A bit late to the party, but adding to previous post, here's an overview of the typical services you should expect (and get !) from any serious publisher :

- market expertise, to help position the product in terms of public expectations and competitors
- funding, at least partial. Good sign of commitment ensuring they will do their best to maximise return on investment ; including yours
- public relations, both online and physical presence : forums, social networks, game conventions, etc. to build a community
- advertisement, to reach consumer target and expand player base
- quality control and workflows ; even if you have good internal production, the producer should be able to assist if necessary
- external services : QA, localisation, devkits, etc.

Just stay away from self-proclaimed improvised "publishers" you find in social networks groups that offer nothing but ineffective online PR, and cheap deals that don't really commit to anything and only expect to skim some money at no cost if you happen to sell anything at all.

Part 4 of my series of articles dedicated to game production. This time I am presenting an introduction to the big list of project management artefacts essential for efficient game development.

Article and cheat sheet : https://twitter.com/RaphaelGervaise/status/955490762015338496

Part 3 of my series of articles dedicated to game production. Today we are talking about project reviews and how properly identifying deficiencies can lead to immediate benefits. Enjoy !

Article and cheat sheet : https://twitter.com/RaphaelGervaise/status/952886457013764097

Part 2 of my series of articles dedicated to game production. This time we are discussing how different methodologies can support the adaptability required to develop video games. Enjoy !

Article and cheat sheet : https://twitter.com/RaphaelGervaise/status/950281611177754624

Hi all!

I have started writing articles focusing on video game production. Concepts and recommendations to manage game projects. Including questions we can find here regarding ways of organising the development of video games.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects and it possible to identify reoccurring patterns, both good and bad. I publish these articles to share my experience of production.

The first post studies the motivations for 'production'.
Article and cheat sheet : https://twitter.com/RaphaelGervaise/status/947869060271833088

I hope you will find the content useful
Happy creation in 2018 !

[devs] will not pay for bad reviews, gamers will not trust your site if you give positive reviews

This. I'll just add that even if you are selective and only process games that would get good reviews... well... it's genuinely good, so it will get good user reviews anyway. As for marketing/promotion, it goes through different communication channels.

I'm not convinced there is a slot in the market for the service you are offering :-?

How would you go about hiring programmers to do that, and how much would it cost?

You hire them with the mission to perform a short technical analysis. The output should be a technical report that includes the risks and challenges, the proposed solutions to "translate" the specifications into a program/architecture, and a quote that scale with optional modules. You don't want a full tech design and development plan at this stage, you want something that explains the complexity of your project and addresses the difficulties.

The time it takes depends greatly on the amount of information you submit ; but all in all for a small/medium project it should take no longer than a few days, up to a week or so, for at least a decent initial pass. So we're talking a few hundreds $ to get your project reviewed and analysed. Note that is likely to be an iterative process, as the programmer will probably have questions to refine your specs where it is unclear or where there a conflict of requirements.

If you want to minimise the risk, get at least 2 technical analysis in parallel as suggested, to make sure the results are consistent. All inclusive, maybe $500-1000 for the whole thing to get a couple of reports with a good amount of details and a few iterations.

Payment should be split, e.g. 50% on order, 50% on delivery.

As to where to find such developers... Recommendations from contacts always feel safer ; but if you don't have any, meetups, freelancing site, etc. Just avoid "cowboy programmers" that dig right into coding and avoid the "analysis" stage entirely.

It sounds from the initial brief that you will need "some" amount of flexibility regarding the content of the game, exposed in a "user-friendly" way so that a non-programmer could change/update part of it.

This, in itself, can scale quite a lot ; and therefore is a big unknown, and a big risk, for a programmer. Does it stop at swapping art assets, or would you like to be able to add achievement hooks yourself later ? Would you swap resources 1-for-1 only ? Because if not you would need to repackage the data, spritesheets, etc. for runtime and release (which means wrapping/automating the build process in an easy-to-use process), etc.

This is the kind of questions that need to be answered before a programmer can provide a reasonable quote for the development.

