Hi DecapitatedOrk,
I read through your post, and I'm afraid I'm about to splash you with a giant bucket of ice water. I am not trying to be rude, but only trying to set realistic expectations based on my career. I have been a designer & producer of games for over 10 years including 4 years at EA/BioWare, have contributed to over 30 shipped titles and have spent the past year as a game design, production and monetization consultant for about 10 hours a week while working on my own game studio for the remainder of the time.
So, a few key pieces of feedback based on your post.
while my design skills are still polished due to "fucking around" I don't really have much of a portfolio.
A good portfolio is the key to freelance work. Without a public facing portfolio, I have no means by which to judge your skills. Without a portfolio, you post reads like a lot of hot air. For all I know you are an incredibly talented, hard working and dependable coder/web designer. But you need to prove it because if I was a prospective client and I received this in an email I would sent it immediately to the trash bin.
I do feel like I'm at least quasi-qualified to consult and cover the business side of things.
Again, you need proof to back up this statement. Without what I call a "heroic story" about a time you tangibly helped a game with the business side of things and made a measurable impact on the bottom line, I have no way of verifying that you are qualified. Experience breeds proof, proof breeds trust, trust breeds jobs.
I'm mostly looking to work for rev share on projects that are in alpha stage
In my experience, there are not a lot of rev share deals out there. Unless you have a proven track record or are bringing vital skills to the table, you are only going to get compensated in league with the amount of risk you take on a project. If you find someone at an equal experience level taking an equal risk (in terms of time and money invested) then you might find a rev share deal. If you think someone is going to give you 10% of revenue based on putting some work into a game that's already in alpha, my experience tells me your head is in the clouds. If others on the forum have more experience than me securing rev share deals then I congratulate you and hope they have netted you a worthy return on your investment.
That being said, I'm not sure if there's really a market for this... While I'd like to do some free work in order to earn trust, I'm moving off-campus for the summer and need to pay for food/rent.
Less than 10% of my clients are what I would call indie studios or developers. The problem with indies is that, in general, they don't have any money. If you need to earn money to pay the rent, then your market is not indie game developers, it is larger clients who have funding and/or successful games that have netted them a healthy bank account. This may mean doing web design far outside of game development for 10 hours a week to fuel your passion for the rest of your time.
That being said, I've never actually managed to finish a game; maybe, because I always treated it as a hobbiest attempt and had no real consequence of failing.
The proven ability to ship a game is the only skill that truly matters. If you want to turn this into a career you need to immediately focus on building a portfolio of high quality, fun, polished, shipped games that have garnered a lot of plays.
How difficult is it to get sponsored? Is it possible to make $500 reliably via sponsorships alone? Also whats the average time frame that I should look for in a development of such games?
Check out Flash Game License. This is the best place for info on sponsorship and help landing sponsors.
Sorry if this all sounds overly harsh. I'm not trying to be mean, just help you set realistic expectations based on my experience. Best of luck getting some shipped games under your belt! As soon as one is live I would love you to DM me a link!
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