Do As We Don’t…

Or Do, it doesn’t really matter.

You know what’s really annoying about making video games? There’s no actual concrete ‘how to’ or step-by-step. Sure, there are resources everywhere, university courses, internships and myriad YouTube tutorials (some of them excellent, and some of them not so excellent), but it can be overwhelming and often contradictory. There’s also the ‘ol’ thorn in the side’ of new developers where the games industry itself still is so shrouded in mystery that it can often feel like you’re venturing into some secretive underworld of spy craft, when really, all we need is a little more transparency and insight from other people’s personal experiences. So, guess what we’re going to do? We’re going to give you another not-a-guide. Isn’t that exciting? No? Well, read it anyway. Please and thank you.

It’s a Hard G

Though today you have me (Hi, I’m Alex), we’re MVGIE Studios (pronounced Moo-Gee) and we’re a small studio of only three partners and friends. We met at university studying Game Design and started our first studio before we’d graduated. Which would probably sound pretty cool if that studio hadn’t become defunct not long after graduating. None of us could really see a world where we didn’t still work together, so I pitched an overly complicated and bloated game (a game with a name never to be mentioned), and MVGIE was born.

Being such a small studio means we all wear multiple hats, and occasionally swap those between us. I’m the Game and Narrative designer, so I get to do the fun stuff while making unreasonable and unrealistic demands of our programmer, Phillip. Phillip just so happens to be our producer, so he gleefully gets to shut those demands down. Then there’s poor Allie, she has to put up with our silly shenanigans when all she really wants to do is get back to composing music.

We all do so much more than just our desired jobs though. Being an indie studio really means everyone needs to adapt to whatever unknowable challenge is right around the corner. Allie is particularly adept at this. I am not.

Our Complete Lack of Authority

We have absolutely no right to tell you what to do, or who and how to approach anything that falls under the massive bracket of making video games. What we can do is tell you what we’ve done so far and how it did or didn’t work for us. We intend to do that with all the transparency and authenticity we possibly can. We understand that this might not be something that interests a lot of people, but if even one person feels like this coming chronicle helps, encourages or inspires them, then it will have been so wonderfully worth the arduous task that my producer insists I do, and honestly, that’s just swell.

Ours is not a funded, or published game. In fact, we’re in search of both of those things currently, but we’ve come a long way since our inception two years ago. We’re currently partaking in our third accelerator program, we’ve been to expos and showcased games, we’ve pitched to big and small publishers alike at one of the Games Finance Markets. We’ve applied for countless grants and accelerators and perhaps most importantly, we’ve gotten a lot of things wrong. We (read I) have been the cause of massive scope creep and been forced to pivot from one game to another. We’ve been rejected, under-designed and over-written, been ghosted, and been rejected some more.

Onward, Forward

There’s an old saying (or depending on how you feel about it maybe a thought-terminating cliché) that everyone you meet is either a blessing or a lesson. I’m not sure I agree with that, but there’s an excellent attitude that can be extrapolated from it. As long as you’re learning, you’re still making progress and that’s something that’s come to define us. It’s helped us to maintain momentum when it feels like we’re in ‘the dark forest’. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of these lessons might be able to help other people, and maybe it’s the socialist in me, but if all industries were a little more like communities, then maybe folks would help each other out a bit more.

With all that being said, as well as what game we’re making, and how we’re making it, here’s a little list of some of the things we’ll cover in the future,

• Finding funding
• Creating Design Documents
• Creating Pitch Decks
• Being part of a community
• Managing passion sustainably and how to do Game Design as a business
• Taking the time to understand your team.

It’s by no means a comprehensive list, and with any luck we will expand well beyond, but for now it will have to do, as I see Phillip giving me a look from the other side of our screens. A look I’ve come to understand as ‘Right, mate. You should have moved on from that by now.’ It’s a particular and effective look, so I best step off my proverbial soap box.

Please feel free to reach out to me across the usual noisy media things, or email me at alex@mvgiestudios.com and I’ll do what I can, but for now… be cool to one another, and be cool to yourself.

Pea Suit

Alex

P.S. If I have said anything that my partners disagree with then this in no way represents MVGIE Studios and is just the mad cap ramblings of a self-indulgent writer.