Clueless 3: One ignoramus’s road to game development

I’m going to throw this in the mix for three reasons:

1: I’ve published here before and had a blast doing it:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GardSkinner/20141024/228576/Do_gamers_read_books.php

2. I’m the worst kind of game dev virgin: I have no clue how hard it will be to build, how crushing the industry can be, or how much surf-time the support will rob me of.

3. You guys say funny stuff.

Short version, right after GAME SLAVES got bought, a guy from CAA Los Angeles' game dept. wanted to hook me up with some of his clients to see if they’d build something based on the book. It was a no-fly zone – none of them would talk unless they got to own the IP.

So a couple weeks ago, I got bored and learned enough Unity to be dangerous. Then I found Fungus…

And I liked Lifeline, to a point. The writing was compelling enough, but it lacked anything other than a A-B decision tree. It got like vintage Metal Gear, slapping buttons just to get through the dialog.

So I started to interactivize my book, and also to make up new words.

And I got to what I think will be a playable adventure. With graphics even. Like three of them. And gamer culture, gamer lore, and gamer drama.

Then I looked into the “business” you guys and gals deal with every day, and realized I was going to get my skull stomped even harder than I do in traditional book publishing.

I know nothing about how to, what’s the word, “launch” a game? So there’s a marketing component? And PR? Holy mother-of-Lara, I’m gonna do this so poorly.

But what the hell. I’ve got something to put on the table, and it’s fun to twist a gamer’s head all up in knots. That was my favorite thing about writing that book – it was tough to solve.

Now, if you like, fire away. Tell me stuff to know. Or tell me how much stuff I don’t know.

I’d love to trade email with any other indie devs out there. Could be funny. Tell me horror stories. Please.

Thanks again for the space, Gamasutra.

-Gard
http://gard3.com
[email protected]