From Download Squad Blog:
"While it's a little cost prohibitive to start developing Xbox 360 or PS3 games from your bedroom, let's not forget games like Roller Coaster Tycoon and Alien Hominid went from humble beginnings to financially successful franchises. Although you'd have to spend hundreds of hours developing AAA titles, there are some ways to get slick games up and running quickly. I'm going to show you a few ways to do just that."
Read: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2005/11/28/how-to-create-your-own-game-company-part-one/

So what do you think of that article and who's interested in creating a game company?

I say we gather around and establish a start-up.

hope u guys read the last comment posted on that page (comment 10, i think). it all seems easy, but it's really not. lets just say i've got one leg in the game industry. if anybody there has cash, i'm willing to support.

Hmm, c0dec, isn't the central idea of that article that you might be able to start a successful game company even if you do not have a much cash/capital?

well anything is possible. but then again, it depends on which market you're targeting.

Start-ups like Popcap, Gamehouse have made huge success with hits like Bejeweled, Feeding Frenzy,etc. These are just casual games that can be made within 3 months with low budget. There's this programmers' forum I used to visit and some guys on there made a little game and they sold like 10,000 copies on different portals at $20 each. And all it cost them was their computer, their time, creativity and well, some little money for bandwidth. I think it's a real good idea.

good for them but i'm sure that was their one and only hit and 200000k isn't going to feed u the rest of life. serious games (not girly-web games) means serious money. the games industry is all about money. only the strong survive and everyday, it gets harder for start-up companies

Who says $200,000 isn't going to feed me for the rest of my life? Doo, just give me and see what I'll do with it.

Well all has to do with money... If u havemoney u can hire developers ...
and if u think u can have sponsors being a developer... then ur creativity will determine how far u can go in the industry.

IAH:

Who says $200,000 isn't going to feed me for the rest of my life? Doo, just give me and see what I'll do with it.

LOL, sure - if don't plan on having kids, that is.

One could gather a team and start with game developement/publishing for the PC format. They could start climbing from there and if they have good products and a streak of luck...they could rub shoulders with the big boys. The truth is the world of game development is harsh and highly competitive in that only the best (and the lucky) survive. It is tough but not impossible.

Wouldn't advise a small timer to shoot for Xbox/PS2 development... seriously, good luck laying your hands on a game engine (Yes, you're gonna need a truck load of luck).

umm... i've got a question. can you develop games on formats apart from the PC format. ffor example, can you develop a game on a mac format. please someone answer me before i break my computer monitor!!!!!!!!

of course u can.

I am up for this project. I think this project is NOT for light minded people. I would suggest we open a CVS (Concurrent Versions System) which is software package to manage software development done by several people. We can host the CVS as a web server so that registered users can login and submit their code and collect new task.

Basically, we will have a project manager that provides task by the help of system analyst and software engineers. We need to create a project plan i.e. to develop a Nigeria super mario. The project manager would now break the task into small manageable parts. Users can login and allocate themself a task when finished would login and submit the code, at the the software engineer will engineer the whole code to produce a game.

Mind you to develop a very good game software we would need C/C++, 3DMax, Photoshop, Unreal, Doom3 and ZBrush.

Hey guys,

This is my first post on this forum; it's nice to see other Nigerians so knowledgeable about technology. Keep it up guys! And now to the business at hand: Game Development! I have spent almost 2 years now reading up on game development in my spare time, from the art of Game Design (ah, Shigeru Miyamoto, you're a genius!) to 3D graphics, Physics, Sound and Networking. After 2 years of research, here are my conclusions about Independent (Indie) Game Development:

