[HN Gopher] How do you fund that game prototype?
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How do you fund that game prototype?
Author : polm23
Score : 51 points
Date : 2021-03-06 08:56 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (gamediscoverability.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gamediscoverability.substack.com)
| yetihehe wrote:
| TL;DR: by having some free time, saved up funds (or "lottery"
| like kickstarter) and then just doing it.
|
| It's like with prototypes in any other area. You have idea, you
| either convince someone that it's good (typically with alredy
| working prototype, which precludes funding for prototypes) or use
| your own time/funds. I wish there could be other way. Maybe
| someday UBI will give us that.
| omniscient_oce wrote:
| and be a white man apparently
| puddingnomeat wrote:
| what is that supposed to mean?
| pmichaud wrote:
| Read the article, it weirdly shoehorns the "white male"
| thing in there between "we used savings when possible and
| worked 75 hour weeks until we had something to show."
| angrais wrote:
| How does that quote relate to being white??
|
| Are you implying that non-white or female people can't
| save money and prototype an idea? I'm lost.
| omniscient_oce wrote:
| Did you read the article? It quotes a Twitter
| conversation where a user asks for specifically white
| male experiences about creating a game studio /
| prototype. In general the answers basically amount to "I
| worked extremely hard, like 75hr weeks. Worked full time
| job whilst doing it; took multiple years before things
| started to work out" and then the article again tries to
| shoehorn the white male narrative to invalidate the
| answers. "other job / parents covering tuition / lack of
| dependents to support" are hardly exclusive to one gender
| or skin colour.
| imnotjames wrote:
| The article starts off by saying they want to poll white
| men, because marginalized developers are struggling.
|
| It includes quotes from people such as this:
|
| > I think most local white dudes > don't think of a
| prototype as something they "funded". They > "just made
| it" because they had > time, space and hardware.
|
| Generally, refers to hidden privilege throughout as
| subtext. If you're white and male you have more access to
| these kinds of opportunities, etc.
| Danieru wrote:
| > kinds of opportunities
|
| The irony of course being "working for free on personal
| project after work" is not an opportunity.
|
| No doubt I am the exact class of "white dude" the article
| is talking about. My "funding" story is super boring. I
| worked on my game after a full day of work and after
| getting kids to bed.
|
| Spend savings from day job on commissioned art to make
| the game pretty, after a couple years you should have a
| game worth players time. If "having job" counts as
| privilege then sure it requires privilege, to the exact
| extent paying rent does too.
|
| PS: Occasionally commenters say "I program all day and
| have no energy to program at home". To which I can only
| warn: games programming is not what you want.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| It might be controversial, but are you sure the current way is
| wrong?
|
| If you did not have to consider financial viability of a
| project, then more people would make more random stuff, which
| of course would produce more useful stuff, because the sample
| size increases, but there would also be more useless garbage.
|
| The question is whether and in what direction/magnitude the
| signal to noise ratio would change in the UBI scenario.
| yetihehe wrote:
| > It might be controversial, but are you sure the current way
| is wrong?
|
| No, current way is the most optimal I can think of in current
| situation. There are better ways, but not widely
| implementable currently.
|
| As for more garbage - yes, there would be more noise, but
| ALSO more signal (in my humble opinion). Signal in this case
| is useful things, which would be multiplied by usability,
| which is a net win for me.
| tubularhells wrote:
| These privilege bashing articles are really cringe. At what point
| do we call this sexism/racism?
| tobr wrote:
| "Privilege bashing"? Christ, how can it be "bashing" to have a
| candid discussion about why some people are able to turn their
| passions into a business, while others can't? Your reasoning is
| dangerously close to "the real racism is suggesting that racism
| would ever be a factor in anything".
| [deleted]
| Tade0 wrote:
| Because more often than not it misses the mark - heavily at
| that.
|
| The article mentions skin tone, but doesn't go too deep into
| why that might influence things - just assumes that this is
| the case.
|
| Meanwhile, as an eastern European, I see typical examples of
| how _social class_ influences one 's options.
|
| To clarify my point: we're predominantly white over here and
| yet experience the same kind of problems, which leads me to
| think that it's probably not skin tone, over which Americans
| left and right seem to be so fixated, but other things.
|
| Yes, there's racism - that's abundantly clear. But there's
| also poverty, inequality and an associated lack of access to
| education. Maybe we would have made more progress as a
| species if we stopped focusing on easily identifiable
| features?
| Viliam1234 wrote:
| Same here, white male from Eastern Europe, if someone has a
| recipe how to make other people give me lots of money in
| return for a hope that in a few years I will produce a
| great computer game... please tell me. Because I would love
| writing my own game, instead of developing boring
| applications.
|
| Reading all these texts about whiteness and maleness, I
| suspect an important step in the process is sending someone
| a picture of a white penis. Okay, I have a picture, but no
| idea where to send it. Should I just spam everyone and hope
| for the best?
|
| If we are talking about privileges, how about mentioning
| the most relevant one: rich privilege? Oh I forgot, this
| one probably does not exist. Too bad, because a rich person
| could easily fund the game prototype, and maybe even pay
| for favorable reviews.
| jjj123 wrote:
| Well in the US race is inextricably tied to class. We have
| a long history of limiting the economic opportunities of
| Black people that's led to a pretty extreme black/white
| wealth gap.
|
| So in the US at least, class issues are race issues.
