GameDev from scratch: From the hackathon to your own game development studio. Part 1
Introducing the new series of articles dedicated to game development. In it, a small studio from St. Petersburg will talk about how their love for game devs started, how they created the first game and became winners of an international competition . We invite you under the cat in the fascinating story of indie developers from the first person.
1. From the hackathon to our own game development studio: part 1 , part 2 .
2. Unity3D and vector graphics .
3. How to communicate with the player without words .
4. How to get out of chaos and start working .
Hello! We are the IzHard team - a small game development studio from St. Petersburg. We are working on two projects OVIVO and coloristique . The love of game development began with a simple participation in the hackathon from Microsoft more than two years ago. Since then, we have come a long way. We started by not knowing nothing about the development, then came to the hackathon, made a prototype of the OVIVO game, with which we became winners in the international Imagine Cup competition in 2015, received a grant and founded our own game development studio.
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During all this time we have accumulated a lot of experience, which we want to share with you. The first article from the cycle will be useful for those who are going to participate in the upcoming Imagine Cup 2017. We’ll tell you what the Imagine Cup is, what actions led us to victory and give some tips. In the next article we will talk about our work in the studio: how it differs from developing a game for the competition, what problems indie developers have problems with and how to solve them.
This is an international competition from Microsoft , aimed at the development of interest in information technology among young people. It takes place every year and students, graduate students and schoolchildren over 16 years old can take part in it. Imagine Cup is carried out in several stages: at the beginning of the national stage - one winner is chosen in each country, then online selection takes place - the best projects are selected among national winners, and finally the final, which is held in Seattle, USA, at Microsoft headquarters.
Until 2017, all projects were divided into three categories: innovations, social projects, games. From the current year, all projects are held under one category - innovation.
The essence of the competition is the presentation of some cool tech idea. The team will have to develop a prototype, come up with a business plan and make a presentation of their project to the judges.
Evaluated by several criteria: how much your product effectively uses new technologies, what is the project novelty, will it be successful in the market and how relevant is the idea. As a result, Microsoft will allocate a cash grant of $ 100,000 for the development of the project to the first place team.
Our team first met at the hackathon in November 2014. This was our first hackathon, in which we developed a prototype of the OVIVO game. The joy of victory was so inspiring that we decided to finalize the project, at least to the stage of a small demo. At the same time, the recruitment of participants for the Imagine Cup took place, and without thinking twice, we decided to try our hand and take part.
In order to get to the national stage, it was necessary to go through a regional one in St. Petersburg. During preparation, we thought about how to make our presentation special, and decided to make it in the form of an application on Unity. Since the game was on the same engine, the gameplay process was not interrupted by the slide show. This idea really helped us earn points in the subsequent stages.
At the national stage, we also made a presentation on Unity, but more elaborated: we shortened the text and made it more expressive, fixed many bugs, and just were less worried because the presentation was completely worked out.
Preparation for the final was a serious challenge, because this year we graduated from the university and the team had to closely combine preparation for the competition and thesis. Therefore, we laid out as much as our free time allowed us to study:
This is an interview before the preparation.
As a result, we radically changed the presentation. Initially, it lacked vividness and wow effects, and we simply missed many key points. Together with mentors from the Moscow office of Microsoft, Anastasia Makeyonok and Dmitry Soshnikov , we came up with, for example, a trick with a discharged battery, which very pleasantly surprised both the jury and the public (4:01).
All these efforts were not in vain - our team won first place in the Games category and we received a grant from Microsoft for $ 50,000. We were extremely happy and felt a great relief that all this was finally over.
However, as winners, we still had to compete with other prize-winners of our categories for the Imagine Cup - the winner among the winners, and for this it was necessary to perform before the thousands of people with a shorter version of the presentation. Famous people were invited to the jury: Alex Kipman - the main designer of the Kinect controller, Jens Bergensten - the lead developer of Minecraft and Thomas Middleditch - the actor of the series “Silicon Valley”.
We did not take the cup, but still very happy, although tired, soon returned home. And our next step was the creation of a studio, which we will discuss in the next part of the material.
Imagine cup is a super contest that gives you the opportunity to test your idea and yourself. For us, this was the most memorable adventure that changed our lives. We would really like all those who are still thinking about participating or not, definitely answer - participate! Registration is now open . But we must not forget that the competition will take you a lot of time and effort. We would like to share some of the tips and tips that we followed, we hope that they will be useful to you.
We hope that this article was useful and interesting for you.
The series of articles "GameDev from scratch"
1. From the hackathon to our own game development studio: part 1 , part 2 .
2. Unity3D and vector graphics .
3. How to communicate with the player without words .
4. How to get out of chaos and start working .
let's get acquainted
Hello! We are the IzHard team - a small game development studio from St. Petersburg. We are working on two projects OVIVO and coloristique . The love of game development began with a simple participation in the hackathon from Microsoft more than two years ago. Since then, we have come a long way. We started by not knowing nothing about the development, then came to the hackathon, made a prototype of the OVIVO game, with which we became winners in the international Imagine Cup competition in 2015, received a grant and founded our own game development studio.
