Looking to finance a tech demo

[HugoStiglitz]

Hey guys and gals. I was hoping this might be a good place to get in touch with people who would be interested in working up a small tech demo using original AES hardware.

I'm not technically minded in this respect so I was hoping to hire the services of programmers/coders who could help me throw together a small sample of the technical and graphical power of the AES hardware.

Ultimately I'd like to crowdsource a game I've been writing for a while but I need to know what technical limitations I have to work with and see if there is any interest first. I'm willing to front all of the initial costs to see if my vision is even possible. A perfect example of this would be like seeing the game "198X" on AES.

Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of talented people in the community who might be interested?

Thanks for your help.

[max 330 mega]

So ive been donating to Blastar on patreon. His game looks sick. Check his layout?

[HugoStiglitz]

I haven't heard of him. I'll check it out now. Thanks.

[theMot]

Pretty insert on a snap lock case and you’re good to go. Plenty of mouth breathers on here will lap it up.

[HugoStiglitz]

Thanks Max 330 Mega for the tip. I've been speaking with Blastar for a little bit now and we're discussing how to collaborate on this project after the new year. I've got preliminary sketches being drawn up for 3-4 characters right now and I'm going to be working with Blastar to help find animators who can help turn the sketches into animated sprites.

I know this is the most pre-mature of starting points but I want to make sure I'm getting the right people to help do this right.

theMot, not looking to just be another pretty face! I hope people will actually click with this and be as excited as I am. p.s. I used to live in Penrith, NSW....go Giants!

[Gmegbln]

I'm glad you're willing to pay people for work, you see a lot of "idea guys" in game dev that don't provide many skills themselves and expect artists and programmers to do all of the work for them to maybe get paid in the end, so I appreciate the perspective there.

May I ask why you want to make an AES game in particular? I don't think selling on AES alone would be very profitable. If your game idea is a winner, why not put it on modern, accessible platforms to widen your consumer base instead of selling a couple hundred carts at $400 or whatever? If this is a hobby or passion project then by all means go ahead, I'd like to code a MVS game one day too to learn (I've been spoiled by modern hardware lol). I just think the market for a new AES/MVS game is smaller than people think, and the people that buy it probably won't even play it.

That being said, it IS a good marketing tactic - new game on old console? Game press eat that shit up. At the very least, diversify your platforms like Xeno Crisis did, port it to anything that is financially feasible to. If you're trying kickstarter then I guess you're playing with other's money so it doesn't really matter, but remember that physical goods are expensive.

Good luck! If this is your first game, then all I'll say is finish what you start. Don't fall into the trap of constantly shifting and evolving the idea, create a good achievable target and stick to the plan.

[HugoStiglitz]

I'm glad you're willing to pay people for work, you see a lot of "idea guys" in game dev that don't provide many skills themselves and expect artists and programmers to do all of the work for them to maybe get paid in the end, so I appreciate the perspective there.

May I ask why you want to make an AES game in particular? I don't think selling on AES alone would be very profitable. If your game idea is a winner, why not put it on modern, accessible platforms to widen your consumer base instead of selling a couple hundred carts at $400 or whatever? If this is a hobby or passion project then by all means go ahead, I'd like to code a MVS game one day too to learn (I've been spoiled by modern hardware lol). I just think the market for a new AES/MVS game is smaller than people think, and the people that buy it probably won't even play it.

That being said, it IS a good marketing tactic - new game on old console? Game press eat that shit up. At the very least, diversify your platforms like Xeno Crisis did, port it to anything that is financially feasible to. If you're trying kickstarter then I guess you're playing with other's money so it doesn't really matter, but remember that physical goods are expensive.

Good luck! If this is your first game, then all I'll say is finish what you start. Don't fall into the trap of constantly shifting and evolving the idea, create a good achievable target and stick to the plan.

Thanks for the feedback. I want to just speak to some of the points you brought up.

I'm always happy to pay people for their work. I know what I'm capable and more importantly I know what I'm NOT capable of. There are three schools of thought on how to properly fund this project: 1. just pay everyone out of my pocket for all of the work they do. I would own all of the content and I would reap 100% of the proceeds from it's sales. 2. crowdfund the entire project. Basically ask people to work for free in the hopes their share of thee returns are enough to make it worth their effort. or 3. I pay out of pocket for the initial "tech demo" and then once we determine how much demand there would be then we can look into crowdfunding and share the profits accordingly. I'm of the mindset that when people are personally/financially tied to the outcome of a project that they do better work. I know I have always performed better this way. I also really believe in the value of a team. I feel like just hiring 1099 contractors to fulfill a task doesn't really build a sense of teamwork and passion around your project. My initial feeling then is that scenario 3 is the best path forward. I'll happily pay people out of my pocket to build a small, quick sample of the game engine running and then I'll float it out to see if there is any demand. The only risk is mine. If it feels like there is enough interest then we'll go the crowdfunding route and everyone will share in the proceeds.

Why did I choose an AES game? I LOVE the AES/MVS hardware and I think it was really capable of some amazing things but it always fell short in a few categories and I think this leaves a large hole in the market that I can capitalize on. My original intention was to just create a hardware tech demo that would absolutely push the hardware to it's limits using modern day techniques and art styles. The more I started drawing up what I wanted the more it evolved into a full-fledged game with story and characters and themes. That's when I decided to try taking this idea a little further to see if I was the only one interested in such a game on original hardware. I really love your idea about porting to multiple platforms and I don't see any reason why we couldn't do that. Just know that my main reason for doing this is to fill a gap in the AES/MVS library with an awesome game that will push the hardware to it's limits.

