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Hey guys.
First blog here.
By definition, a blog is something you can put all your thoughts into, right? For me, it would be ambitions, and dream projects.
I want to make a game. Right now, I'm 24, and I've been a gamer for quite some time. The first game I really, really got into was Warcraft III. I started the WC3:TFT thread in the "Other games" category of TL, though I don't have as much time to dedicate to it lately due to work (sorry!). To me, WC3 was a stroke of genius. An amazing game with a true greatness that Blizzard will likely not be able to reproduce, no matter how cynical or biased that may sound. I sucked at it, but watching it, even today, gives me thrills and just makes me genuinely happy.
I've tried SC2, and I don't like it. It just lacks the permanent action that WC3 had. It has deeper strategies, way more macro, but the fights are more rare, and more anticlimactic (read: short). In WC3, fights were happening all the time, and players clashed against one another countless times during your average game. It was pretty common to have battles last for 2 minutes or even longer.
Some people might say MOBAs should keep my interest, as they also pack a lot of action, and truth be told I played the original DotA for a long time, and also played Heroes of Newerth pretty intensely. Now... Dota 2 does not interest me at all, and neither does League of Legends. Heroes of the Storm seems alright, I'll definitely try it. But even then, those games are not true RTS. They don't give me the same excitment as WC3 once did, and still does. Back in November of last year, the WCG featured the last WC3 event. I watched it, and I loved all of it. And I noticed something else: the crowd loved it too. If you guys watched it, you'll have seen there were a lot of people on site watching the games, and the streams gathered ~3k viewers, which quite frankly isn't bad for a ten year old game. Granted, it happened in China, where WC3 is still huge.
It got me thinking. WC3 was a very popular game, and lots of people played it. Back then though, many players thought the hero system was confusing, and there were complaints of the game not being enjoyable to watch, or taking too long to learn, due to the heroes, items, etc. At that point in time though, heroes were a very new concept, and I believe that now, people have grown very used to it. MOBAs have dug deeper into the hero system, and LoL/Dota 2 are constantly featured as the two most watched games on Twitch at almost any time. Over the years, experience and unexperienced players alike have accustomed to the idea of heroes, and while MOBAs do have a steep learning curve, hundreds of thousands of people watch games every single day, and new people seem to get into it on a daily basis too. I believe that, if WC3 were to be released now, people wouldn't complain about games being hard to follow due to the cluster created by heroes and skills. In fact, I strongly and firmly believe that if Blizzard were to release WC3 right now, it would be a huge hit.
Now, on to my "dreams". As I said, I want to make a game. Not just any game, I want to make a RTS that would be heavily inspired by WC3:TFT. As of now, I am working as a freelance translator (in English to French), and I work on video games a lot. Obviously, I chose to specialize in that field because of my background as a gamer for many, many years, but also because games are truly fun to translate. I love my job, but a dream of mine would be to gather a team, do some heavy brainstorming and come up with ideas to create a solid RTS that would stand a chance to be successful. The way the market is looking now, I actually believe it might be easier to hit it with a RTS instead of a MOBA, as developers are currently spawning those games like little zerglings. Of course, as a translator, I have no knowledge of actually making a game per se, as in coding, building an engine, whatever else. I do have a few connections though, and I probably could learn the basics or even advanced concepts by asking the people I know.
I do have ideas though. Ideas about the game, about concepts, heroes, maps, what have you. I even started putting together a little document that gathers all of what I have thought about, and all of what I would like to see in the game. What can I say, it's a start.
Honestly though, how hard would it be to gather a team of programmers, game developers, and so on to create a game from the ground up? How would one even go about it? What I imagine currently, would be to create a company, find and hire people who would share my passion and my ambitions to make such a game, and either take out a loan to finance the project, or do a Kickstarter, or possibly both.
I would simply love it. I can't pretend to ever match the level of innovation that went into WC3:TFT, but I'd like to make something close to it, while having its own identity drawn from new and fresh concepts.
Come on, who thinks it's doable?!
 
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Certainly doable, but maybe try making some simpler games first before hiring a whole team for magnum opus. If I were programmer or something that had to do all the grunt work, I would either need to have great faith in your abilities to make a finished product, or else get a good paycheck.
