visuals, and sound? Who drives the overall creative vision, and how do team dynamics play out in creating the overall theme/feel of the game and underlying story?

Hello and welcome to the AMA!

In my career I was on both sides of things (producer). So the creative process isn't like business that's the first distinction in that the things we do to handle our taxes, or the processes for making a contract are extremely different.

First to be creative you need the creative people in the process. Artists, designers, writers, sound, etc. I do my best to get them excited about the project because an excited creative person is really unstoppable in their creativity. So it starts with the overall vision. "This is what we are creating and why we are creating it. " Believe it or not, I have found creatives really care about the business side of things especially if their creativity can help grow the business. However, it isn't about just "showing numbers" it's more about how this overall vision of a really cool game combined with this tech will help all of us survive, succeed, and expand with more amazing creative projects.

Once the vision is in place we generally start breaking down the feeling we are trying to evoke in the vision. Is this a horror game and we want to scare and make the players jump? Is it an epic story and we want players to feel vastness, the awe inspiring history, the power of these beings, etc.

Once we have vision and emotions mapped, it's time to breakdown all the pieces what is the story? how would this story look? what style are we going to use? what would it sound like? etc.

These all going into game design documents specific to each of the groups with reference into the bigger game design document. (i.e. art direction, sound direction, etc).

Once these are mapped the creatives are free.. they need their space to create on their own. We will review and iterate on each piece submitted so that it fits as best it can into the overall vision. But it's really important that the creators have freedom to create on their own not just copy something else, or told exactly how to do everything.

In terms of team dynamics: Creative Director manages it all sets the overall vision

Game designer owns game design and maps the overall vision works with dev, art, and sound to make sure it fits to the game design

Art director defines the artistic style and direction with the artists.

Sound director defines the sound based on the visuals and overall vision of the game

Writers work with everyone to either define a story, or write a story about what's being created.

That's a high level view of that creative process, hopefully it answered your question, and thanks again!

This is very insightful, thank you! We gamers don't often take the time to appreciate the amount of effort and coordination of so many people into the game. Much luck with your game launch! I will definitely be watching for it!

Thank you so much I appreciate it!

What are your thoughts on the economics of gaming that pushes the development of online multiplayer, subscription models, etc and hinders the development of story rich, re-playable, single player games? Do those types of games only make economic sense in the indie / small studio context? Will indie studios eventually succumb to the subscription model?

Hi sparkplug49!

An interesting question and really this is defined by the needs and goals of each person creating the games:

Games need to make revenue to survive. It's not cheap to pay even a handful of people to make their living off a game. So one global truth for a studio to survive to make another game.. they have to make money.

Now knowing that economically every game has to make money, there are those studios that are more focused on the art, and those more focused on the revenue. The reality is the subscription model and freemium / In game store models generate long term sustainable revenues that allow studios to grow.

Large AAA publishers invest 10's of millions of dollars in building games, if they don't see a return then they have investors and shareholders to answer to. So generally they will look to create the most sustainable model. Online multiplayer games take alot of ongoing costs to maintain - hundreds of staff, server costs, support costs, license costs, overhead, etc, etc. If they only charged for the initial cost of the game those games would shutdown cashflow would kill them. If you are a large public company your focus isn't so much about making "games" it's about making "products that sell and sustain / create profit for the company".

Does that mean all doom and gloom for single player re-playable story right games? No it's nott, EA put out Jedi Fallen Order in 2019 and did really well with it. However, it had the reassurance of having a great IP behind it. Indie studios have more freedom to create so you will always see more of those types of games from indies.

In my opinion, the best way gamers can speak to the industry is by supporting games that have the potential to be what they want. Indies can't make the experiences that AAA do, but if we as gamers can see past the flaws in the game for what it could be and support the games we want made. Those indies will grow and eventually create more of those games, and / or the AAA studios will see those games succeeding and put resources behind it.

This has been mostly my opinion, thank you for asking such a though provoking question! Hopefully I've answered it.