My advice would be to write more detailed requirements/specs, along with a feature list (including the front-end, the interface, the online service integrations, etc.), and hire a couple of experienced programmers in parallel to do a proper technical analysis and quote so that you can compare options and make sure the numbers you are getting are in the same ballpark and reflect a similar understanding of the complexity of the project.

If you're looking for a detailed professional analysis and report, you could try contacting these guys :

http://icopartners.com/crowdfunding-review/

They have a real expertise and solid experience on crowdfunding for video games !

I would add a few suggestions that haven't been mentioned yet, just for the sake of completing the list of tools : Favro, TargetProcess, Hansoft.

Trello is a GREAT start for small teams, but is not self-sufficient ; it's good for organising work but certain aspects are missing or lacking (reporting, bug tracking, etc.) to get a fully functional production framework that lets you drive your project efficiently. This can be mitigated slightly by integrating boards with other tools, but it's just not an "all-in-one" solution.

If you're serious about your project and have a small team, JIRA is totally worth the 10$/month entry price ! It covers all you need, and it just works.

Dear All,

I am delighted to announce Parasite has been Greenlit and will be available on the Steam Store in the near future (release date to be confirmed) :D

Thanks to all the followers for supporting this project !

Thank you very much for the positive feedback and for your vote !

'Having a look at your project as well :D

Parasite articles !

Short articles about Parasite have started to appear on various websites :

Indie Game Magazine
http://indiegamemag.com/parasite-seeking-to-possess-the-8-bit-genre/

Indie Retro News
http://www.indieretronews.com/2015/11/parasite-shape-changing-retro-styled.html

Alpha Beta Gamer
http://www.alphabetagamer.com/parasite-alpha-demo/

A little update to announce the game will be available on Linux and OSX as well.

Thanks to the technologies used to develop Parasite, exporting to a variety of platforms is straightforward.
Further validation is still required to guarantee everything behaves as expected on Linux and OSX, but preliminary tests are very encouraging. Therefore, I am adding these two release platforms, so that non-Windows users can enjoy being Parasites too !

The game is now finished and no longer in development ; moving discussions to a dedicated thread and locking this one :

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=51639.0

Thank you very much, really appreciated

[PARASITE ON *STEAM GREENLIGHT*]

PARASITE ON *STEAM GREENLIGHT*

Parasite is a finished game and is now on Steam Greenlight ! If you like it, please show your support to help get it on the store.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562239858



OVERVIEW
 
Parasite is a non-linear retro platformer with a mix of action and puzzles. The player controls an alien worm wanting to get rid of a human space colony on his planet. There are multiple shapes to unlock and to switch between to facilitate the navigation and sabotage the complex.



PLAYABLE DEMO

Contains ~15% of the full game (tutorial area + 1 out of 8 modules)

Browser demo
Recommendations : up-to-date browser (Chrome) + Xbox360 compatible gamepad
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5266820/Parasite/ParasiteDemo0.9/index.html

Desktop demo
Recommendations : Windows 7/8/10 + Xbox360 compatible gamepad
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5266820/Parasite/ParasiteDemo0.9.zip



KEY FEATURES
- 4 unique environments with their own specificities
- 4 shapes to unlock, each providing an exclusive ability
- Non-linear level design allowing for routing choices
- Use health as a resource to change shape and work around obstacles
- Integrated timer, for the speedrun enthusiasts
- Deactivate all 8 station modules before too many humans can escape !
- Controller support (360 gamepad compatible recommended) and keyboard customisation

Updated - the control sheet and instructions in the demo build now reflect the latest default keyboard controls more accurately.

Indeed - my bad !

The demo was built with an obsolete control sheet ; at this time the game supported both W/S and up/down for jump/interact. This was removed a bit later when adding keyboard customisation and was updated accordingly in the full game.

Thanks for reporting this, I will fix it ASAP !

Thank you for your comment and feedback -

I will double-check the instructions in case I built the demo with a wrong option. The "help" screen shows the default controls, which try to mimic a controller layout with a few tweaks ; though keyboard controls can be customised from the main menu.

I would strongly recommend a gamepad, or customising the keys.