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Everything is doable given enough time and effort. I agree with Mothra that you need some experience under your belt, especially if you're trying to manage a team. Right now, all you are is an idea guy, and ideas are worth nothing by themselves.
Some examples that you should take care of to not make the same mistakes as them:
Rainfall: The Sojourn
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1tf06z/kickstarter_rpg_rainfall_the_sojourn_cancelled/
The manager/head of this project somehow managed to complete a kickstarter, but pretty much got up and left. I've worked with one of the people on the team and found him wonderful to work with. From what I can tell, this person bit off way more than he could chew.
Enhanced Wars
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1jcjh1/know_when_to_fold_em_how_to_quit_your_live/
This guy has apparently worked in game design for YEARS in mainstream companies, and still managed to fuck up a project he had been working on for awhile. He also lost his balls and canceled the kickstarter a couple weeks in, not even willing to see it to the end.
Yea, the game that you've planned out probably has more depth to it, but the point I'm trying to make is that just because you have an idea and are driven doesn't mean there aren't pitfalls you need to be wary of. That being said, I'm sure there are plenty of examples of first-time successes.
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Am I the only one who read the title in Jigsaw's voice?
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Its doable;
Honestly though, how hard would it be to gather a team of programmers, game developers, and so on to create a game from the ground up? How would one even go about it? What I imagine currently, would be to create a company, find and hire people who would share my passion and my ambitions to make such a game, and either take out a loan to finance the project, or do a Kickstarter, or possibly both.
Isn' t this what we woud all love to do in the thing that passions us in our lifes? (e.i. music for me)
What you described there takes years for most people. For others a lifetime. For others it never happens in this lifetime.
What i suggest, is to start to work on something based around your current envirement. I' m sure that if you look around at your friends, co-workers or people you know and like, you will find that they are in some-way interrellated with your hobby and passion. look carefully, you will find that everybody can contribuite in some way. After you do that consider that they might have their ideas as well, maybe different from your for a videogame. You will archieve much more success if you listen and impliment their ideas toghether with yours than just bulldozing your thoughts that you want to become real into them. It may not be what you thought, but you have to start somewhere. Start by yourself. Share those stories, maps, heroes and what have you with the people around you. Find a way to fit them into a realistic project. If i may say so, its going to be more difficult than you think, but it is going to be as rewarding as you think.
sorry for my spelling mistakes
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It might be an idea to try to create a SC2 mod to start off with. I'm not sure how well their editor is documented, or if it's even any good, but in theory it should be accessible for people without game development experience. It will give you something to test out your game's design with, without having to build a lot of the stuff from the ground up.
Edit: expanded a bit on my thought pattern
Might even be interesting to release it as a mod, instead of a full fledged game, with the arcade being marketable now (right?) Even if you don't want that, you should have an easier time getting a team together if people like your prototype. It will also help visualize your ideas and make it easier for others to work with you.
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What you really want is time-travel machine and travel 10 years back in time to live out the true years of competitive RTS.
Hell I would want that too but even more for SC:BW but I'd enjoy W3:FT aswell(as I once did).
But if you are even remotely serious about your ambition you have two options:
1. You program it all by your self(or with the help of a small group of people e.g. graphic artist and sound artist)
2. You'll be the manager and you hire a team of highly motivated developers
Well from what you are saying I think you have neither experience in programming nor in managing.
So doing something "this big" will almost certailny result in failure.
You need to start small projects first and then do something this big, otherwise you'll lose it half the way.
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I really hope you make it.
If you want to make an RTS, you can use the Spring RTS Engine for Free.
http://springrts.com/
Made by the folks who made Total Annihilation, me thinks. From TA came Supreme Commander/2 etc and SupCom Forged Alliance.
Also, there are other engines out there. UDK (Unreal Engine 3) for one that is free to use until you make your first 46 Grand (or so), then pay them a percentage. UE4 is about US$16.00/mth and is truly awesome.
There is a shit load of stuff you need to know to make a game. I am doing a Diploma in Digital Gaming and It is mind blowing.
When someone looks at a picture of say, a waterfall, they see a waterfall. Nice water, trees and river flowing. I look at the picture and see textures, the way the water falls and runs over and around rocks, the way the light shines through the water, leaves and surrounding area. When I watch a SC2 video, sometimes I am looking at a Zerging and notice the Idle Animation.
Stuff like that I never used to see before. A real eye opener.