Edit: missing parts

Hiya OP, love hearing a story of pursuing your passions!
What are some of the connections you've made in the gaming industry?

Hello Unique_Wash_9467

Thank you for that, I'm happy you decided to join us in the AMA today!

Connections.. well I've met Richard Garriott a personal hero of mine, I've met John Smedley who was a great inspiration with Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies,
Raph Koster one of the most masterful game designers I've met, such attention to detail.
There are so many really the guys behind dead by daylight people who worked on Fortnite, Cuphead, etc, etc. This industry is pretty small so it's easy to make lots of connections if you're willing to :)

All of them were awesome in their own ways.

Hopefully that answered your question and thanks for talking with me today!

It's always amazing to me how people like you have the drive and know how to be able to quit your job and start your own thing, mad respect. What's one thing that pushed you to this decision or held you back initially?

Great question!

And thank you for that, I sometimes think I was crazy to leave the comfort for this road, but then I remember why I did it, and how rewarding it is.

One thing that pushed me: I had a meeting with my boss and he said something to the effect of "what have you ever done in business?? nothing.." This was after I had lead the entire company to a record production year and had earned them several million dollars.

Needless to say that kick in the pants, pushed me to incorporate my business the next day. I have been thanking him ever since :D

Damn, even if he was thinking it, what a massive dick to just tell that to you. Hopefully it turned out great. Guess we all need some dicks in our life 😉

Lol yup we all do, they help us see our surroundings and not keep our heads down. Then realize we can do more than just help them. It was a dick move during that talk, but also that person helped me many times and I learned alot from them. He supported me when I started my business and even let me keep a consulting gig on the side while I was setting up. That's actually why I learned more from that comment.. because he is someone I respect it stung that much more so it pushed me further.

Any tips for beginners getting into game development? I've wanted to make an app game for the longest time and I'm finally starting the design part now.

Hello Serenekitty,

Congratulations on taking your first steps into this awesome field! So a tips for a beginner: 1) Do not get stuck in design (do some though) - Try things! Get Unity or Unreal and start trying things out. It's best to learn what can and cannot be done with the engine, assets, or other things before getting to far into design. As designers gain more experience about the limitations of development, art, design, etc. Then more design time is better because you can avoid some very common mistakes.

2) Mobile games have very specific requirements from iOS and Android. Learn them right away. Each of them have size requirements, you can't collect certain types of data, you can't sell certain types of things in your game, AppStore and GooglePlay take 30% of your revenue off the top. etc, etc. Learn your requirements and restrictions so you don't design game elements that break the rules.

3) Have a clear picture of what you want and start with something smaller. When you're new to game development and design it helps to have your first games focus on an element you want in a bigger game. For example if you want to make "pinball" start with a roller ball with collision, move on to more advanced physics like accelerators, etc. Breaking down the project into it's pieces and figuring out the pieces makes it easier and better later. But don't forget they have to fit together like a puzzle.. if you make one pieces too big the whole thing can fall apart (my apologies for the analogy, Design each piece with the picture of the whole in mind, and don't be afraid to make mistakes and cutdown the pieces to fit)

4) Learn. Goto any of the engines and do their free tutorials, watch youtube, do anything to learn as much as you can.

5) Have fun. It's a game, if you aren't having fun what are the chances that those that play it will have fun? Don't get me wrong making games is hard work and takes a long time. Not everything will be fun! But overall you need to know how to impart fun into your game. You have to capture the emotion you are trying to evoke and so always step back like a sculptor and make sure what you're making actually looks what you intended.

Thanks again!

Thanks for this advice! I knew that iOS was more difficult to get accepted into but I didn't know about all those other requirements. Youtube has been a life saver for me and the community on reddit and discord for developers.

No problem! You have the right mind set search out that information :) Reddit, Discord, YouTube are great resources for sure.

