Guidelines for Starting a Game Company

Foreword
I’ve seen a lot of people who’d like to know how they could start their own game company and that have inspired me to write this article. By the way, this article have been up for years and as it seems quite popular I’ve just rewritten it (May 13, 2006) to increase the quality and ensure it's up-to-date as things have changed a bit these days.

In this article I try to describe step-by-step how you would go from just an idea to a published title while starting your own game company. Hope you like it =)

The Idea
This is very important since the idea is like an embryo that you’ll later build upon to put it to life so this is more or less the whole purpose of starting your company. However, before starting the development you should write down the idea and everything else about the game in a design document. Or if you think that’s too much, make sure you specify the important parts of the game (i.e. story, gameplay, characters etc.) and complement it later, you can also skip things like GUI and input system that are subject to change under the development. See the related links below for some articles on design documents. Also keep in mind that you should always try to make something unique in your game to bring peoples attention to it - don't just imitate everyone else or no one will become interested in it.

Team Members
When you get this far I’d recommend you run the project on a per-hobby-basis for a start, in case you don’t have like a million dollars to spend on hiring people. To do this you’ll need to put together a team, whether it is over the internet or IRL (In Real Life) you need to get some people. Finding people is quite easy assuming you have at least something to show them, a description of the idea, concept art, story snippets or a website might help getting people interested in your project. GameDev.Net and CGTalk is two great places to advertise for programmers and artists respectively.

So when you’re about to recruit someone to your team don’t just let them join without effort; looking at work samples is great to get an idea of their talents and/or competence but what will they do for you? A good way to answer the question is by giving the person in question an assignment on the project and see what they come up with and if they manage to complete it in reasonable time, this will tell you a lot about their motivation and help preventing slackers from joining your team.

Development
If you want the project to be successful I wouldn’t recommend you to start from scratch, instead use an existing game- or rendering engine as this makes it possible for you to focus on the things that are unique in your game, e.g. gameplay and AI. There are a lot of existing engines out there, both free and commercial ones, check out DevMaster.net for a list of popular engines. Personally I’d recommend OGRE which at the time of writing is the most popular open source rendering engine.

Contract
This is what you’ll need to start the actual company and continue development for a living, but first you need to have something to show up. Developing a playable demo (i.e. alpha or beta version) and submitting it to various publishers might help you get a contract but you’ll also need to have a detailed documentation, not just about the game itself but also an economical plan and a project plan together with a motivated team who’s able to finish the project.

However, there are some things that you should think about before submitting a game to any publisher. Try to impress the game testers, it has to be something new or special to stick out from the majority, otherwise you might never get a contract. The gameplay is also very important, no matter how great your game looks – no one will play it if it isn’t fun. So make sure to fix obvious bugs and let people playtest your game before you submit it.

About Me (The Author)
I’m a 20 year old physics student from Sweden, but I’m also running a game project in my free time, see our project site for more info. My interest in games began when I was a little kid and soon thereafter I became interested in programming and discovered the joy of game development. During my high school years I started developing 3D applications and wanted to bring my own game idea to life. Then, as the time went by, some great rendering engines became available and I saw the possibility to develop my idea so I started to create a design document which took me a couple of months. Next, all I needed was a team so I advertised for people on GameDev.net and we are now in the beginning of the development process. Feel free to contact me at peter.larsson@pellesoft.se if you have any comments or questions.

Design documents
The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 1
The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 2
Creating a Great Design Document
Design Document Template

Other
GameDev.net
DevMaster.net - 3D Game and Graphics Engines Database

Visits since November 21, 2005.
Last updated July 26, 2006.
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