How would I go about assembling a team for a game if I have a small budget?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hey guys, so I’ve been playing with unreal engine for a very short while, back in the day I used to tinker / make maps with Sapien / 3ds Max, ect for Halo Custom Edition.

It was only until now that I realized how absolutely incredible this engine is. That even someone like me, with so little artistic talent and know-how could come in and craft a map after just a few tutorials.

I’d always talk to my buddies about really “making something happen”, producing / creating a game that was simplistic and almost done as a fun project. I have the funds, I’ve been saving for a very long time but now comes the problem.

I’m clueless on game design. I can’t say that I have enough saved to go out and pay people salaries, but I’d love to find people who would work with me and get a massive share of the game sales. I’d rent out an office if I could find local people.

I don’t know how much is needed and I don’t know what the job market is like. This is not to take advantage of young people looking for work, I’d love to fund the living hell out of it and give them a massive incentive to come together, which of course would be - basically owning a huge share of the game.

Please go easy on me, haha. This is just a pipe dream of mine and since I am so in the dark, I figured that here would be the best place to ask. How much is a realistic budget? What do people want to be paid?

Keep in mind, I would not want to create anything extravagant, but I do have ideas in mind for a neat little shooter.

If I am over simplifying this, let me know. I’d like to assume I have enough saved to AT LEAST put a dent in some of the equipment, legal fees, ect but since I’ve never done it - I could be totally wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and let me know what you think.

2

The vast majority of projects go nowhere so if you put your money into that then you’re most likely going to lose it all. If you can think of a simple project that you know you can complete on a very small budget then that might be OK but it’s still a challenge.

If you really want to, you could invest that money into yourself to help build up your own game development ability, depending on what you want to do with your life.

3

Yes, this sounds like a good idea. I have been doing a lot of reading and realized that what’s considered “small” in the industry is massive towards others. The amount I have for a budget is a speck of dust compared to even a small studio.

This has always been something I’ve wanted to manifest, but it looks like I am back to learning on my own. The amount of people you need for one of these projects is simply mind blowing.

4

Well the project I’m working on now started life as a game mod of an all ready established game (Quake3). The cool thing about mods is thous that you want to play in your sand box already knows that it’s more for fun than actually making a product to sell and once you take money off the table opens the project to a lot of individuals who want to do their cool things rather than sticking with a process as demanded by the bottom line.

To make an assumption I’m will to bet a dozen Tim bits that a large percentage of developers on the Epic team started out in the mod pit :smiley:

To add my opinion as to how wrong things works today.

Many moons ago there use to be TONs of mod teams and if you had the skills could be working on 4 or 5 at the same time. The thing then was about the fun so not unusual for teams to share or even fork off from one project to another. There was even a lot of sharing going on form code and content. Bob on team A was willing to trade some code to Harry on team B for some art work for his project and tada instant underground market place.

Then along comes what I like to call the Counter Strike effect.

Counter Strike started life as a mod and reached a level of maturity that Valve hired the entire CS mod team to further develop the game under the Valve flag. Same thing happen to Team Fortress and for a while mod teams were almost being drafted into AAA major league that sand lot game development tuned into what is know known as Indy development with a price tag.

That’s not to say that the old school mod teams are no longer around but they are just harder to find as most startups usually start with the unrealistic impression that they will make the next great thing to come to gaming and that all will share in the profits. That’s not to say that it can’t be done but it’s just to big an idea to even get started as a for fun project. The thing is a mod is a thing that gets you to the thing you want to do :smiley:

I could go on but the top line selling point should be about beer and pizza fun and not that in 4 years time you can sell the game :smiley:

5

If you have small budget (but it is still a budget, not peanuts, cafe and beer money) you should start developing very simple game, something on scale of 1990s arcade games.
So look trough those oldies, pick game you like, use its idea to make your own simple game. Must be very simple.

Start making it and learning unreal. Buy some tutorials, they speed up learning.

Use your budget for commissioning assets like models sounds etc. Pick author from marketplace, contact, make sure that person is dedicated to it.

6

I want to learn 3d modelling, and i have little interest in coding. Do you want to team up?

7

If you really want to put a team together, your going to need a considerable amount of money, as you have already noted. I haven’t done it myself so take my advice with a grain of salt. Read a book called “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. You can get it on Amazon if you like, or maybe at your local library. The book is an introduction on how rich people think, and how to use your money to make MORE money.

I personally have given up on trying to build a game by myself. My time and effort has been refocused on raising my net worth through different business pursuits and eliminating all debt. Why? So I can raise the money needed to hire a team for game development. This way, when you’re networth is high enough, you can afford to pay a small team of talented developers who specialize in their craft (Character art, Props, lighting etc…). As compared to spreading yourself (and your resources) thin and trying to learn all of it yourself. You might learn a lot a long the way, but you’ll never be really good at one thing.

Anyway, I’m not saying you shouldn’t learn game development. If your an artist, set time aside to improve your art skills. If your a coder, do the same. Heck, its good to have small projects on the side to keep learning. For me though, spending all hours of the day in-front a computer and “dreaming” about my game coming to life isn’t probable. If you really want to work with a small team and bring a project to life, consider reading some books on entrepreneurship and how to manage your money. They actually work! (Oh and its not a get rich quick scheme, it still requires a lot of hard work).

I had a friend who used to work at a private airport, and almost everyday he would end up cleaning out some rich guys plane, and get it prepped again for take off (He even saw Taylor Swift, which is pretty cool). Anyway, he had the opportunity to talk to really successful people (billionaires…) about how they got there. Almost all of them recommended reading that book!