Keep in mind that while iOS has a much stricter policy and review process than Android, iOS is one of the best revenue makers (if not the best) for mobile games even though Android has many more users and devices.

Also with iOS you have much fewer devices to develop for because of it's closed market you could say support only the last 2 generations of devices and only have approximately 10 to 20 devices to support (if you support iPad) Whereas with Android you have thousands of devices, and you have to choose which ones you support (Samsung, LG, Huaiwei, etc) but sending updates to Android is much easier than iOS. So consider that.. (testing on Android is easier don't have to send to Testflight, you can just download the .APK to the device)

Good luck!

Hello there! Shout out from Vaughan! lived there most of my life! Congrats on all the success this far.

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My Question is, Where would be a good starting point be begin learning about machine learning and serious automation / A.I?
Currently studying computer programming in college, but they offer nothing in this field. I know C++, Java, bit of Python and JS. I just started learning Selenium automation for web testing and it has really ignited my interest in automation and AI. but I feel like I don't know where to begin to really start working with machine learning, I just finished a course of Data structures an algorithms, so I would love to continue working in this area.

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Thanks!

Hello d0rf47!

I'm currently sitting in my hope writing this answer in Vaughan! I've lived in Vaughan most of my life as well but love visiting all places in the world! :D

So AI is a specialization of computer engineering you can look into. I'd say take a look at things like Havard CS50 course online (which was free awhile ago) There are some really awesome courses you can take on this. MIT has some awesome courses and more. You can do these online to really expand your knowlege.

You have a great foundation by learning C++ and Java, having Python and JS helps alot. Being in the GTA also helps, Check out the Vector Institute, they offer jobs, research, and a masters program all about A.I. They're located in Toronto and they can definitely help you find out more about what's available!

Hopefully I've answered your question and good luck! Hopefully, one day we'll be working together to build some awesome A.I projects!

Oh wow that's perfect thank you for taking the time to answer! I will look into the vector institute for sure never heard of them before.

Haha that would be amazing! Best of luck on the upcoming launch!

For sure best of luck to you too! Thank you my fellow Vaughanite? What do we even call people from Vaughan? lol

What tools do you use besides the IDE, game engine and asset creation tools?

For example do you use specific tools for tracking your design and changes and the decisions made? Do you have a bug tracking tool? Are you using git or some other tool for code version control and archiving? Do you use any specific tools or packages for testing? Anything in the art asset pipeline or audio pipeline that might be good for other developers to consider?

Hello and thanks for your question!

So we use a lot of different tools: In particular I like to use Hack'n'plan for project management and tracking but I'm also a fan of Jira (as I was a Jira Administrator as part of my former life. We use BitBucket as a repository.

For asset management you can use anything from a full blown tool like Perforce or keep it simple with something like Dropbox. (really depends how many projects and how large those projects are). There are many asset management tools in between all of that as well.

For sound we use WWise because my sound engineer is an expert and it's a super powerful tool.

For testing we have an outsource company that uses various types of regression, and test automation tools.

There are so many tools available these days it's hard to know which ones to use and then learn, and commit to.

My best advice keep it as simple as you can for what you are doing. solve you're problem and make sure to consider applications that can help you scale as you grow.

Hopefully I've answered your questions! Thanks for stopping by

Hi Daniel!

Thanks for taking the time to do this AMA.

I've been thinking about starting my own studio. I have saved some money aside (probably not enough).

Two questions for you!

1) I don't have a software dev background. Huge gamer but I have only worked in marketing and tech sales and I have a background in business law. I have a good idea on what I want to achieve and I am realistic about what can be done. I have always thought that if I started down this path my first step would be to hire A CTO. I can handle the admin, marketing, sales, and the CTO/devs can focus on what they like doing: coding.

Does it make sense? Would it truly save time for everyone in terms of division of labour?

2) I've read that in terms of budget to get started on a studio, $80k was a good target. Is that an accurate figure?

Hello Mnyx! thank you for coming to talk with me today.

