UDK & Startup Game Studio

[nucleA]

Hello Everybody, i am from the small island of Mauritius. With some friends we had this idea of creating a start-up game studio here. We are final year university students so we already have a good knowledge of programming, directX, opengl & 3dsx max. I have just started using the Unreal Editor. So my simple question is, for a start-up game studio with limited budget is Unreal a good choice?

[ambershee]

It's a reasonable choice based on it's licensing terms - but it's up to you to make that decision.

[northstar]

if i had your background... i would consider building my own engine... if you look at all the engines (frameworks), each one has its own strong points... and its own weak points... i would consider finding all the good points and putting them all together in one package... but that would depend on what your goal and purpose were... funding, time, and vision... all things that come to my mind... do you want to be a part of something, or have others want to be a part of you...

i was a truck driver at one point, and people asked me why i didn't buy my own truck... i told them i didn't like dealing with the paperwork and the headaches of legality, permits, maintence etc, that went along with it... then when i retired what would i do with a 100,000$ truck that needed an overhaul... it worked for me...

epic seems ok, a little top heavy maybe, but most larger companys generally grow like that... whomever i ever worked for, i always asked to talk to the wo/man at the top first and see their vision so i could make better decisions in the field... and udk, after all... is a branch off udn...

[darkxether]

DON'T make your own engine you will spend more time on the engine than the game. This is exactly what engines are for so you don't reinvent the wheel.

[nucleA]

I can actually go towards developing a custom engine since i already did some of the courses @ Game Institute but the major problem remains time as darkxether mentioned. On the other hand, using UDK on the long run would not be the optimal solution.

Another point we should consider for startup are the license fees. If we add license fees for UDK, 3DS Max & for consoles, the price can go high.

[nonder]

I think that you should start with some available engine like UDK. You can use AAA technology developed by many professionals "for free". Make some good game, earn some money and then you can think about your own engine. Many people give up because their goals are too high for them. Start with something smaller.

[darthviper107]

Well, the difference is the royalty fee, software programs like 3ds Max have a 1-time cost so that's not that big of a deal. If you're looking into using UDK then you'll have to pay royalty after $50,000 but if you get that high then you could possibly look into paying for a non-royalty license or you might have enough money to fund your own engine development.

[Solid Snake]

You guys actually need to solve two things before even deciding what technology you want to use.

a) Do you know enough about what it is you are trying to do?
b) How do you resolve cash flow.

If you can resolve a) and b) then this thread is worth continuing. If not, then I suggest you guys go back and resolve them first.

For reference, I do own an indepedent game studio which has released several titles in the market place (The Ball, The Haunted, Epoch, Forge to name a few). These are basic questions I always ask anybody who wants to know how to get started in the games industry.

[northstar]

the irrlicht engine is basic, built on the quake 3 model (which makes it real simple for level creation)... but it is reeeaaal rough around the edges... the good point is it is free to use however you want and the basic building blocks are done... its a programmers engine...

irrlicht engine a couple mb
saurbraten cube 2 engine 20mb
UDK engine... 1 gb

if you should decide to go that way... just sayin...

[Solid Snake]

That's not even advice northstar, which is remotely useful or relevant to this discussion.

[nucleA]

a) Do you know enough about what it is you are trying to do?
b) How do you resolve cash flow.

a) We are already working on the story line/assets creation. Basically, we want to build the first game studio here in Mauritius and the game is based on the country's actual history. For example, the Dodo bird would be present in the game or part of the game.
b) We are currently working in different IT companies and we are saving up for the studio. Even if we don't make profits for the first game, its no problem.

[northstar]

nucleA was thinking of building an engine, solid snake... but time and money were a problem... seems relavent to me... UDK is not the center of the universe... but whatever (shrug)...

glad to see you have a plan nucleA... thats a good place to start :]... stev

[Solid Snake]

northstar

Comparing the size of the engine is barely relevant or useful. How is an engine better because it is 20mb vs 1mb? Therefore the best engine is the demo ones which weight in at 64kb. Regardless of whatever these guys want to do, I believe there is bigger questions to answer. Before anyone decides to build a product, they really should be thinking about the business that surrounds the product to ensure the product actually succeeds. Building an engine is not a small task and you have to find the right reasons to do it ("because we can" is not a good enough reason); however, without a good understanding of the business aspects, it is impossible to figure out the correct reasons.

We are already working on the story line/assets creation. Basically, we want to build the first game studio here in Mauritius and the game is based on the country's actual history. For example, the Dodo bird would be present in the game or part of the game.

While these are good intention goals, remember that developing games is also a business. Therefore, like all businesses you have to make sure the market, to some degree, wants what you are actually making. Sure you can make a game that you really want to make, but if the market doesn't want it then you'll run out of resources to move forward to the next one.

b) We are currently working in different IT companies and we are saving up for the studio. Even if we don't make profits for the first game, its no problem.

Unfortunately, that isn't resolving cash flow for the game studio. That's resolving cash flow for yourselves personally. What you are doing right now ensures that you can start up the company without having to use bank loans and so forth. However, what that doesn't solve is how you will continue to make money while you are developing the game and to make sure that the game studio is acquiring enough resources (money, time, labor, etc) in order to actually be productive.

So I'm going to go back to a) and b) as I don't think you've answered those adequately enough yet.

[terminatus]

Hello nucleA!

So, you say you and your team are currently employed? That is a luxury many aspiring game developers don't have. I suggest you work on creating one or more game prototypes (in UDK, please don't try to make your own engine), and if you are able to make something fun and if you (and others!) see true potential in your prototypes, only THEN should you even consider taking the plunge into full-time game development.

[northstar]

ok SS, suit yourself... i'm a lover not a hater :]...

nucleA... a truck driver once gave me some good advice... 'don't make it any harder than it has to be'... UDK is a good place to get your feet wet...