1. Serious Game Development is not child's play. It require's lots of time and effort, both of which are in short supply if you're doing it in your free time. Hence the need to be extremely disciplined.
2.There are tonnes of resources on the internet which will teach you how to go about developing a complete game, but as always you would never find the time to read this wealth of information.
3. If you thought time was in short supply, skilled artists are even more difficult to come by!
4. Commercial game engines and tools (3DSMAX, Maya) are unreasonably expensive. Best to go open source; although not cutting edge, they exhibit good quality and decent forum support. Examples are Ogre for graphics (www.ogre3d.org), ODE for physics (http://www.ode.org), OpenAL for audio (www.openal.org), etc, etc. You get the picture.
5. Although point 1 above is true, nevertheless with a strategic team leader, and a motivated team, it is possible to complete a decent and fun game as an Indie, and make lots of profit from it! Just don't forget that to build a high quality game with lots of polish you would need more artists than programmers, and be prepared to go for months on little sleep!
6. Yeah, before I forget. It IS better to publish your first game on the PC. You don't have to pay royalties to Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft to publish your game on their machine, plus there's a whole lotta stuff u have to do to even consider wanting to go the console route. With the PC u can self publish on the internet, and you wouldn't have to shell out loads of cash just to get a development kit! As long as you have a reasonably powerful computer, and a solid internet connection, you're in business.

hey nprime ... u interest me

That's really interesting...nprime that's a really interesting post you have there. Although I wonder...why do you think you'll really need more artists than programmers?

The reason I stressed having more artists than programmers is because with the more mature game development libraries (like ogre and ode) it would take a fair bit of time to put things together and get a working game. I agree that the job is not trivial, but for your game to actually stand out instantly, and to have a certain 'mood' or 'look and feel', you would need to invest heavily in your art department. If you look at most indie games, they tend to look the same, mainly because indie teams are composed of lots of programmers and few artists, hence a low art budget, hence bland looking games!

nprime i like ur views and insights on this.

u guys on this forum seem to be serious.

I agree with sbucareer, i think a CVS is a brilliant idea. Its about time we start making good quality games for us by us.

I have also done some research into game development and i am think a CVS will be The best idea. I am more of a 3d artist than a programmer, so how do get started?
i intend to create a very low budget game using 3dmax, ogre3d and other tools before the end of the year.
Vist 3dnigeria.6x.to to see some of my modelling work in the gallery.
the name is Ilamina-eremie Idamiebi

As a 3d modelling expert, you should start by developing advert movies for companies, not games.

Visit:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-2445.0.html
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-3302.0.html

And the Graphics Forum:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/board-45.0.html

I think what you need in a game is more of the art than the actual programming: the difference between a game that sucks and one that doesnt is usually how it feels (user interface) and not what the characters do.
We need creative artists (ideas, storyboards, scenes) and graphic artists (skins, modelling) etc. A programmer just has to say "oh, you want him to be able to do x.y.z? fine"

If you think that a 3d animator would automatically be able to make an interesting game, you are badly mistaken. Pacman is more interesting than some well rendered 3d games we have today. Game play is key.

There, you have mistaken me. I said artists, not 3D modelers. 3D modelling is just a subset of the art in a game. Somebody did dream up the "ghosts" and the gobbler in pacman, and the idea itself, right?
What i meant was, game programmers will not be hard to find. It's the artists that may be scarce.

I would love to join but at the moment, my c++ skills are not up to the task. If u start something, there are people like me who won't mind developing ourselves in any area u need.

See guess im really interested just on thing i design 3D i can program but i learnt programming on my own so i did not think or look into game design so if anyone can send a comprehensive tutorial on that to gasolinayurica@yahoo.com, i will be so glad. But i did a little game but i cannot upload it cause i development it now. ABEG MAKE UNA HELP ME ITS GAME DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT I WAN STAY FOR JEJE GUYS I GO DEY VERY GLAD.

Anybody still interested in this?

let's get started then! enough talk !

Where is my earlier post? What is happening? Seun?

I posted some tips earlier before my battery died and was about to continue but I can't find my post. Damn, ya killed my spirit.