Awesome questions,

1) You don't need a software background to start a studio! In fact having the business and legal background will help you keep the company alive. It's important to have a business, a creative, and a tech person. I'd say this who is going to design the game? Who will do the art and animation? Who will test? How will sounds be implemented? Take all the elements of game and divide that labour out, if you don't have someone to do it then you will need it.

Also I'd consider partnering with a CTO it saves your $ find a brilliant engineer and partner to create the studio. Many industry investors look for partners in the studio or at least a very strong leadership team.

Now does the division of labour save you time? Yes to a point (going from 2 to 10 will help immensely, less so from say 100 to 110), every time you divide the labour there are communication and interpretation of message problems. Meaning you get people taking something you though was clearly communicated and either forgetting, misconstruing, or misunderstanding the meaning. I can't tell you how many times I asked my dev or art team for A and got X lol. On small teams it's rectified by working closely together daily, but as you scale it gets more and more difficult. What it does do is improve the quality, if individuals are able to focus on doing what they do best, you get a better product while needing the leadership to take the individual masterpieces and making them work in unison.

You have a solid mindset and I think you have the right idea, make sure you get the best possible people to cover your weaknesses whether that starts with a partner or hiring is up to you.

2) Budget is dependent on the game you want to make. The average budget for a hypercasual game is between $20k to $50k, the average cost for a mobile game is somewhere in the $200,000 to $500,000 range. I'd say $80k is a great start, but on average when budgeting a game you have to factor in what does everyone make? what do you need to take home to survive? A great place to start is to make a budget starting with salaries, then factoring everything you need on top of that.

I.e. Hypothetical budget: If I need $50k take home to live, my CTO needs $50k to live, and my Artist needs $40k to live, you're at $140k a year in salary, (don't forget: taxes, license fees, accounting, overhead, hardware, etc) Will you offset this by working a job at the same time? Will everyone be part-time in your company? etc.

Join a great indie dev reddit community or discord server and post your "hypothetical" budgets up and let devs poke holes at it until it's solid enough to give you a good baseline for starting your studio.

Hopefully I've answered your question and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours!

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer! This is invaluable insight.

You're welcome, thank you for providing a great topic to discuss!

This is something that I have always thought I would be good at but had no idea how to enter this industry. Did you go to school for this? How do you get involved if this isn't in your field of study?

Hello there!

So I went through a BA in Information Technology started as a developer moved into software project management and then got a "lucky" break by joining a game studio.

To get involved in the industry firstly learn as much as you can in the field you want to be in (development, art, qa, marketing, etc) learn as much as you can about that field, then start getting out there. One of the best places to start meeting developers is at conferences (when there were conferences to go to and we didn't have the plague cancelling everything.. but I digress). At shows you can meet so many people in the industry. Most people start out by doing some of their own projects using the IDE tools like Unity and Unreal. They have incredible tutorials on their sites that can help get the initial footing. If you have enough knowledge and practice getting into an indie studio (or starting your own) is really the next progressive step, or try to get into an internship with the larger studios (if you're still in school).

There are so many paths into this industry but it really all starts by focusing on what you want to do and then learning as much as you can about how to do that well.

Hopefully I answered your question! Thanks for stopping by today.

Congratulations on making it to the finish line! What kind of post-launch support are you planning once you release your game out of beta?

Really looking forward to checking this out on release! :)

Hello and thanks!

There are so many plans we have for post-launch! It is really dependent on the success of it. We have done a lot in the early access phase of the game, and yet we have SO much more we want to do.

This is the first game in what we'd hope becomes a series is a "stepping stone" to the larger aspirations we have. Adaptive worlds is something we'd really love to explore in great depth. Is this first game the best rpg ever? Realistically, no it's not. But it has the structure and potential to be a great one, we have proven that we can build what we set out to build.

So from a planning perspective, we could see expansions that include a ton of content a lot of it is designed but can't be put into the game because we aren't a AAA studio.

We could see a version 2 come out.

