My idea is to rent some office space in either Post Falls or CDA Idaho, then hire a couple young part timers who are interested in game development. They don’t have to have any experience, the important thing is that they are passionate about something videogame adjacent and also that they would fit into my community.
So I’m thinking I’d need one person to do art. 3d character models, UI elements, terrain. Then a second person to do either game code or payment API integration. Heck, maybe even be more flexible and identify the three roles needed and hire two people for two of the roles, and I fill in whichever role is left over.
- Art
- Game code
- Accounts & Payments integration
Something like that. The more I think about it, I could do any of those roles. Heck, I think I would be doing a little bit of every role anyway, because that’s how small businesses go. It’s not really possible to be super specialized when you’re working on a game, unless you’re a giant company with hundreds of employees. Everyone kind of contributes where they can on every project along the way, and keeps repeating that process until the job is done.
So yeah, I’d start with some cubicles, a commons area with a table, and a whiteboard.
We’d start every day with a standup meeting. Maybe a longer standup meeting every monday where we get deep into planning, and the rest of the week is dedicated to more focused work.
Yes, cubicles. We would NOT have an “open office” layout, because I know I do my best work in isolation.
So yeah, I’d hire using Indeed.com, because I have experience from the worker perspective and I think it’s a really streamlined system. I’d get two employees hired then we’d sit down and have a meeting about the company’s goal.
The goal is to create Kybertrike in 1 year. I’d lay out the project requirements using the whiteboard.
- Runs on 10 year old computers
- Feels like CyberStrike2
- Desktop download
- Tank-style controls (where the weapon aiming is separate from the driving movement)
- Godot Multiplayer
- Retro graphics
- Nostr identity layer
- Lightning micropayments
- Skins/customizations
- Free to play
- Ranking system
- Some open world/MMORPG elements
- FPS
- Mech shooter
- Jumpjets
- Rollers
- Mortars
- Longshot laser
- Light Towers
- Heavy Towers
- Shielded Towers
Something like that. Then the employee’s first task is to play the original CyberStrike2 and get a feel for the game. Unfortunately they wouldn’t be able to play multiplayer, because the singleplayer demo is only thing that has survived the test of time, but they could watch youtube videos on the subject.
Once they understand the game, we could figure out what everybody wants to work on.
Big emphasis on the timeline. We have 1 year to create a game. After that, my budget runs out and I have to fire everyone. Unless of course, we can launch a profitable game, and sustain the company. I’m going to be upfront about this constraint, because it’s honest and I don’t want there to be surprises near the end.
Next important thing is to break down the deadline into manageable chunks. We have 1 year to work on the game, which means we have 12 months to do it. We would need a game mechanics prototype in something like 3 months. Heck, right off the bat (with Godot 4’s tools) I think it’s doable to have a multiplayer game, and this would have the benefit of not having to re-code the entire game when it’s time to switch to multi.
Ok lemme back up. We first need a singleplayer mechanics tech demo. Then we can sprinkle in multiplayer. Yeah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Let’s say we have a 3 month deadline for a singleplayer mechanics tech demo. This is movement, jumping, jumpjets, combat, item ordering and tower dropping.
Then at 6 months we need the same thing but in multiplayer.
Then at 9 months we need a working multiplayer game with scores, ordering, combat, explosions, sector control. Basically at 9 months the game needs to be essentially complete, and from there we add polish and finish up the accounts/payments code.
At 10 months it’s crunch time. We need to release the game at this time.
At 11 months it’s danger time. Players must be playing the game at this point. We need to be advertising on Stacker.news, nostr, etc. We need to be playing the game ourselves, hosting events, banning cheaters, and building the community.
At 12 months, it’s celebration time. We will have in-person pizza parties, awarding employees for their achievements, and possibly wrapping things up. We’ll have introspective meetings where we identify what went wrong, what went right, what lessons we learned, and what we will do better next time.
At the end of month 12, we decide whether or not the company is profitable and whether or not we can keep going.
The more I think about this, 12 months isn’t enough. On average, startups need 3 years to make a profit. Soo maybe this plan is flawed from the get-go?
misc
We can play Ironsworn: Starforge to come up with lore / missions
- Use kanban board
- Enforce in-person work, because we need to remember the pack-animal nature of humanity and give them what they need. We are not a WFH company.
- Use a mantras board
mantras
see Mantras