TIGSource Forums

Hey everyone!  I'm not really sure if this post has any real goal other than to say "Hey".  If I haven't met you before, my name is Brice Morrison, and I've been a game designer at EA and at CrowdStar, a social game company, and am the editor of TheGameProdigy.com (http://TheGameProdigy.com).  I was recently laid off.  

But before you go "Oh no!  I'm so sorry, that's horrible!"  allow me to stop you.  My wife and I are fine financially for a little while, so we thought that this would be a great opportunity for me to finally go after my dream of living off of games I'm making.  I'm super stoked about this, because there are just so many interesting opportunities out there in game development that haven't been scratched yet.

So I don't have anything to show you guys yet, thus it would be presumptuous of me to expect anyone else to get excited before proving what I can do.  But I will be excited to share some fun creations with everyone over the course of the next few months.  In the meantime I'll continue to lurk on these forums, work on my blog, and try to make cool stuff that's actually useful and fun for people.  :)

Thanks and wish me luck!
--Brice

This is really a post for the introduction thread. It's over in announcements.

That being said, welcome and be sure to post a lot! We always appreciate feedback on our games, and the better you treat the community, the more supportive the community will be of you.

Pro designer eh? Wanna help out the community eh? You kow how to write, you say?
Run to the Feedback section right away young man. Let's see what you have to say about other games.

Welcome to TIGS. Show me what you can do.  :gentleman:
(Official introduction thread (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45.0))

Oooo I like a challenge.  :lol:

I guess I didn't post in the Intro Thread because I already posted in the intro thread about 8 months or so ago.  This was more of an update.  Should I move it there anyway?

Nah, it's cool. :)

Come back where you're indie.


 :lol: :lol: :lol: jk jk.

You ex-EARS or Pogo? Or maybe they changed things up since I was at EA.

Cool news  :handthumbsupL:

I am ex-EARS, I worked in The Sims.  Great group of people.

Good luck man  :handthumbsupL:

Good luck, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I've been reading your blog on and off for a while now, so it's kinda cool to see someone whose work I'm already aware of make the jump to indie.

Good luck?

... and you worked on the sims? good news! I hope you push game in the direction of things you learn there, we need more insight about some underused aspect of gaming.

I hope you do great. And welcome :)

What will you work on? flash games? unity? game maker? c++?.
What is your plan to live off of games you make?.

Right now I think that Flash is the best option, for accessibility, ease of development, and it can do almost anything.

Step One of the plan is to get my name out there, right now no one has heard of me except my blog readers and, well, anyone who has checked this thread.  Keep writing great posts, giving good feedback, and making great free videos and games.

Step Two is my first paperback book coming out soon on Amazon, which was in the works before I was laid off.

Step Three is launch a game.  Right now I'm thinking KickStarter, and I have some ideas that no one has tried before that I think would be really cool.

Step Four is determined by whether or not Step Three works out or not.  :shrug2:

welcome and good luck with your book and upcoming unique(?) game :)
nice blog btw.

I could easily be wrong, but I think it'd be easier to get funds from kickstarter if you're making a game in a language other than flash. Just something about getting an exe to download is very nice and personal in a way that makes games seem to have concrete value.

The KickStarter game would be a downloadable and install-able .exe with Adobe Air, like Machinarium (http://machinarium.net/demo/).  Not just a little popup game, but a real full game.  Adobe Air is great because it's cross-platform.  So to the end user it wouldn't make a difference if it was programmed in Flash or C++.

Developing it in Flash will make it easy to put the first playable level online, for example.

Good tip though, I agree with you, and please slap me with critical feedback if I'm saying crazy things; that's the only way to learn.  If it was an in-browser flash game only, it would probably need to be supported with microtransactions.  No one would pay just to be able to load the page.

I'm intrigued by this KickStarter business. Would you expect most of your funds to come from your blog readers and friends and family, or does KickStarter draw support from random strangers who like your idea?

Anyway, good luck with everything! I hope you find a good place in indie games.

Welcome back, and good luck with your imminent Indie endeavours. :)

Usually, to make bills making flash games is to sell to flash Portals, you should be able to make enough money to fund your next game. You said you had about 3 months? I suggest taking the first 2 making the game and building community, and the last month trying to sell your game up on Flash Game Licence. Don't expect to be able to make much money on advertising. Also, my understanding is Micro-transactions only really work for MMOs, and you don't have enough time to develop a competitive one of them.

You have to watch about stand alone flash games, they often hold a Stigma of being a 'rip-off' simply because consumers are used to getting their flash game fix for free. You really need to set yourself apart from bog-standard flash games. Machanerium was successful because of both the depth and graphics, and I assume you don't really have the time to produce something of that level.

Kickstarter is cool, I don't know if it's as much of a goldrush as when it first came out of the gate. The key seems to be aim low and hope for a winfall, also have interesting prizes.

Yea, kickstarter is wonderful but he's right, you need to do interesting prizes for donating, and it helps to already have an existing fanbase or people who are interested and willing to spread the news a bit.

Thanks for the tips Eric.  I don't really view KickStarter as a magic money machine, as I think some people do.  :P  I just view it as the same as PayPal, where if you make a compelling product and spread the word, then people will purchase it.  The only difference is that you get your revenue up front instead of post-development.

Production values would need to be high, yes.  And selling on Flash Game License is an option I've thought about.

And part of my background is in social game design (Happy Aquarium, It Girl), so I have a little more experience than most people in the microtransaction realm.  But we'll have to see.  This year is the year for business experimentation for me. 

I assure you I've got some experience in the micro-transaction realm, and it's not a short or easy road.
BUT yeah! Experiment, let us know how it goes. 8)