As for constantly shifting goal posts, i know all too well what you're talking about. I have a good friend who has been making an "RPGmaker" game for the past 7 years and has little to show for it. I actually funded him when he first started and I keep offering to help but he's a one-man team and because of this hasn't done much in all of this time. I have a fairly concrete storyboard already laid out and some ideas of how I want things to look/move. I just need the "tech people" to let me know how much of my vision is possible and how much will need to be tweaked for the system hardware.

thanks for the feedback!

[Alexsandro111]

Thanks for the feedback. I want to just speak to some of the points you brought up.

I'm always happy to pay people for their work. I know what I'm capable and more importantly I know what I'm NOT capable of. There are three schools of thought on how to properly fund this project: 1. just pay everyone out of my pocket for all of the work they do. I would own all of the content and I would reap 100% of the proceeds from it's sales. 2. crowdfund the entire project. Basically ask people to work for free in the hopes their share of thee returns are enough to make it worth their effort. or 3. I pay out of pocket for the initial "tech demo" and then once we determine how much demand there would be then we can look into crowdfunding and share the profits accordingly. I'm of the mindset that when people are personally/financially tied to the outcome of a project that they do better work. I know I have always performed better this way. I also really believe in the value of a team. I feel like just hiring 1099 contractors to fulfill a task doesn't really build a sense of teamwork and passion around your project. My initial feeling then is that scenario 3 is the best path forward. I'll happily pay people out of my pocket to build a small, quick sample of the game engine running and then I'll float it out to see if there is any demand. The only risk is mine. If it feels like there is enough interest then we'll go the crowdfunding route and everyone will share in the proceeds.

Why did I choose an AES game? I LOVE the AES/MVS hardware and I think it was really capable of some amazing things but it always fell short in a few categories and I think this leaves a large hole in the market that I can capitalize on. My original intention was to just create a hardware tech demo that would absolutely push the hardware to it's limits using modern day techniques and art styles. The more I started drawing up what I wanted the more it evolved into a full-fledged game with story and characters and themes. That's when I decided to try taking this idea a little further to see if I was the only one interested in such a game on original hardware. I really love your idea about porting to multiple platforms and I don't see any reason why we couldn't do that. Just know that my main reason for doing this is to fill a gap in the AES/MVS library with an awesome game that will push the hardware to it's limits.

As for constantly shifting goal posts, i know all too well what you're talking about. I have a good friend who has been making an "RPGmaker" game for the past 7 years and has little to show for it. I actually funded him when he first started and I keep offering to help but he's a one-man team and because of this hasn't done much in all of this time. I have a fairly concrete storyboard already laid out and some ideas of how I want things to look/move. I just need the "tech people" to let me know how much of my vision is possible and how much will need to be tweaked for the system hardware.

thanks for the feedback!

Are you succeeding in bringing your idea to life?

[HugoStiglitz]

Are you succeeding in bringing your idea to life?

Slowly. I'm working with an artist on the first initial sketches of the characters and then will hand those over to a few digital animators I'm interviewing to get samples of their work. Hopefully I'll be able to pick a single animator that is capable of creating the assets I need.

I've spoken, at length, with blastar about putting this together and he mentioned he would have time in his schedule to discuss it soon. I'll need to provide him with the assets and everything before he's able to really dive into it and get his feedback.

This will be a much slower process than I would ideally want but I understand this is just how small budget games are made.

fingers crossed for me.

[bulbousbeard]

Slowly. I'm working with an artist on the first initial sketches of the characters and then will hand those over to a few digital animators I'm interviewing to get samples of their work. Hopefully I'll be able to pick a single animator that is capable of creating the assets I need.

I've spoken, at length, with blastar about putting this together and he mentioned he would have time in his schedule to discuss it soon. I'll need to provide him with the assets and everything before he's able to really dive into it and get his feedback.

This will be a much slower process than I would ideally want but I understand this is just how small budget games are made.

fingers crossed for me.

I know you probably want it to be a Neo game, but honestly, just don't. Just make a cross platform game that takes advantage of modern platforms that you could put on anything. Why put in all that effort and then not even have something that you could run on a Switch, for example? It doesn't make sense.

The "new games on old hardware" thing is misguided.

[HugoStiglitz]

I know you probably want it to be a Neo game, but honestly, just don't. Just make a cross platform game that takes advantage of modern platforms that you could put on anything. Why put in all that effort and then not even have something that you could run on a Switch, for example? It doesn't make sense.

The "new games on old hardware" thing is misguided.

I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just not anywhere near the point where that is a bridge I have to cross yet. I am still getting early sketches on paper.

I don't know enough about programming or coding to determine what is possible but my two main objectives for this project are:

1. create an awesome game in an underserved genre on the NeoGeo

2. Push the NeoGeo hardware to it's limits using modern game design/techniques.

If those two are accomplished and the game can be ported to other systems I'm perfectly fine with that. What I don't want to happen is to have the game "watered down" so it plays on a genesis if that means negatively impacting goal #2.

[bulbousbeard]

I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just not anywhere near the point where that is a bridge I have to cross yet. I am still getting early sketches on paper.

I don't know enough about programming or coding to determine what is possible but my two main objectives for this project are:

1. create an awesome game in an underserved genre on the NeoGeo

2. Push the NeoGeo hardware to it's limits using modern game design/techniques.

If those two are accomplished and the game can be ported to other systems I'm perfectly fine with that. What I don't want to happen is to have the game "watered down" so it plays on a genesis if that means negatively impacting goal #2.

I genuinely don't think the average person is going to have the budget to create anything that pushes the Neo more than the commercial games during its original run did. They had some of if not the best pixel artists in the industry. Look at the commercial industry today. They can't make games that look as good as the best Neo games TODAY even with all the absurd advantages they have. Even if you create some gee wiz tech demo with some funky effects it's ultimately not going to look as awesome as Metal Slug 3.

[Tripredacus]

What a buzzkill.