We will be supporting the game as much as possible after release and if we can afford to do free content updates we will.

I hope that answers your question.

Thanks again!

It does! Thank you and good luck with your launch!

Thank you and best of luck to you as well!

Besides actual game development, how else can one get involved in the gaming industry?

Hi there!

The great thing about the gaming industry is there really is space for everyone. It's one of the only industry where creatives such as artists, animators, and marketers work tightly with Mathematicians, developers, QA, and engineers, but also business, accounting, and lega. So really you can choose your path.

Here are some of the paths:

1) Community development - if you're social and like talking with people 2) Marketing and social media - We're on reddit and I have an incredible social media person who helped set this up.. .she's amazing at this, something that I'm not! 3) Art, Animation, and Creative 4) Business - every game studio needs a money person, and business 5) Legal - if you're inclined to be a lawyer you can be an entertainment lawyer. 6) Writers - games need writers especially RPGs

Hopefully that helps!

Thank you for your question!

What were your method of garnering funding for your projects and company? Being a Canadian game Dev, did you go through the Canadian media fund and if so how can I make my application stand out?

Hello BumboTumgus,

Funding is one of my specialities! I did go through CMF and several other funds, tax credits, SR&ED, etc. If you're in Canada learning the various options available to you is really important for running a studio. I recently started a program to help other indie studios navigate this labyrinth of options and get their funding! It's something I really like to help studios do.

In terms of my application or any application. Really there is no way to tell how I made it stand out.. every jury is different and it has to resonate with them. Making sure I covered all aspects of what it takes to make my project reasonable and making my passion shine through. We went with innovation so we really focused on that aspect and showed how it differs from what's in the market was a big part of it.

Hopefully that answers your question! Thanks for stopping by today.

Are you hiring testers? I typically do end to end on mobile and desktop platforms for native apps, web portals, and some a back-end.

Hello!

Right at the moment we aren't hiring testers as we moving through our testing phase to launch very soon. As we ramp up a new game and get into the testing phase we would certainly look at new ones! We may be looking at testing a mobile game sometime next year.

Thanks for your question! I wish you luck in your endeavours!

How is the Game Development scene in Ontario?

I'm a British citizen, software engineer of ten years. I've started working on my own indie game (early days), but my GF lives in Toronto and we're trying to figure out how we can move to be together.
I'm hoping to find a way of moving to Canada this year. Either through university or employment. I'd love to be able to design and develop indie games for a living, but I fear it'll be a bit of a stretch to move into that as a foreign citizen.

Do you know of how the industry in Ontario is for immigrants, or of any routes or organisations that might help me?
Thanks.

Hello PudgeCake!

Firstly congratulations on making the big step in your relationship. Second, being a British Citizen doesn't really make you too foreign to Canada we have the Queen on our $20 bill afterall :D

The Game Development scene in Ontario in particular the Indie scene is thriving there are a lot of Indie studios in Ontario, (AAA is more in Quebec). There are so many ways that the Ontario and Canadian government helps Canadian get their game development off the ground. There are tax credits, grants, funds, etc all available to indie studios in Ontario and Canada.

If you're looking to move to Toronto then try joining Interactive Ontario and the IGDA local chapter this will help you find studios in the area that are hiring! It's a bit harder right now with COVID going on but ultimately there are jobs available throughout the province! We may be looking for developers in the next 12 months ourselves. I will say this though becoming a citizen would help due to how the tax credits work, but definitely look at the indie scene in Ontario. There is a large edugaming company called Prodigy (large indie) in Oakville that posted a bunch of jobs so that may be a great start!

I wish you the best of luck! thank you for stopping by today!

Thanks a lot man, there's some good info here. I'll check out those leads.

You are most welcome!

What is a good way to get into game development? and help to learn coding?

Hi Epsilon-Alpha,

I would say the best way to get into game development and coding and is by doing it. Try downloading Unity or Unreal and do their tutorials. They teach you so much. Now if it's coding right from the start, then definitely do a starter course in coding, I'd suggest learning a C based language (C#, C++) as those are the most prevalent in gaming.

