Yes, original IP games do sell!
De Blob on the Wii sells 700K units.
Add comment February 27th, 2009
Archive for February, 2009
The Supers (prototype) update
It’s been 8-9 months since I’ve posted any images on my project…. here are some short videos demo-ing the shaders + animation:
The Supers – Beetle turntable from Nelson Yu on Vimeo.
The Supers – Hero turntable from Nelson Yu on Vimeo.
And one demo-ing some early problems with physics:
The Supers – Physics FAIL from Nelson Yu on Vimeo.
Add comment February 20th, 2009
Brain dump – What I learnt from GDC 2008 (one year LATER)
Here are notes I almost made right after attending GDC 2008 (last year) talk about finding angel investor funding for games. None of it makes sense raw so I’ll add comments at the end:
Lots of money
Angels for bridge
Tailwinds
Simple & compellingPitch first
Team > Idea
Bootstrap!
Reputation!Keiretsu
Gameplayholdingshttp://www.garage.com/
10 Slides
20 Minutes
30 Font sizeUnaccredited investors – BAD
Exit strategy
My comments:
- Lots of money – Angels / VC have piles of cash seeking out worthy investments.
- Angels for bridge – Angels (personal investors) are great for temp funding right after the bootstrap stage.
- Tailwinds – Your project should have some relation to the current fads – MMO, Social networking, Web, advergaming, etc.
- Simple & compelling – The sales pitch must be understandable and convincing.
- Pitch first – i.e. Try out your idea first to see if the response is positive rather than building something nobody wants.
- Team > Idea – because investors pay nothing for an idea and want to see a solid team/management in place. “Success” in the end is related to the talent/experience of the team. Artistically this means “process” takes precedent over “ideas” and “creativity”
- Bootstrap! – Build it because nobody will believe you can until you do and also nobody will fund you unless you are proven.
- Reputation! – Build one from the start. Nothing screams failure than working on money-losing, late, canceled projects all your life. IMO this is good and bad advice. It’s great advice to steer away from poorly managed, low-success projects, but at the same time high-profile work can be emotionally/personally devoid.
- Keiretsu – An organization of angel investors
- Gameplayholdings – An advisory company.
- http://www.garage.com/ – Guy Kawasaki’s company
- Notes about game pitching – short and simple
- Unaccredited investors – BAD – because of SEC/US rules. You want accredited investors (net worth of a $1M?) to avoid lawsuits and because future investors often need to buyout previous ones. It’s complicated, but avoid taking large sums from friends and family if you are starting a potentially mid-to-large sized studio.
- Exit strategy - All studios/projects have to pay out sometime, how?
10 Slides
20 Minutes
30 Font size
To summarize – none of the above should concern independent developers! The above is for people wishing to form the next spin-off studio made up of ex-EA, ex-Sony, ex-Activision employees.
Add comment February 15th, 2009
The game industry needs less Jon Blow and more Paolo Pedercini
A few nights ago I attended a small gathering in Toronto by the Hand Eye Society – which is a new group dedicated to getting local indie developers together for a social rather than for professional reason (like IGDA).
The main speaker of the night was Paolo Pedercini who is infamous for his political games:
His games try to “make a difference” to the world – they are socially + politically relevant. I make games for pure entertainment sake (enjoyment). Paolo makes games because he wants to change the world or show the world its flaws – in an “entertaining” way rather than in an essay or article.
The world needs more Paolo Pedercini – well he does once in a while delve into uber-touchy subjects: Pedopriest
Once again the Church is in the midst of controversies for the sexual abuses committed by the priests. The Vatican created a task force to prevent sinners from being captured and put on trial according to the secular states’ laws. You have to control the operations: estabilish a code of silence and hide the scandal until the media attention moves elsewhere!
Add comment February 15th, 2009
My twitter account
Where I post small development updates (rather on this blog):
Add comment February 15th, 2009
Kids these days…
9-year old writes successful iPhone painting application
“Lim, who is fluent in six programing languages, started using the computer at the age of 2. He has since completed about 20 programing projects.”
When I was his age, I was copying BASIC programs from magazines. I stop after 3 I think. My brother continued on and ended up working for REALbasic.
Add comment February 11th, 2009
Another ex co-worker success story
In a different vein, I discovered another non-game developer ex co-worker (a mouthful there!) programmed a little game on his spare time which became commercially successful (I got direct figures, but I won’t quote them here) on this Sudoku game:
Add comment February 9th, 2009
Congrats to Mike Kasprzak / Sykhronics Entertainment
An IGF 2009 mobile finalist (and ex co-worker of mine):
Add comment February 9th, 2009
It’s all about gameplay! It’s all about story!
It’s all a pile of BS. It’s true. Thousands of developers “claim” to focus on gameplay just like thousand of animators “claim” to focus on story… but in the end, I’ve always believed the final quality is related to the average skill/talent of the people who made the game/film no matter what the ideologies the people espouse.
Ed Catmull (of Pixar fame) talks about how many studios “focus on stories just like Pixar” but fail to deliver quality storytelling “just like Pixar.” He believes it’s the people who contributed the most to Pixar’s success and so I do.
Catmull says, “If you give a good idea to incompetent people, they will ruin it. If you give a bad idea to a great team, they will fix it.”
Here’s his Stanford talk about Pixar and why it has been successful.
His main motto is: The difference in a successful company and a failed one is “the people.”
Add comment February 6th, 2009