Originally posted by BenAD
Yep I am, but i havent had contact from Scats, or our lead programmer in a few weeks now. In fact I havent heard from our lead programmer in about two months. So I am about as clued in as the rest of you at this point, but still want all the background work we have done so far not to go to waste.
ok, this has been the crux of the problem.
i had to spend a bit of time in Asia on business. the trip was unexpected. it was also unexpectedly long. prior to that i hadn't been able to contact paul for quite some time, and i haven't been able to contact him since i got back either.
in the past week i have had some nightmarish problems with my pc - i am hoping they are over...
:
so, where does that leave us? as an indie project, it is dead and buried. we have been beset by problems working in this format (as an independent developers) since just after the initial enthusiasm died down. there was a bit of a squabble regarding some details, and then communication began to go a bit awry.
none of this is reflective on any of the individuals involved in any way whatsoever. rather it is a by-product of the working environment - or lack thereof. i believe we were understaffed to match the ambitions we had set, yet contrary to that statement, more people on board would have just magnified the issues we endured. despite my more positive portrayals of events on this message board, things have not been smooth sailing for a little while now. yet i couldn't exactly say that on here could i? there was always the chance that things would pick up again with just one piece of good news.
so, where does that leave things? as i said, as an indie project, it is well and truly dead. however, that does not mean that the project itself is necessarily completely lifeless.
as i am sure anyone (ie members of the team) who read my design document will testify, my ideas for the game were a very, very good ones - even if i do say so myself
. and whilst i will not go down the indie road with it all again, this entire process has actually had a few positives.
in an attempt to refocus the group as whole (and yes, that includes myself, i am not above criticism for this project falling apart. in fact, as the leader of the group, it was in essence my responsibility to ensure that did not happen.) i started making some preliminary contacts with publishers in australia. i made some not too insignificant progress in that regard. i had two meetings - one with a large worldwide publisher, and the other as a result of a phone call with a company whos role i had mistaken. more on that in a second...
as i said, the first meeting was with a well known publisher. i spent an hour chewing the fat with the manager of marketing in australia going through the concept, what we were aiming to do, some minor technical stuff, and what market we were hoping to reach. at the conclusion, the response was basically of interest on the caveat that a playable demo was up to speed. it was all very positive without being conclusive.
the second meeting was slightly more interesting. i phoned this company thinking they were a new publisher establishing themselves in australia. heh, they weren't - i felt like a bit of a dickhead at first
. they were distributers only, and have nothing to do with the publishing aspect. they were however very interested in the project (i should mention that i told neither the publisher nor the distributor that it was an indie project, i let them believe without actually saying that the project was being funded by my company, and that the contributors were my employees.) and suggested that if i could find a smaller publisher that they would be more than willing to handle the distribution aspect. this was important as it removed an element of risk for a small time publisher, as distribution can be costly.
it should also be noted that i have mentioned several times on this forum that i was in constant contact with the PR firm representing a body that could endorse our game. this entire discourse was also fairly positive, and i can reveal now (not that it should have been too hard to guess) that the body was the Professional Cricketers Association. I really do believe from my conversations with their PR company that securing a publisher would most probably have lead to an endorsement of some kind.
at the end of all that, where exactly are we? weeeeeeell...
whilst the indie road is closed, me actually putting the weight of my business behind it is not. that would entail me actually hiring the development team as full time staff, and setting them up in my office etc etc. problem is, at a conservative estimate, that would cost me around half a million (australian) dollars to do. and whilst my business is successful, it does not have the turnover to justify such an outlay. and there is no wide way in hell i am going to put my personal assets on the line to finance such a gamble. however, at the start of the project i registered with a european games industry site. they are basically like an AAP for games sites and magazines (they send me exclusive screenshots, demos and video clips all the time coz they think i am an industry journo - i gets heaps of info on games and stuff before you lot do
). it is an absolute well of information on how the industry works. in the last week or so i found out some interesting info through this agency that is relevant to this projects current predicament.
in the very near future those of you who frequent gaming sites will hear about a game on the develpment horizon called Civilisations Dawn by iEntertainment, basically it'll be Civ online. the most interesting aspect of this project is that it is being funded by neither the developer nor the publisher. it's difficult to explain, but the best analogy is the role a producer plays in a hollywood flick - only not as involved. they fund the movie (or secure studio funding in most cases) in return for a return at the box office. the producer wears the risk.
that is essentially where i am at right now. because neither myself nor my company have been associated with any software before, there is no chance of a publisher funding the project. there are however always speculators around who may want to put some cash behind it. i do have some fairly extensive business contacts to go through as well. however, i wouldn't exactly call this a high percentage play - chances are, it could go nowhere...