')
During all this time we have accumulated a lot of experience, which we want to share with you. The first article from the cycle will be useful for those who are going to participate in the upcoming Imagine Cup 2017. We’ll tell you what the Imagine Cup is, what actions led us to victory and give some tips. In the next article we will talk about our work in the studio: how it differs from developing a game for the competition, what problems indie developers have problems with and how to solve them.
What is the Imagine Cup?
This is an international competition from Microsoft , aimed at the development of interest in information technology among young people. It takes place every year and students, graduate students and schoolchildren over 16 years old can take part in it. Imagine Cup is carried out in several stages: at the beginning of the national stage - one winner is chosen in each country, then online selection takes place - the best projects are selected among national winners, and finally the final, which is held in Seattle, USA, at Microsoft headquarters.
Until 2017, all projects were divided into three categories: innovations, social projects, games. From the current year, all projects are held under one category - innovation.
The essence of the competition is the presentation of some cool tech idea. The team will have to develop a prototype, come up with a business plan and make a presentation of their project to the judges.
Evaluated by several criteria: how much your product effectively uses new technologies, what is the project novelty, will it be successful in the market and how relevant is the idea. As a result, Microsoft will allocate a cash grant of $ 100,000 for the development of the project to the first place team.
As it was in 2015
Our team first met at the hackathon in November 2014. This was our first hackathon, in which we developed a prototype of the OVIVO game. The joy of victory was so inspiring that we decided to finalize the project, at least to the stage of a small demo. At the same time, the recruitment of participants for the Imagine Cup took place, and without thinking twice, we decided to try our hand and take part.
In order to get to the national stage, it was necessary to go through a regional one in St. Petersburg. During preparation, we thought about how to make our presentation special, and decided to make it in the form of an application on Unity. Since the game was on the same engine, the gameplay process was not interrupted by the slide show. This idea really helped us earn points in the subsequent stages.
At the national stage, we also made a presentation on Unity, but more elaborated: we shortened the text and made it more expressive, fixed many bugs, and just were less worried because the presentation was completely worked out.
Preparation for the final was a serious challenge, because this year we graduated from the university and the team had to closely combine preparation for the competition and thesis. Therefore, we laid out as much as our free time allowed us to study:
- They showed the project every week to Microsoft employees, journalists and other teams.
- They were losing various situations when the presentation could not go according to the scenario, they learned how to respond to provocative questions correctly.
- We jagged the text, because English was not up to par with us.
- We worked a lot on the game build itself. They made an interesting feature: the players themselves could draw a figure with a felt-tip pen, take a picture of it and add it to the game. Many judges liked it very much.
This is an interview before the preparation.
As a result, we radically changed the presentation. Initially, it lacked vividness and wow effects, and we simply missed many key points. Together with mentors from the Moscow office of Microsoft, Anastasia Makeyonok and Dmitry Soshnikov , we came up with, for example, a trick with a discharged battery, which very pleasantly surprised both the jury and the public (4:01).
All these efforts were not in vain - our team won first place in the Games category and we received a grant from Microsoft for $ 50,000. We were extremely happy and felt a great relief that all this was finally over.
However, as winners, we still had to compete with other prize-winners of our categories for the Imagine Cup - the winner among the winners, and for this it was necessary to perform before the thousands of people with a shorter version of the presentation. Famous people were invited to the jury: Alex Kipman - the main designer of the Kinect controller, Jens Bergensten - the lead developer of Minecraft and Thomas Middleditch - the actor of the series “Silicon Valley”.
We did not take the cup, but still very happy, although tired, soon returned home. And our next step was the creation of a studio, which we will discuss in the next part of the material.
Tips for beginners
Imagine cup is a super contest that gives you the opportunity to test your idea and yourself. For us, this was the most memorable adventure that changed our lives. We would really like all those who are still thinking about participating or not, definitely answer - participate! Registration is now open . But we must not forget that the competition will take you a lot of time and effort. We would like to share some of the tips and tips that we followed, we hope that they will be useful to you.
- In the team for the competition, try to choose primarily interested people, even if they have little experience. More chances that the project will not be abandoned halfway.
- If nobody knows English in the team, you are less likely to reach the final even if you have passed the national selection. Unfortunately, this is one important criterion, despite the steepness of your idea.
- Do not be afraid to experiment with your presentation. Try not to follow a strict pattern.
- Do not be afraid of performances at the performance, but do not get too carried away.
- Make the presentation fun. Laughter will help you to relax and not be nervous, and the jury will take a break from the dry facts.
- Quietly treat questions like: "And what, it was better not to think up?".
- These kind of questions are just used to look at your reaction.
- Spend more time implementing your idea. She alone can be a great presentation.
- The key to a great presentation is rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal.
- Watch Brainy Studio performance - the winners in 2014. This is a great example.
- Additionally, you can read their blog " Tips experienced ", many of them we followed in the preparation.
We hope that this article was useful and interesting for you.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/321872/
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