| Tade0 wrote:
| Europe also has a long history of limiting economic
| opportunities of black people - arguably much longer than
| the US, and yet the situation isn't that dire over here.
|
| Do you truly believe it's _just_ skin tone?
| smoe wrote:
| I agree with you, but in my opinion, articles like this could
| generally do a better job separating between privilege and
| the ridiculous amount of work and commitment it can take to
| make it in art, especially as an independent.
|
| Anecdotally, from the people I know making a living (so not
| being rich, just at least getting by fully on their own) as
| independents in music, sound design/engineering, illustration
| and writing have one thing in common: A 10+ year grind behind
| them working (either to earn money or practicing) 16 hour
| days, over weekends, almost no vacations or going out,
| investing everything in materials instead, living in tiny
| apartments or with their parents, taking shitty day jobs to
| earn enough to eat, etc.
|
| Where the privilege comes in, is when due to ones
| socioeconomic status they can't make the above sacrifices
| even though they would have the necessary perseverance to get
| through.
|
| From my perspective, we definitely need to do better pretty
| much globally in providing more equal opportunity within
| societies. But even if this aspect wouldn't exist, people are
| also just too naive about how much hard work is involved in
| these types of careers no matter how passionate or talented
| they think they are. For every one "white dude" that made it,
| there are probably thousands that didn't, because they spent
| most their free time playing video games and smoking weed but
| are blaming it on something else.
| angrais wrote:
| Can you provide some examples from the article where sexism and
| racism occurs? I'm not seeing it
| xu_ituairo wrote:
| Up to you whether you think this is racist, but the article
| does invoke generalizations about race and gender through
| this quote here:
|
| > [To be honest] I think most local white dudes don't think
| of a prototype as something they "funded". They "just made
| it" because they had time, space and hardware. Did their
| other job/parents covering tuition/lack of dependents to
| support/etc allow that? Yeah, but they can't see how it
| paid."
|
| Personally, I imagine class or wealth has more to do with
| being able to bootstrap a game than skin color. And I imagine
| the barriers to entry have been lowering steeply.
| admissionsguy wrote:
| It's all about race, just look at all those white dudes
| from Polish villages cranking out one prototype after
| another, swimming in the vast oceans of opportunity.
| Contrast that with the daily struggle any person of colour
| must endure to survive in, say, Seattle. Unfathomable.
| elefanten wrote:
| This is an underrated comment. The blindingly American
| framework in these discussions is in itself bigoted -- it
| completely ignores countervailing evidence that comes
| from adopting a global perspective.
| ycombinete wrote:
| For what it's worth, that quote is from Dislekcia. He is a
| white developer from South Africa, where class/wealth is
| still extremely correlated with race, due to obvious
| historical reasons.
| wtf_is_up wrote:
| white man bad
| sokoloff wrote:
| Same way you fund any other 5-to-9 creative micro-business or
| passion. If you're an unknown, no one is lining up to pay you to
| develop a prototype of your game idea, any more than they would
| if you were getting started in fine art or music.
|
| How do other people fund their band practice or painting or
| pottery passion? If you already have a computer and can program,
| your prototype probably costs less money and time than what those
| endeavors cost those artists.
| mathgladiator wrote:
| I'll provide my answer: work in high stress low supply work and
| build capital. I've spent a decade in infrastructure. Beyond the
| ego lift of working on big things, it's not fun work.
|
| The good news is the grind is open to all skin colors! Slap that
| pager on your hip and prepare for a rough night!
|
| Once you have enough capital, you can leverage the market to
| provide an infinite funding stream. PLUS, as a disciplined
| engineer, you have the highest cost skill along with the ability
| to not make mistakes.
|
| The risk is that you may find yourself giving into avarice and
| enjoying that high income stream from the enterprise market.
| jimmySixDOF wrote:
| It's a Chicken-or-the-Egg problem. You need talent and resources
| to develop your Prototype but those talents and resources improve
| dramatically if there is a Prototype to play with. Catch 22. The
| Makers Dilemma. A microscale version of what Peter Thiel calls
| "Zero to One" - as in getting from nothing now to something new.
| The post is based on a great tweet thread full of inspiring
| stories of grit and determination; but as far as starting up
| anything in any person's garage anywhere, you may just as well be
| saying that water is wet.
| Danieru wrote:
| > talent and resources to develop your Prototype
|
| Developing the required talent and resources is best done
| working a day job. Go work as a cog in a game making team,
| they'll cover your weaknesses and build your strengths.
| Attempting to make a game while also "making your skills" will
| result all early work being vastly interior to later work.
|
| If getting employment on a team is impossible that points to a
| bigger issue: you need at least 1 skill to get hired but you
| need 12+ skills to finish a game. Short of devs in locations
| without studios, most developers should start their career
| making portfolio pieces to get a job.
|
| Too often people think of Indie dev as an intro into the
| industry: but that is like starting a restaurant to "break
| into" the food service industry.
| Impossible wrote:
| It's reasonable to expect someone who is new to the industry
| to make a small game, so a better analogy might be expecting
| someone to be a decent home cook before getting a good
| service job. I agree though when you start talking about game
| dev as a business. Although people start successful
| businesses from cooking in their home, it's highly unlikely
| that they'll get it off the ground, let alone be successful.
| failrate wrote:
| Self fund your prototype. Do not spend a lot of money on
| programmers, designers, and artists. Time box your prototype. No
| more than a year.
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