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Part I

Blogs

Conferences

Events

Jams

Part II

Funding

Publishing

Part III

Assessment

Practice

Final year Project

This is a page is for university evaluation, you are more then welcome to have a look, though, it might bore you slightly...

You have been warned!

Part I - Promotion

Investigation

Blogs

10 good examples of Indie Studios:

1. Red Thread Games, this studio started from just a few devs that left a AAA studio Funcom, in order to finish a game series that has been in development for many years, at their beginning they had a blog that documented all the game features, development process, models and story baseline.

From time to time they would publish a polls for the followers to get their feedback on the game development.

This studio is a good example due to the fact that they are very much connected to their customers and are interested to know what they think on the development process, although the studio was funded by crowdfunding, the studio kept their promise and are always updating on development process.

2. Atmos Games, a studio by 2 people, originally started as an experiment from Newgrounds in a flash game named Coma, and later by another game called Skinny.

This studio is very interesting and attract attention due to the video blogs it produces, videos about game design and understanding of development aspects.

Though there are only 2 official games published yet this studio seems to go on and work on new games.

3. In order to promote my projects for this final year, ill have it all posted and published on my very own website, which will also include a blog with all the development progress.

A dedicated page with visual and verbal reference to how I am going to progress with the projects in a graph that shows the current status where I am at - Road Map graph.

Conferences

The world is changing very rapidly, and to find new connections is hard in the digital world, so conferences are a good way to get to know the souls that work in the industry.

In the UK:

1. Future Games Summit 19 - An event that will take place on the 25-26 of November, it will be mainly business driven about how to empower games and game industries, there should be many game innovators and publishers, for me as a beginning game developer I could learn a lot how to make my game business more effective and could get a good network of publishers and innovators to assist me in my first steps.

2. Pocket Gamer Connects 2020 London - This is a great event which involves business related topics and game related topics as well, it also have an outlook on "block chain" technology and how it can be applied in games.

As par of my interest in crypto this is a goo chance to get more information and network with people in the industry and have their insight about it.

3.

4.

5. 1. Gamescom - Germany - A large event for games from all around Europe and some other countries, many exhibitors that can build a network with or share ideas and information.

2. PLAY the games festival - Italy - A relatively smaller event then others but is very unique, it connects many creators from the Mediterranean area into a great games festival that also have classic games, this is a great opportunity to engage with creators from other industries and try to work in an inter industry cooperation.

3. 1. GDC 2020 -

2. Globale Gameing Expo G2E -

3. A conference I'll try to attend to is the Annual GameIS conference, a big event in Israel where many companies and indie studio gather to talk about the game industry in Israel and new game technologies.

For me it would be good opportunity to gain exposure in the game industry in Israel, and maybe to get an employment option or investment

events and meetups

The Best way to get noticed and network is by going to public events!

So for starters all try to attend these events and try to network with some people:

1.

jams

This year I will consider to take part in a few GameJams around the world, some of them were recommended by friends and peers who believe that it would be very helpful to try and attend them.

1.GameJam JLM on the 29-30 December 2019, more details soon...

Published on GameIS Facebook group.

2. Ludum Dare 46 on the 17th of April 2020. further information https://ldjam.com

In this gamejam participants are required to make a game from scratch within a weekend, all assets and content used can be taken form wherever as long as it does not break any legal rights such as IP and copyrights.

3. 2019 Epic MegaJam - A massive game jam by Epic games via itch.io starts on the 14th on November until the 22 of November, theme will be published on the day, and Epic give many resources and free kits to assist developers.

https://itch.io/jam/2019-epic-megajam

Blogs

Confrence

Events

Jams

Part II - Funding and Publishing

Investigation

Funding

Money is not everything in life but it is a key component to start with...

Crowdfunding - The quickest and easiest to start, crowdfunding is a simple tool to gather the first money needed to fund a game or studio, many games such as "Dreamfall Chapters" was funded in that way.

Banks - The solution or the problem of everything and the only thing that actually holds your money and manage it for you.

Loans and investments can be made here according to the rules the bank and the nation apply.

Angel Investors - The true people who wants to see your projects take flight, but don't cinfuse angel with devil as sometime they may look alike.

Angel investors are a great option for funding as they expect nothing in return but do want to see that you put their money into good use.

Fundin

Pro's:

Initial funding - Getting a first sum of money to begin operations.

Validation - As more people support the more valid the project is.

Media - Easy and fast way to spread information about the project in all digital media.

Branding - Backers see the project as a type of brand that they will be interested to follow the brand

Con's:

Obligations - backers are expecting a product and to have it no time.

Copyrights - Others might try to copy and "steal" the ideas/project from you until you get it funded and rolled out.

Pro's:

Loans - Can help with quick money lending solutions.

Investments - Can create a quick and safe link for transfer of money for investment form investors

Con's:

Loans - Interest rate can be sometime a killer and repaying time can be shortened due to bank policies.

