Gaming Software Developers

Culchie

Hi,

Can anyone provide me with a list/website of gaming developers, preferably in Ireland.


Regards

C.

aidan_walsh

Not Irish, but one of the biggest going at the minute.

www.gamedev.net

Ah, didn't dawn on me that you mean professional teams...

Lemlin

http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/features/viewfeature.php?article=98

That's an article from Gamedevelopers.ie that lists a lot of them. Its from 2003 though so might be a tad outdated now.

Culchie

Thanks Lads.

If you had a gaming idea... what are the steps you would take to take this from simple idea generation forward?

Simply contact one of the gaming developers or is there another route?

I'm sure they hear this every day of the week.

humanji

I'd say they do get that sort of thing all the time. My advice is to do as much work yourself as possible. Have every angle covered and then send it out with as good a pitch as possible. Make it sound like they can't go on living unless this game is made (but don't make it sound like a threat like just did! ).

gizmo

It just doesnt happen mate, companies don't buy just ideas anymore. Is it that you want to get into the games industry or something? Are you a programmer or what?

monument

Culchie wrote:

Hi,

Can anyone provide me with a list/website of gaming developers, preferably in Ireland.

http://www.gamestoaster.com/games_toaster/2006/04/irish_computer_.html

http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/companies/

Retr0gamer

If the idea isn't too complex you could have a stab at it yourself using a program such as gamesfactory. It would look good if you had a working version of your idea to show around.

K.O.Kiki

Self-publish.
If you can't program it, get some mates to do it for you and assign yourself "Manager"

Your best bet would be to go abroad ATM tho, UK or Canada maybe

Dooom

My brother's CEO of Demonware, so if that could be of any use let me know. He literally knows everyone in the games industry (and beyond, the prat).

Only reason I'm doing this is because I owe him lots of money, so I decided I'd do something nice for him instead of pay him back.

projectmayhem

i'm looking to enter the games industry myself (studying comp sci atm), and have a few well developed idea's right now.

your best bet is to go as far into the idea as you can alone... and that means scripting, programming, designing etc. THEN push it on someone else. the general rule being to give them a reason to fork out for making your game...

also, be willing to part with your own cash. chances are you wont end up with EA... so an indie dev will probably require some sort of "help" with your project, and they may simply treat it as a contract job

stormkeeper

One thing you should certainly do if you have an idea for a game is to do up a design treatment for it, and not working from your head.

I'm doing a Batchelor of Science (Hons) course in Computer Games myself at the moment, and I'm about halfway through it, but what I learnt so far has taught me that I need to put my ideas on paper first and go through the design, etc before even starting to program (or create) the game in any way, be it the proper one or a prototype...

projectmayhem

Kennett wrote:

I'm doing a Batchelor of Science (Hons) course in Computer Games myself

is that the one in carlow IT? i'm in DIT doing normal comp sci, but it has a games programming/graphics element in the degree year, as well as AI in third and fourth year

stormkeeper

projectmayhem wrote:

is that the one in carlow IT? i'm in DIT doing normal comp sci, but it has a games programming/graphics element in the degree year, as well as AI in third and fourth year

No, I'm doing it at the University of East London... was initially going to be doing the Ballyfermot course, after transferring from my programming degree, but I ended up getting accepted to UEL while at Game Stars Live in September 2004... so I ended up moving to London in January 2005 and have been here ever since.

projectmayhem

you'd think i would look at the location eh

sounds cool. i'm thinking of switching from comp sci to ballyfermot next year.. but we'll see how things go

stormkeeper

projectmayhem wrote:

you'd think i would look at the location eh

It's cool, we all do stuff like that

sounds cool. i'm thinking of switching from comp sci to ballyfermot next year.. but we'll see how things go

Yeah... and hopefully your course is better than mine. This one isn't terrible, but it needs much improvement!

ShiverinEskimo

There's a dedicated Games Development degree in DKIT now - the building attached to it has 2 games dev studios and DKIT intend to build a dedicated media development hub on the campus. Very promising for the locality and the industry - to the point where I'm considering another 4 years of college doing the above to give myself a shot at doing something I truely would enjoy.

Mad Mike

Here are a couple of Good websites
http://www.igda.org/ (International Game Developers Association)
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html (Tom Sloper - much quoted guru on the games industry)

Be prepared for a major reality injection however. Although I dont work in the industry the previous comment about "it just doesn't happen" is pretty much on the mark.

projectmayhem

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

There's a dedicated Games Development degree in DKIT now - the building attached to it has 2 games dev studios and DKIT intend to build a dedicated media development hub on the campus. Very promising for the locality and the industry - to the point where I'm considering another 4 years of college doing the above to give myself a shot at doing something I truely would enjoy.

sounds interesting. though the benefit of my DIT Comp Sci degree is, in the end, i don't have to go straight into the bottom rung of games development and do a bit of general IT work first. taking some time out to do the ballyfermot course sounds like a great option right now... plus ballyfermot are working with DIT for the dare to be digital contest

i was gonna enter myself but lets just say my programming needs improvement