The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - books/websites about gaming business

books/websites about gaming business

hi, are there any good books or references about how the gaming business works? something that would answer questions like:

- I develop a game using the PS2 linux kit. how do I turn this into a 'real' PS2 game?
- As an independent game shop, how do we get a distribution deal for our game?
- As an independent game shop, what legal hoops do we need to jump through to license out our game to nintendo/sony/etc.
- Dance Dance Revolution sold 6.5 million units worldwide. How much money does konami profit on each unit?

the idea is a book, or multiple books, or website which will give a better idea of how to be a competitive smaller game shop.

thanks.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Check out "The Indie Game Development Survival Guide":

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584502142/qid=1075847589//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14/104-3729702-0747109?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I, too, have a PS2 Linux devkit but couldn't for the life of me see how anyone could do serious development on it. Then again, I've done PS2 development with "real" tools, so maybe I'm spoiled.

Jim Buck
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

dexterity.com - check out Steve's writings.

Prakash S
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Im sure you have read http://www.gamasutra.com . Have you?

I'm not very involved in the gaming thing (as a developer), but I remember reading quite interesting stuff there.

.NET Developer
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

The ps/2 linux license explicitly forbids making real games from it.

Koz
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

The Linux is for losers message is much stronger in the games business. Probably because games really have to be good.

Tuesday, February 3, 2004

www.gamedev.net has interesting stuff.

Tim
Tuesday, February 3, 2004

Gregg Tavares has some interesting articles on his site such as this one about starting your own game company:

http://www.greggman.com/pages/starting.htm

I don't know where the links are right off hand, but if you poke around the site, you'll find several good technical articles as well as a game dev FAQ...

Tim Lara
Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Game development is expensive! I work for a video game company and the compiler for each platform (ps2, gamecube) costs like $2000-$3000 a seat. Xbox is cheap. The development hardware costs around $10,000-$20,000 per unit.

Roose
Wednesday, February 4, 2004

You also need to get the console maker's okay before you can publish a game on their platform. So basically if you're thinking about PC-style indie development, the short answer is "you can't". Not until you have a track record as a game developer, anyway.

The best reference for all "How do I get into the games industry" questions is probably Tom Sloper's website:

http://www.sloperama.com

Chris Nahr
Friday, February 6, 2004

Maybe a more specific link would be in order...
http://www.sloperama.com/advice.html

Chris Nahr
Friday, February 6, 2004