How Do People Jump Start A Game, (Invest in an Indie game?)

Cinebar

O.K. I am now so frustrated with the TS4 and people saying it's the TS2.5...uh, no, not hardly.

I have heard people can help Indie producers create games and get in on the ground floor.

I'm wondering is there a 'project' to make a new Simulator for Family Players (game)? Those who enjoy a fully fleshed out family/household like the TS2 game had but could also use many improvements.

How do people do these things? I hope someone has begun work on a 'new' Life Simulator that I would enjoy playing and or even supporting.

@Cyron43, @Rflong7, @Anavastia, @Windweaver, and anyone else who may be interested in this thread and or can answer some questions. Who know about games and how they become to be in Indie environments.

ETA: This is NOT Soliciting for Money..Justs Question of how Indie games work, how to do this and what is involved to start up games. Just questions about the industry.

king_of_simcity7

I don't know how to start an indie game but will be interested to see how it works

Cinebar

king_of_simcity7 wrote: »

I don't know how to start an indie game but will be interested to see how it works

I think there is a game someone created that is out there where players jump started it. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it. It's some sort of life simulator? but sort of old now. I see it referenced on the threads sometimes. I was just wondering how all this comes about and what are the rules and how to do this etc.

plopppo

There have been many various kickstart and crowdfunded games - even prominent dev studios have used this avenue of financing.

Any Sims-type game that is done in this way is worth a lot of money - considering EA are likely to buy it out if it appears to be evolving into a threat.

However, a Sim-type of game would have a very long development cycle - certainly if you want it to rival/better any previous Sims games.

The question is, would you want to initially crowdfund/kickstart this project? A lone coder could basically build the simulation engine then attract others to add in the graphical/rendering side of the project - this would more than likely have to be done crowdfunded/kickstarted as nobody would really animate, etc this for free.

Cinebar

@plopppo, Maybe, my husband would fuss but wouldn't be the first time. lol I specifically asked for others to come here to tell me how this all works (gets started) and thank you for answering. One is a programmer, one is a builder, one understands more than me what the concept of life simulator and open or somewhat open world means in game speak, and one is an attorney. See, I wasn't being silly, I was looking for actual input from people who do know the ins and outs of their particular fields.

plopppo

The easiest and quickest way to do this would be to re-build The Sims 3 and just mould it as you see fit - you can then just take all of the Sims 3 assets - animations, music, Sim-speech, audio, etc and bolt them onto a new engine. Then you can use videos to attract your artists to replace the 'borrowed' media.

Likewise, you can just use primitives within a new engine - ie stretched cubes as Sims - and just use very simple (but still 3D) graphics to visualise the world - there is no difference in the game engine if you go this way - either way, you will have to replace assets as per the aforementioned route.

Vici0us_Virus

Gamez like,GTA,skyrim,and most sandbox styled gamez/formats can be considered life simulators.I think that title ur looking for was 2nd life. I wouldnt mind a first person viewable Simz myself,even a similar alternative would be nice. Console indie games have made the process of making ur own game kinda cookie cutter, but most of these fail to go anywhere.Pc gamerz tend to settle for nothing less than perfection this case in point. So u have ur work cut out for you. I would love to offer you any beta help/debugging strictly volunteer if you should get this together... great idea.

Cinebar

Vici0us_Virus wrote: »

Gamez like,GTA,skyrim,and most sandbox styled gamez/formats can be considered life simulators.I think that title ur looking for was 2nd life. I wouldnt mind a first person viewable Simz myself,even a similar alternative would be nice. Console indie games have made the process of making ur own game kinda cookie cutter, but most of these fail to go anywhere.Pc gamerz tend to settle for nothing less than perfection this case in point. So u have ur work cut out for you. I would love to offer you any beta help/debugging strictly volunteer if you should get this together... great idea.

Thank you. Why Indie games are sometimes highly respected is because people get together with an idea, a 'vision' and go for it, because of the love of what they are creating. That work shows in some smaller game companies. ( I say small but not really but not as large as EA)....but other companies like EA (huge companies) forget the love of the games and start thinking 'money' before they even get an idea on the floor.

This is why I feel a company or just someone creating a game for the love of a game, creates a better game when they don't start out with wanting to create games to make money.

See, EA has lost their way. They create games to make money (their lively hood), Indie games create games for the love of the games and not in the business to make money from creating games for the purpose of making money.... but in it for the love of the game. There is a huge difference.