The Games Game

Hit the Trenches Before Starting a Studio (March 2003)

Dear Tom:

I'm currently in year 4 of 5 of an Electronic Systems and Software Systems double major in Engineering. I love playing games and have read everything I can get my hands on about making games. Unfortunately, I live in the middle of nowhere in Canada and there are no professional game developers anywhere in my province.

In an effort to gain some experience, I have teamed up with a few like-minded friends (all of us with different complementary skills) and we are working on creating our own game for some experience. I've had some general computer/programming work experience thanks to some co-op work, but no gaming-specific experience. I would really like to stay in this city and start my own development studio. Is that a realistic option or should I not even consider it without first working in the industry? Is it possible to recruit/partner with some experienced industry professionals to help get our company started? What do you recommend?

Mark Dynna

Dear Mark,

It's a good idea to work on an indy project to further your education on the process of making a game. Once you've graduated, I highly recommend that you move temporarily to Vancouver or Montreal, and get a job in a game company. You would be amazed how much you can learn about the game industry with two or three years of practical industry experience. That knowledge will be invaluable to you when you move back to your home town and start your own studio.

If you skip the game job and try to start your own studio, you have to learn everything the hard way. It's harder to make contacts within the industry. It's harder to get capital to fund your company. It's harder to find people to hire. It's harder to get contracts. And a lack of understanding about employment law, contracts, industry distribution practices, and a myriad of other things will hamper your efforts at every turn.

Just working at a game company, you will be exposed to all of these things and more. You'll learn about office politics and the dynamics of teamwork. You'll get to see how your released product is handled by the publisher or parent company. You'll experience firsthand how contract clauses affect everything, from design to sales to royalties to bonus checks.

If you try to learn all these things by doing them yourself, you can crash and burn gloriously - it'll be a sight to see for those around you, but it can be unpleasant (to say the least) for you!

College degrees and indy projects cannot begin to approach the benefits of working at a game company. You'll make contacts, both at your employer's company and at other companies you work with. Those contacts will be invaluable to you. And your name in the credits will give you cachet (that's an old-fashioned French word meaning "props"). Above, I mentioned "two or three years," but before forming your own company you will want to attain the level of technical director or at least lead programmer. And that could well take four years or more. Consider it an extension of your current educational process, only you get paid too!