Hopefully I've answered your question! Thanks for stopping by today.

I caretake for a developmentally disabled person that has some ability to understand and perform with WII type games. Most of the time children's games are beneath the intelligence level of a good portion of the disabled people. Is there any hope of anyone developing "simple" games that could be used by these people? Something that doesn't require much motor skill but does engage them?

Hello and thank you for your meaningful question:

I would say yes it's certainly possible! The FDA has a approved some games for kids with ADHD (I was a kid with ADD so it meant a lot to me).
It's a small step that's far from enough, but hopefully now we will see more studios developing for persons with disabilities. I personally would love to make games that are inclusive to persons with disabilities. At this moment, I don't know how and would require extensive consultation and research that we can't afford as a small indie just launching our first game. Games that are inclusive need to be done right, never should be down halfway. I think most studios are scared to do something wrong.

There is a great organization called Ablegamers.org that is geared entirely to helping gamers with disabilities and their families. This would be a great resource to start with. There are amazing gamers with disabilities out there too, people like N0M4D who are inspirations to so many including myself.

I hope I have answered your question and thank you for talking with me.

Hello there! First, congratulations on your hard work. Second, what was your plan for the game and how did it change over time?

Hello!

Thank you very much I appreciate it!

Initially I had massive plans, with a feature list a mile long.. we were going to do everything!! lol, seriously though it's one of the biggest things that indie devs do - scope creep. At times it wasn't even me as the head putting the scope creep into the game, people working on the game who were very passionate kept adding to the game. Some where around Month 5, we all sat down and had to scale back and make sure we were doing what was reasonable. We still have designs for all these incredible features that can be added later, but what if no one even wants that feature and we have to work on something else?

So lesson learned: Focus on what is the core of your game and make sure everything done in the game design is central to that core pillar. Then iterate and iterate some more. When the game is solid that's when layers can start being added on.

I hope I've answered your question! Thanks for talking with me today

Thank you for being open to an AMA!

As a fellow software developer and aspiring game developer, I have a couple of questions. If you don't mind answering them, that'd be super cool.

1. With how the industry is infamously harsh and unstable, at least to the developers, would you consider a wise choice to leave the more stable corporate software development for the gaming industry? I've been a software dev for the past 8 years and my dream has always been to develop games that people enjoy.
2. On the more technical side of things, what would you consider the essential first steps to re-skill to game development? I'm fairly experienced in .NET, so Unity seems like a no-brainer. But I've been also thinking on studying some lower level stuff like OpenGL.

Thank you for doing this! Stories like yours are really inspiring.

Hello ChamAramis,

No worries happy to answer you questions!

1) This is a very difficult question to answer. It's super subjective to you. For me it was a no brainer I wanted to do this my whole life and I joined the industry without thinking about the stability I was leaving behind. I do think about it sometimes and miss some of that. But I wouldn't give up what I'm doing unless I had to, I love it and I am going to make sure I do everything I can to stay where I am. Now, the questions I asked myself that made it easier. Can I support myself? Is my partner supportive and able to help out when times get tough? Do I want to live my dream but with any dream comes stress, can I handle it? All I can say on this is it's your life and you have to decide what makes you happy. Keeping in mind everything isn't as it seems. I had to do 5 years of making games I don't like to play at all, but I was still happy because I love the business of making games as much as playing them. Would you feel the same?