Anyone around unilag or Ajah? Let's get together with ideas. I've got about 3 free versions of game engines lying around. I got pretty comfortable with one of 'em before I realized it's free version wasn't offering me much. Luckily, my exams will be over by wednesday. Four months away from economics. Four months of coding.

Good luck, people. Hoping to see some cool stuff soon.

IF ANY ONE'S STILL INTERESTED IN THIS TOPIC THEN CHECK THIS OUT!

THERE IS ONE BIG ISSUE TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN CREATING A COMPUTER/VIDEO GAME FOR PROFIT MAKING,  COPYRIGHT!
LET'S FACE IT, EVEN IF YOU CREATED A GAME AS POWERFULL AND INTERESTING AS HALO OR PRINCE OF PERSIA, OR PES OR FIFA OR ETC, YOU'VE GOTTA PROTECT YOUR WORK. THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE TOOLS LIKE THE PS AND NINTENDO WII AND STUFF THAT CAN DETECT COPIED GAME DISCS AND REJECT THEM. IT WILL TAKE A VERY LONG WHILE FOR US IN NIGERIA TO CREATE OUR VERY OWN GAME CONSOLES FOR OUR GAMES, SO LET'S SKIP THAT IDEA FOR ANOTHER GENERATION.

SO NOW WHAT?
I PROPOSE WE DESIGN PC GAMES AND DISTRIBUTE THEM FOR FREE. MADNESS ? YES, UNLESS YOU USE THE GAMES AS ADVERTISING TOOLS FOR ADVERT COMPANIES LIKE GOOGLE OR COMPANIES THEMSELVES.

UH? WHAT AM I SAYING?
I AM SAYING MAKE PC GAMES AND STICK GOOGLE ADS ON 'EM OR FIND A BUSINESS BODY TO SPONSOR YOUR GAME. FOR EXAMPLE:

CREATE A PC GAME, IF THE LANGUAGE USED TO DEVELOP IT IS GUI BASED (JAVA ATI VB), FIND A BROWSER GUI CLASS OR OBJECT THAT WILL DISPLAY A WEBPAGE CONTAINING YOUR GOOGLE ADS, UPLOAD YOUR GAME TO A WEBSITE ON THE NET, MARKET YOUR GAME SO THAT PEOPLE GET TO DOWNLOAD IT, FROM THERE THEY CAN PLAY YOUR GAME AND CLICK ON YOUR AD IF THEY REALLY ENJOYED IT ( OR NOT!)

ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU COULD GET A COMPANY TO PAY YOU TO MAKE A GAME AND BRAND IT WITH THEIR WEBSITE OR PRODUCT OR WHATEVER THEY WHAT. E.G CHICKEN HUNTER GAME FOR TASTY FRIED CHICKEN OR WHATEVER! IF YOUR GAME IS PRETTY INTERESTING FOLKS WILL DOWNLOAD IT AND PLAY AND COMPANIES WILL LIKE YOU TO BRAND THEIR NAMES ON IT!

SO THROUGH AD REVENUE, YOU GET YOUR MONEY BACK! WHAT SAY YE?

WELL IF ANY ONE OF YOU LIKES THE IDEA, THEN JOIN ME IN SHARING A COMMON SITE WHERE WE CAN UPLOAD OUR GAMES TO AND MARKET INSTEAD OF US MARKETING OUR INDIVIDUAL SITES. I THROW IN THE TOWEL WITH WWW.COMEANDPLAY.TK (IF YOU FEEL THE NAME OF THE SITE MUST BE CHANGED NO PROBLEM, WE'RE WORKING AS A TEAM HERE. SUGGEST WHAT YOU FEEL IS MORE SUITABLE) I HAVE ALREADY UPLOADED WHAT WAS MY FIRST GAME UP THERE!

THIS PROJECT ALLOWS ANY PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE TO BE USED, BE IT GUI BASED OR NOT, SO LONG IT'S AN INTERSTING GAME!