...or at least "how to not do the common mistakes while trying".
Being in the CryENGINE Mod-Community for almost 8 years showed me the ups and downs of the next AAA game (modification) developers and all the common mistakes you see over and over again. The first obvious mistake most people do is to spend too much time on finding a team name, some even create threads on forums to find a proper one. Pretending that you are: "A Company", "A Studio" or whatever with a fancy team name like: "1337 Game Productions", "NoTech Studios" doesn't help you to create a good game (modification). People wasting so much time to find a name instead of thinking about proper game design, game mechanics or just playing around with the engine itself, testing stuff, reading the documentation, prototyping ideas... It's crazy.
"Guys, finally we have a name: BlaBla Productions! We are so excited! THANK YOU!"
Awesome and you only wasted 1-2 weeks for it. You all know what comes next, right?:
"But now we need your help again... We need a name for our first big project! HELP PLEASE! We thought about something like Crytinator!"
How about: "CryBam", "CryMoon", "MoonCry", "Gears of Cry", "Crytastic", "Cry me a river". Why do you want a Cry in your game (modification) name? Apart from the Cry in the name, did you spot the master mistake?
What project? What is it all about? What kind of game (modification)? Any information? Did you even think about that before you posted on the forum? Or you are even allowed to read "the one and only" (Captain Obvious) idea:
"Nomad Inc. searches for people for the first big project. We want to recreate Battlefield 3...but better!"
BAM! Fail!
"Counterstrike?"
NO!
"...we want to bring Minecraft to CryENGINE..."
BAM! Fail!
Seriously, you want to clone an already existing concept? By the way, in most cases, those people post a few threads later that every AAA game developer sucks because they are just creating Battlefield, Modern Warfare or Call of Duty clones or just booooring sequels. Ouch!
Don't get me wrong, i saw awesome "clones" recreated with CryENGINE but those people usually just do it behind the scenes with proper motivation.
Sometimes the project even sounds really promising because they start with something like the following:
"...after 2 years planing the actual game design we came up with something you never saw before:"
Normally you would think: "Ok, where is the 1000 pages PDF attachment?"
Nope, they compressed the whole 2 years into 10 sentences. Pretty impressive compression algorithm if you ask me. I'm in!
So what's next? We have an awesome team name, an outstanding project name, a fully compressed game design and? Correct, you post: "How do i start the SDK!?!?" on the forum. I mean seriously, there was no time to read the documentation, so that is obviously the first step and you can't find the damn SDK.exe! After 20 minutes of waiting for a response you have to bump your post of course. After 24 bumps and 34 minutes (!) of waiting you start to insult everyone who didn't answer because: "!§$§!$!§$ N00BS!!!1111"
Some people finally find the documentation and start the production of the next awesome AAA game (modification). The first terrain is done, some random objects are placed. You can even go in-game and shoot! (*cough* out of the box *cough*)
So the next step is? Correct, IT'S TRAILER TIME! I mean, you spend almost 30 minutes on this masterpiece and you need more people, so you definitely need a trailer to advertise your concept! Every big developer does it, right?
*Hans Zimmer Music starts*
"NoMercy Productions proudly presents..."
*Fancy Adobe Premiere effects...*
"Something you never saw before..."
And i don't want to see again.
Talking about more people... Never ever ever ever call yourself: Founder, CEO or President of an imaginary game studio. And never ever post your actual team list like:
- CEO / Founder / Lead Programmer / Lead Level Designer: Myself! (frag0r1998)
- Co-Founder / Lead Game Designer / Lead Sound Artist: My Brother (gam0r1986)
Open Positions:
- Lead Scripter / Game Programmer
- Senior AI Programmer
"WE NEED AT LEAST ONE MORE CODER!"
To all programmers out there: Run! Run for your digital life. You will live in slavery with vague or ridiculous feature requests.
So your project grows and grows (almost 2 days in production!) and wait, what's that!? A BUG! NO WAY! N00BS! THAT IS A BLOCKER FOR YOUR PROJECT! THAT PIXEL DEFINITELY LOOKS WRONG! FORUM TIME!
"This engine is full of bugs! I will switch to ENGINEXYZ if Crytek doesn't fix it! I can't work on my project! It's a blocker! AND BTW IT IS EASIER WITH ENGINEXYZ! NO BUGS AT ALL!"
And i'm the President of Uganda. No, not really. In most cases that is the end of this promising next AAA game (modification), that pixel definitely made the difference. Maybe you will see a "reunion" or "comeback" a couple of weeks/months later, but it won't last that long.
I told you so many things you should not do, but how do you really create an awesome game (modification)? The funny thing is it is pretty easy but also close to impossible:
Fun, Motivation, Ideas, Luck, Passion and Time is all you need.
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