As for the history, that is changing quite it bit now especially with COVID and work from home scenarios. Developer jobs in the industry are quite valuable and if it doesn't bother you to move around companies then really it shouldn't be an unstable stream of work. It might be for 8 different companies in 8 years though. Really it's one of the best times to join the industry in my opinion. Keeping in mind that studio closures is a very real thing, so you have to keep your situation in mind (partner? kids?, mortgage?, etc, etc)

2) technical, I'd say focus in on what you want to do and where your strengths lie, are you a backend engineer? strict software developer? Do you have DB and Networking skills? Systems and tools? Each one comes with it's own toolsets really not that much different than corporate software to be honest. So yes if you have .NET, Unity C# is a good way to go. OpenGL is great when you're dealing with Graphics, optimizations and deeper level stuff most indies aren't doing a ton of it because the engines can handle it "ok". If you're trying to get into mid-sized Indies and lto AAA then there is more available for sure!

Choose your target and pick your tools I'd say :) Look up the companies you'd like to work for and see what their job positing's say. I.e. if you think Ubisoft is the company you'd like to be working for because those are games you enjoy.. see what Ubisoft programmers and engineers need in their skills. Then tool yourself to that. Or you could look at many across the industry and try to find the best common subset or even the company that most closely aligns to your skills.

There really isn't a "one tech fits all" scenario. More the tech that fits the specific position you want to do at the specific company you want to work for.

I hope that was helpful! Thank you so much for stopping by today.

Why only 10 hours? For an RPG I usually want to invest more time than this, so why should I be interested in your game?

Well 10 hours for the main gameplay and side quests, The game is open ended so you could play for a long period of time if you wanted to to see all the options available from the AI decision matrix. We have players with close to 200 hours played but they did everything in the game. This is for under $15

Why did we stop at a 10 hour marker? Well really it's about budget and time. We did what we could in the development time we had. That doesn't mean we couldn't expand that to well beyond 10 hours for the main game. We do leave the game on a cliff hanger ending as this would be chapter 1 of what should be a 5 chapter game.

As an indie we had to break up the AAA title we wanted to build into segments and, when we're done the full 5 chapters would be about $50 and 50 to 60 hours of main gameplay with 1000's of possible hours to explore everything.

Those were the choices we made considering the size of game we want to build.

Hopefully I've answered your question! Thanks for stopping by today.

Can you give up some technical details about the AI in the game? To be honest, they way you describe it sounds like the AI If Then meme.

LOL that meme is based in reality to be honest... AI isn't exactly what people think it is, or what's in the movies, but it isn't a huge nested If then statement either:D

So we use Neural nets, mixed with some proprietary algorithms. AI's today are based in weighted randomizations and machine learning alogrithms. What does that mean? Well a computer will continually do something changing it's "chance" to do the same thing again based on whether it was successful or not. Eventually learning the most common pattern of things to deliver uncanny successful responses.

Now that sounds simple but how things are weighted things, how to decide what was a success, how quickly the algorithm adjusts to outliers, or new emerging patterns are very complex.

AI is not an actively thinking machine... we don't have the power or know how to make "Skynet". But we can make intelligent decisions about how to deliver content to players based on their patterns of play. Which is what our AI does and will be expanded in the future.

Hopefully that answers you question! Thank you for stopping by today!

Nice explanation, I should forward that to my colleagues who are studying AI but have never written a line of code in their life somehow :/

Thank you! Feel free to share, I'd be happy to hear their responses :D

How long has it taken from scratch to the launch and how did you finance it? Basically i'm asking - did you live off your savings during the development or did someone invest in the game early on?

hello, so financing was done with several different methods. I was able to win several grants, tax credits, and funds here in Canada, I had a generous team that donated some time, and I invested into the studio. It was a mixture of things to get it done.

In terms of length of time it took in actual development time about 2 years from scratch to launch.

thanks for your question!

Hey! Thanks for doing this AMA! I'm honestly a little nervous, as I'm afraid my question is a bit too specific for my situation, but here goes nothing. I have taken a couple programming classes at uni, and I often use Python for scripts and calculations (I'm studying statistics), and while I can use it for what I need, I'm not technically skilled. I want to dabble in game Dev in my free time, but I'm afraid my code is going to be a mess. I've made a couple simple games in Python, but I've never been content when I've tried an object-oriented approach. I'm just not good at keeping my code neat and organized. What steps can I take towards writing more efficient and understandable code?