Realistically to make a game that is going to be very good and give what the player is hoping for is going to cost over $10Mil. Here is a Wiki of the most expensive games to develop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop
I'm gonna do it. Make a game.
Good luck.
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Spring is made by the people that MODDED TA (Swedish Yankspankers), IIRC. The people that made TA are now either at Uber or Gas Powered Games for the most part.
There are many, many engines out there.
Work on getting a core baseline for what you want. This is something exceptionally basic, but is great for getting building blocks to make the rest of your game on.
For you, it would be. "I want to load a level that I've made onto the screen and look at it with a camera". That's it. That's the start.
From there you build on it: "
I want to be able to control a unit".
"I want to be able to control multiple units".
"I want my units to have vision".
"I want my units to be able to 'see' other units and target them".
And so on and so on. You build on your tech in layers.
An RTS will take you at least a year to make by yourself in your spare time.
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On April 14 2014 21:53 Gowerly wrote:
Spring is made by the people that MODDED TA (Swedish Yankspankers), IIRC. The people that made TA are now either at Uber or Gas Powered Games for the most part.
There are many, many engines out there.
Work on getting a core baseline for what you want. This is something exceptionally basic, but is great for getting building blocks to make the rest of your game on.
For you, it would be. "I want to load a level that I've made onto the screen and look at it with a camera". That's it. That's the start.
From there you build on it: "
I want to be able to control a unit".
"I want to be able to control multiple units".
"I want my units to have vision".
"I want my units to be able to 'see' other units and target them".
And so on and so on. You build on your tech in layers.
An RTS will take you at least a year to make by yourself in your spare time.
I think he confused TA Sptring with TA (since they did a reboot of TA on this engines). I don't know if it's what you wanted to say of if you were talking of mods on the original TA (which existed).
Cavedog wasn't bought by GPG ?
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Yeah, TA Spring was made by SY to show off what Spring could do, if I recall. I really enjoyed playing TA Spring.
Yeah, Cavedog became GPG in the end. Made Dungeon Siege, Supcom + Supcom 2, DemiGod, AoE games and some Sudoku game and has now been bought out by Wargames (I think?)
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i work in the game industry as an engine programmer, big company, but i'm not allowed to tell which one as the project is still secret
if you're not in the industry, you can not assemble a team to make your dream game. nobody except for suicidals/game school ppl would ever make the attempt, as they so very rarely succeed, which reduces your chances further.
building an entire game from the ground up is very much work that requires very much skill and experience. using unity is easier
so you need to do one of two things:
1) mobile games or unity games or stuff that you can pretty much do yourself, and maybe you'll get some respect so you can start getting some qualified coworkers. anyway, you get experience of what it means to actually ship a game, not just come up with the idea and make it almost work
2) get into the industry. when you're there you'll get to know all the ppls and they will quit their well paid jobs to follow your dreams. (for real, crazy fuckers do that all the time, and then they come back when they're poor as rats)
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Hey guys,
Thanks for your answers.
Yeah, no doubt it'll be hard. As I said in the blog, I work as a translator, and more and more on video games, so I am definitely making connections with some studios, start-ups and game developers. I have connections with former Blizzard employees for instance. It's only a beginning though.
Truth be told, I don't think I could manage to learn how to create the game entirely by myself. It would definitely have to be a team effort, an adventure. I wouldn't necessarily be the guy with all the ideas, and honestly I think that what I'd like the most right now would be to gather input from friends and people with a solid grasp of the industry to judge my ideas. I'd be absolutely open to concepts and suggestions from other people, and I'd even encourage it really.
Right now, only a few ideas are there, and we couldn't even call what I have a project. It's merely an ambition in its infancy. Something I would adore to do, but ultimately don't know if I will indeed do it. I have been working a whole lot lately, and don't have that much free time.
Experience is necessary for sure. Not perhaps as a studio or game maker, but at least as an employee. Look at the people who made WildStar. They're all former Blizzard employees, and they left to make their studio and their game. They received funding from NCSoft of course, so that helps.
I don't know. Hopefully I can find people who will at least partially share my opinions, and who would want the same thing. Not necessarily the exact same type of game, and not people who would have to agree with everything I say. Just people to work with, to bounce ideas off of. It'd be a start.
The dream!
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EPT
