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Question of the Day: What is your non-negotiable item, device, or app for international travel?
SA gaming needs cash injection
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
RichardG
Honorary Master
I think they should look for funding from BidVest, maybe they can take them seriously as they own several companies.
RichardG
Honorary Master
I have R5 million in the bank you think that is sufficient enough to help them out with shares in the company
saffakanera
Expert Member
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On average I heard a new big commercial game these days cost a hundred million rands upwards or something crazy like that.
Potential game developers better have a MOERSE application for financial backing to present invsetment banks lol
Potential game developers better have a MOERSE application for financial backing to present invsetment banks lol
You forgot about SAGameDev.com which has been running since before 2000. Anyone interrested in game development can also check out http://www.sagamedev.com/
Developing big titles can take a lot of money but you also have your smaller titles which are being created by smaller (independant) teams. You do not always have to be handed everything before you start doing and thats what a lot of people on these two local communities are doing, working on smaller titles and building something sustainable from there.
I have recently quit my job at LumaArcade (local gamedev) to start my own thing with some friends that is active in programming and art. It is hard work and with no investment we need to do contract work in different areas like small games, simulations, and webdesign, while our main project is a game title of our own. I'll post some screenshots and more info on this sometime.
Developing big titles can take a lot of money but you also have your smaller titles which are being created by smaller (independant) teams. You do not always have to be handed everything before you start doing and thats what a lot of people on these two local communities are doing, working on smaller titles and building something sustainable from there.
I have recently quit my job at LumaArcade (local gamedev) to start my own thing with some friends that is active in programming and art. It is hard work and with no investment we need to do contract work in different areas like small games, simulations, and webdesign, while our main project is a game title of our own. I'll post some screenshots and more info on this sometime.
Nuxxy
Well-Known Member
I studied a technical IT course at the old PE Technikon. Part of our course was to develop a full system at the end of our 3rd year. A gaming system wasn't our first choice, but the other two choices needed industry support (one was based around online publishing and the other around online music, and back in 2001 industry was stupid). So we tried valiently to develop our own realtime strategy game engine. It didn't go as well as we originally intended, but I did realise some things there.
The easiest part of a game is the coding. Don't think that because you know C++ and DirectX/OpenGL that a game is automatic. We had 4 coders, because we were all IT students. We could have had 1, and 3 Graphic Designers, and we would have gotten further. Even a wireframe takes some artistic inclination. I'd guess that that's where the majority of the game budget goes...into outsourcing the models and textures and video and sound. How much of that do we have in SA?
The easiest part of a game is the coding. Don't think that because you know C++ and DirectX/OpenGL that a game is automatic. We had 4 coders, because we were all IT students. We could have had 1, and 3 Graphic Designers, and we would have gotten further. Even a wireframe takes some artistic inclination. I'd guess that that's where the majority of the game budget goes...into outsourcing the models and textures and video and sound. How much of that do we have in SA?
The cash injection I mentioned was more a need that the people I was talking to were comfortable fulfilling. We need quite a bit of support infrastructure-wise to be able to foster a successful indie game development sector in SA, which was the focus of my presentation... We're starting to get good designers and developers, but we're still lacking in the resources (graphics, sound) and managerial/marketing departments. Those are expensive, yet necessary skills if you want to make commercially successful indie games - building the game itself isn't the hardest part anymore 
As Xyber rightly points out, you don't need those crazy budgets for indie/casual titles (which can actually return a lot more than traditional AAA development thanks to digital distribution), but quality does need some cash. Even if that's just a stipend to keep a promising young developer eating while they're fleshing out a good prototype.
So, how are you looking to invest that? Any plans/expectations?
Very true, resources are a big limitation that programmers don't always take into account. This is where producers and skilled game designers come in handy In SA we do have some very talented graphic artists and musicians, they just need to be introduced to the specific needs of games and the way that game developers require content formatted in very involved ways. Obviously, given the amount of "normal" work out there, you either have to find artists that care about games enough to labour for the love of it, or you have to be able to pay well.
QCF is doing exactly that, we've got the next 6-8 months of dev time on a personal project funded out of earnings, the trick is to make sure we build revenue earning games... That's where the expertise of places like CITI can come in very useful. Are you guys going to have stuff to present at rAge? We need local success stories
Also, as the local game retail market grows, there's more and more game-related work out there for indie teams to pick up when they run low on food and art money. That's a very good thing, we need more visibility as an embryonic industry to drive exactly that sort of work creation.
-D
P.S. I'm sounding a lot more corporate these days... I'm really not trying to
As Xyber rightly points out, you don't need those crazy budgets for indie/casual titles (which can actually return a lot more than traditional AAA development thanks to digital distribution), but quality does need some cash. Even if that's just a stipend to keep a promising young developer eating while they're fleshing out a good prototype.
I have R5 million in the bank you think that is sufficient enough to help them out with shares in the company
So, how are you looking to invest that? Any plans/expectations?
Very true, resources are a big limitation that programmers don't always take into account. This is where producers and skilled game designers come in handy
In SA we do have some very talented graphic artists and musicians, they just need to be introduced to the specific needs of games and the way that game developers require content formatted in very involved ways. Obviously, given the amount of "normal" work out there, you either have to find artists that care about games enough to labour for the love of it, or you have to be able to pay well.QCF is doing exactly that, we've got the next 6-8 months of dev time on a personal project funded out of earnings, the trick is to make sure we build revenue earning games... That's where the expertise of places like CITI can come in very useful. Are you guys going to have stuff to present at rAge? We need local success stories
Also, as the local game retail market grows, there's more and more game-related work out there for indie teams to pick up when they run low on food and art money. That's a very good thing, we need more visibility as an embryonic industry to drive exactly that sort of work creation.
-D
P.S. I'm sounding a lot more corporate these days... I'm really not trying to
hey dislekcia
we could probably put a demo together to show if you get the gamedotdev area up again this year since we won't be getting space for ourself.
Of course we'll have the usual stand/conference at rAge... Game.Dev is a fixture
-D