Hello There,

No worries about being nervous we all feel nervous, or the imposter syndrome from time to time. I've worked with devs who others have said have the most beautiful code ever. But it would take them forever to make their code that good and ultimately were looked at as too perfectionist and ultimately let go because they couldn't handle the pace of the environment we working in. (this wasn't in my studio it was somewhere I worked in my past) The end users, the artists, the management etc are never going to look at your code and even if they did they wouldn't understand it (unless they know code). So don't worry or be nervous about your code being messy from the outside looking in.

Now that being said you want to improve that's awesome! The best advice I can give as someone who also has messy code, is talk with others who are great at delivering code. Look at code snippets and start adopting some of the paradigms that make efficient code. There are whole development methodologies that you incorporate into habits to make code run better these can be learned from the sources.

Also here's one more piece: Every developer I've ever talked to who had to look at someone elses code has 100% of the time said it's mess. Why? Because everyone has their own writing style for code. Code is really how your brain constructs logical bits of instructions for a computer. No different than the words we choose to use. If you want to be better at vocabulary you learn new words right? If you want to be better at coding learn new ways to logically combine the methods, functions, classes, etc into tight language.

If you can find someone to be your code "editor" it helps immensely even the best writers have an editor.

Hopefully I answered your question! Thanks for stopping by today.

Awesome! Thanks a lot for the response! What you're saying definitely sounds reasonable. I'll stop being shy about my coding and rather show it off so I can see how people react and hear what they think. Sounds like you're a great guy to work with. Good luck with your game!

Thank you so much I appreciate it! :)

Showing it off is the only way to learn! And if someone is really negative about it, ask them alot of questions and learn from that experience don't be afraid because really it's just their opinion. It's best way I know how to improve :)

Good luck!

That's essentially what I wish I could be doing, couldn't you have posted this 3 years ago? Lol I gave you an award because that's very impressive

so I guess I would ask you when it becomes kind of too late to start game development because I have a college son majoring in it but when I majored in computer science it was a little tin shack not something taken seriously - so I don't have any real easy way in and I'm kind of tired from the pandemic stuff so I apologize for the incoherence.

hello SingOrDie!

Lol if I had posted this 3 years ago there wouldn't have been much to talk about just what I was "hoping to do". Thank you for the award! really appreciated.

I can't say it ever becomes too late to start game development. I was in my 30's when I started. It's kind of subjective to be honest. It really depends on your situation, obviously you have a son.. perhaps doing his course with him on the side? Perhaps just picking up the game engines and developing something? They could be side projects for you and your son to create a studio together? Sounds like a great YouTube channel actually :D

All I can say is look at your life, responsibilities, etc. and see if you can fit in learning game development. Once you've learned it (and based on your computer science degree shouldn't be too hard.

For my own life - I was in a similar world to you, games were popular but there was nothing like what we have today. I gave up a very secure job because I wanted to do something I love and my family supported me. Without that support I never would have made it here.

Consider this as well, most AAA titles require experience and take on average 3 to 5 years to make (some take 7 - 10 years). So depending on where you are in your life spending 10 years working on games before getting to a senior role. With the pay not being exceptional in the more junior roles. Mobile casual games by contrast take a few months to make and can be done with 2 or 3 people, yet can generate amazing revenue. These are much easier to get into with enough understanding of the game engines and can be learned on the "side". So I would ask myself what does it mean to get into game development? Do you want to be a AAA developer, a Mobile hypercasual developer, or something in between?

To summarize: 1) Consider where you are in life and can you dedicate the time to it? 2) To make the move to the professional how much $ would you need to make? 3) Is this something you can do with your son as a side hustle to eventually start a studio together? 4) Is it something your family life can support?

I know I've posed more questions than answers here, but that's how I started my life in game development. I had to look at my situation and consider if this was something I could do critically and without bias.

I hope it helps! thanks for talking with me.