Rotate 180. From CRM systems to game dev # 1

Good day. Although this is not a time limit, but for the last eight years I have been working almost exclusively on the web. Work in an Internet agency (earlier it was called more earthly - a web studio), leaving for freelancing, working under a contract with various guys from America / Europe, trying to write your gold startup.

But quiet monthly billing and eight hours a day - sometimes you want even more problems on your head. Yes, and it turned out to be easier to find them, it was enough to try to write my first game and face a heap of pitfalls, crossings, turns, denials and acceptances.
')
And just below is a small note about my reflections, the beginning of the track in this rather difficult area, as I learn to make games without harming breakfast with a sausage. Play

Update after reread :
It turned out pretty messy, but what I learned for myself - if I really want to "write a game", but there is very little experience - it is worth starting with asset stor and every aspect, be it programming, concepts, level design, etc. - 100 times a bit. As a side effect, it will turn out to assemble a team and not be 100% dependent on personal savings.

Something goes wrong, hmm.

So, attempt number one. Take slack + youtrack + bitbucket, a pinch of agile. We recall the rule that work takes all the time allotted to it, set a deadline of two months and do not have time . We understand that to make another Clash of Clans with a swoop will not work and take the idea of ​​an infinite runner, a time killer. The overall outline of the first stage is to feel all the stages.

A few days to search for a social graph, now the team is assembled, we are ready to fulfill ambitious goals. And after two weeks comes the understanding that the work on corporate software, which is mostly quite logical, and the work on the game are extremely different things. Especially when the team is scattered around the globe.



Long nights, trying to remake your head from the principle of " render html and death " to " onUpdate 60 times per second, 80% of the code are hacks and detours ", the need to answer questions of the format " What height should a jump? A barrel should be square or round? And the form of the leaf on the bush enough conveys the concept of our project? ".

About 80 percent of the code was ready, a bunch of graphics, collapsible 3d models of cities, prefabs, and more. But we did not complete it. By sober assessment - there is quite a lot in app store / google play and we didn’t cherish the indie developer’s lottery dream.



A small result of a month and a half, let it be a certain feature:

• minus ~ 150 000 rubles
• understanding that this is a rather difficult area
• Pareto rule check in action
• collected process information

And if you try to make money on trying?

We refuse remote work, search for additional people who will do something for “experience”, “idea” or “you can rob a cow”. We will try to break down the task into sub-steps and translate this matter into self-sufficiency, maybe, according to common thinking, it’s a good thing to do for years and everyone needs to eat something.

Two tickets, me and a friend, on the train Blagoveshchensk - Khabarovsk, three days almost sleep to rent apartments / small office in the basement / search for people / buy a kettle / 20l of drinking water / router / packs of nails and a hammer.



And the solution was found and quite simple. Marketplaces . From unity and unreal. We just broke all the steps for developing games and pack each into a pack.

This kills two birds with one stone - we go through carefully and several times all the steps, we earn a few hundred dollars each. Allows and cookies in the office to buy and acquire the most valuable capital - knowledge.

Let's draw one more line:

• minus ~ 50 000 rubles for people and coffee
• plus ~ 7 000 rubles from the store
• 2 Assets sent for review
• Removed the problem with the separation of work-home, the scourge of freelancers
• opportunity to dig into all parts without large losses
• careful analysis
• funny brainstorming

Farther?

And then - tomorrow is Monday and we will continue to move towards a global goal - to do something of a world-class level, something that we would look at with pride. And after a while I plan to write more notes on how everything happens with us. Maybe I didn’t guess a bit with the format, but the “Publish” button is already clicked and let it be what will be.

Have a nice weekend and see you soon.

PS: Maybe someone is interested in something alive, upload to google drive - goo.gl/NSqCLg .