Regulations - Special fee or tax can be taken due to regulation imposed by the state or national bank

Pro's:

Loans - Can help with quick money lending solutions.

Investments - Can create a quick and safe link for transfer of money for investment form investors

Con's:

Loans - Interest rate can be sometime a killer and repaying time can be shortened due to bank policies.

Regulations - Special fee or tax can be taken due to regulation imposed by the state or national bank

Publishing

Time to get noticed, but how?

I'll look into 2 platforms, Mobile and Nintendo Switch, both are relatively easy and quick to work on, they both require low poly models or 2D sprites, and so it should be easy and fast to create game assets, also, the fees for publishing are considerably low compared to other platforms:

Google Play - $25

Nintendo - $99 per year.

With regards to engine, Unreal asks for 5% after first $3000 revenue from sales of the game, that might not be of much of a problem as the first few releases should be free of charge, at a later stage game might cost about $0.99.

Another important aspect would be a website (this website) and costs at the moment $50 for a bundle that consists of a domain and storage, with a small SEO interface to increase traffic and publicity.

Part III - Developing abilities

Reflection

Assessment

My current struggles are within the mobile domain, building a game and compacting it to the size which is less then 20MB.

From a close inspection, lights and textures, and some code optimization needed to be implemented.

So, the current achievements for me this year are:

Mastering Lights - Fake lights, Static lights.

Texturing - Low poly models, decreasing texture size without reducing quality.

Optimizing - How to make code run smoother on mobile devices with limited RAM and GPU processing power, eliminating "Tick"and heavy math functions.

Practice

Time to get noticed, but how?

Assessment

Practice

Navigation

Part I

Part II

Part III

Final year Project

This is a page is for university evaluation, you are more then welcome to have a look, though, it might bore you slightly...

​

You have been warned!

Part I - Promotion

​

Investigation

Blogs

​

10 good examples of Indie Studios:

1. Red Thread Games, this studio started from just a few devs that left a AAA studio Funcom, in order to finish a game series that has been in development for many years, at their beginning they had a blog that documented all the game features, development process, models and story baseline.

From time to time they would publish a polls for the followers to get their feedback on the game development.

This studio is a good example due to the fact that they are very much connected to their customers and are interested to know what they think on the development process, although the studio was funded by crowdfunding, the studio kept their promise and are always updating on development process.

​

2. Atmos Games, a studio by 2 people, originally started as an experiment from Newgrounds in a flash game named Coma, and later by another game called Skinny.

This studio is very interesting and attract attention due to the video blogs it produces, videos about game design and understanding of development aspects.

Though there are only 2 official games published yet this studio seems to go on and work on new games.

​

3.

​

​

In order to promote my projects for this final year, ill have it all posted and published on my very own website, which will also include a blog with all the development progress.

A dedicated page with visual and verbal reference to how I am going to progress with the projects in a graph that shows the current status where I am at - Road Map graph.

Conferences

​

The world is changing very rapidly, and to find new connections is hard in the digital world, so conferences are a good way to get to know the souls that work in the industry.

In the UK:

​

2. Pocket Gamer Connects 2020 London - This is a great event which involves business related topics and game related topics as well, it also have an outlook on "block chain" technology and how it can be applied in games.

As par of my interest in crypto this is a goo chance to get more information and network with people in the industry and have their insight about it.

​

3.

4.

5.

​

1. Gamescom - Germany - A large event for games from all around Europe and some other countries, many exhibitors that can build a network with or share ideas and information.

3.

​

1. GDC 2020 -

2. Globale Gameing Expo G2E -

3.

​

​

​

A conference I'll try to attend to is the Annual GameIS conference, a big event in Israel where many companies and indie studio gather to talk about the game industry in Israel and new game technologies.

For me it would be good opportunity to gain exposure in the game industry in Israel, and maybe to get an employment option or investment

​

​

​

​

​

events and meetups

​

The Best way to get noticed and network is by going to public events!

So for starters all try to attend these events and try to network with some people:

​

1.

jams

​

This year I will consider to take part in a few GameJams around the world, some of them were recommended by friends and peers who believe that it would be very helpful to try and attend them.

​

1.GameJam JLM on the 29-30 December 2019, more details soon...

Published on GameIS Facebook group.

​

2. Ludum Dare 46 on the 17th of April 2020. further information https://ldjam.com

In this gamejam participants are required to make a game from scratch within a weekend, all assets and content used can be taken form wherever as long as it does not break any legal rights such as IP and copyrights.

​

3. 2019 Epic MegaJam - A massive game jam by Epic games via itch.io starts on the 14th on November until the 22 of November, theme will be published on the day, and Epic give many resources and free kits to assist developers.

Part II - Funding and Publishing

​

Investigation

Funding

​

Money is not everything in life but it is a key component to start with...

Crowdfunding - The quickest and easiest to start, crowdfunding is a simple tool to gather the first money needed to fund a game or studio, many games such as "Dreamfall Chapters" was funded in that way.

​