Q&A with game developers

I thought it would be nice to pose some questions and get some answers from some of the developers here - people who actively make, sell and publish games for a living, and have completed titles under their belts. I think it would help give an insight into what life is like.


1. What does your typical day involve?

2. What motivates you to make games?

3. How do you start a game design? Where do you get your ideas?

4. Are you always certain you can turn your ideas into a successful game?

5. Have you ever started a project and not completed it?

6. What are the main worries or problems you face on a project?

7. What do you see as your market, and how do you think this will change over the next few years?

8. Where do you see yourself in 5/10/20 years time?

9. What's your favourite colour?

Design, Code, Test, Swear. Repeat. With an inopertune meeting thrown in once in a while for good measure.

Other games.

From my designer.

No. 95% of all games never get past prototyping.

It depends on what you mean. Have I ever backed down from something I was contractually obligated to do: No. Have I created "throw-away" prototypes: Absolutely. Everyone does that - whether they intend to or not.

Securing funding, meeting deadlines.

We have isolated quite a few likely market segments, and yes they do change over time (aka. Technology adoption lifecycle).

Pretty much doing what I do now, just on a much bigger scale.

Orange.

I'll play too...

Get woken up by the kids, shuffle around like a moron, take kids to school, eat something healthy and check emails and forums and blogs (quickly!), breathing and intention manifestation, then I start work which at the moment isn't making a game it's doing loads of little tasks which all add up to make passive income. I have a quick lunch and get straight back to it. Sometimes I have to go to town (5 mins away) to bank money or shop. I used to often work through until about 9pm then eat and then either carry on working until 1am or watch a DVD instead, but now I stop for a while and play games with the boys for a couple of hours before they go to bed, then I carry on. Sorry that was quite long...

Like FD other games, also money as now it's my job, also just coding and being creative is great fun, oh and also the people (some are really nice).

Well this is an odd one for me as I've made four match-3s (the premise being to start with something simple that is a proven money-maker). However I play lots of other games, and then I make a huge list of ideas and talk to the other team members and then cherry pick the best ones and try my best to get them in the game before the deadline expires.

No, but I'm positive and as I gain more experience I'm more certain. The next one will be massive, trust me...

When I was teenager I never finished anything. More recently my Iron Fist game was my first BPlus project, after 6 months I shelved it and made a Tetris clone, Shroom Eater and then my match-3 games which are all finished games. I also messed around with an unfinished little shooter called Jewel of Orion, but that just for fun. Even though I have a couple of unfinished things, they are still playable as a whole, I don't like to release just tech demos with primative courier text-based interfaces.

Finishing on time. All of my projects have had time limits (3 due to a seasonal window). Managing other people (or being managed by other people) can be a worry or a joy. Technical issues were a big worry for Xmas Bonus (BlitzPlus), but once they were sorted Easter Bonus was more fun to make. Also I had lots of worrisome technical issues to deal when making my framework, but once they were resolved, making OZ and HB was fun. Other big worry is will you make back your money (if you've invested any) and will you pay for your time. Oh an will the forum members slate it, but taht doesn't bother me any more :-)

Casual games at the moment. Expanding but also bigger players moving in. Fancy making retro games but it's a static market.

Rich and retired in a hot country. I'm serious. Anything creative that I do with games/music/Internet will be for fun not because I need the money.

gah, I find it hard to answer these sort of questions, but in the spirit of making a decision I'll choose blue (for serenity).

Thanks that was fun.

I'm not exclusively writing games just now - doing a few other things too. However:

A typical 'good' coding day will start at 7:30-8am. I force myself to get up that early sometimes, and writing my game gives me motivation to do that. I generally spend mornings and part of the afternoon in the loft on my main dev PC. If I need to do any graphics, this is where they get done as my laptop isn't capable of running Photoshop.

Mid-afternoon I generally move downstairs and concentrate on coding and testing. This would typically continue until about midnight, but sometimes a little earlier or later. Leaving an unsolved problem to stew overnight isn't a fabulous idea, although taking a break can help you to find problems easier later.

Money.

If I'm going to work my fingers to the bone making somebody rich, I want it to be me.

I have this illness called Golf Tourettes. That's where four ideas have come from. Otherwise I'm sometimes inspired by other games. Plus I sometimes have wacky game ideas come to me when I'm lying awake in bed at night.

I can always turn ideas into reality. The 'successful' part is another matter...

Yep. I started a 3D snooker game a couple of years ago. I got zero interest from potential publishers, so I canned it.

Artwork, every time. I'm utterly crap at it.

I used to see publishers as my market, but recently I've been left with little alternative but to reassess the situation. So now I'm writing games for the people who want to play them, rather than those who want to sell them and make profit.

Probably doing the same thing, but with less hair.

Black.

1. go working
2. games from other plattforms
3. -
4.not allways ;)
5. yap some things
6. artwork and time
7. hobby - so no market for me
8. fishing or some hobby coding with max3d
9. http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/counter/rgb.txt.shtml

Interesting responses so far - keep em coming guys and girls

Any reason for asking these questions?

Any reason for asking these questions?

Purely out of interest. I'm not a journalist or a critic, I just want to know how people thrive and/or survive in this business. I have a day job, it pays ok, and although I know I might have the ability write a decent game, I'm just scared out of my wits of moving into it full time (paying a mortgage, bills etc.). In fact I was hoping you would reply to this - I've followed Naked War on this site since day 1, having been a fan of your previous work dating back years and years.

1) On and off programming / designing / making models etc all day. Start when I wake up and finish when I get tired. Sometimes stop around dinner time but other times I don't stop til early the next morning.

2) I like to be creative. I was always into games as a kid, board games, cpu games etc. I think I like making games more than playing them to be honest.

3) Quite a tough question to answer for me. Sometimes I get inspiration from another game, or a movie perhaps. Usually tho I get ideas when I'm out and about and have nowhere to write them down LOL. When I do start designing, I try and get everything down on paper and then research it in books or the internet.

4) No. But to be honest I don't mind too much how and game turns out. I had fun making it and that was my reason for doing it which makes it a success.

5) Yeah I've started a few projects which never got finished. I've actually come back to games I started years ago and then redesigned it and remade them properly.

6) Music. I can do everything else, programming, 2d art, 3d models, textures, sound effects etc etc. But I just can't do music. Something for me to start working on this year I think.

7) Hmmm again difficult to answer for me. I've made so many different types of games. Some of my older games I had published on the front of magazines. That was an educational maths game for kids, a platform game and a kiddies easter egg hunt game. I want to make more serious games in the future, in particular horror games.

8) Older, fatter, hopefully a bit richer. I'll continue what I'm doing now and hope for the best ;o)

9) Red