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[fish]

The commune idea could work actually, if it were just a place to stay and work and a place with shared rent and food, and not a place where the projects themselves were shared or where they even got too involved in each other's projects except in unofficial temporary alliances. It worked for Osamu Tezuka -- he rented an apartment building and filled it with manga artists, many of whom went on to be great ones.

There are other problems with it, but I don't think anyone should dismiss it so easily just cause it sounds hippie. Families are communes too, technically; a commune is just be like a family, without being related, so it'd have many of the problems families have.

i so want to do that someday.
like osamu's apartment, or warhol'd factory, but for game devs.
maybe such a "studio" could share some assets, like, lets say, a wii dev-kit.

[PoV]

It's lowering one barrier to entry, but only for people who already HAVE a development kit... removing the publisher as a middleman. I heard somewhere (I think here, maybe!) that Nintendo are pretty damn unlikely to give a development kit to someone who doesn't have their own office, and works in their bedroom/garage instead (i.e. introversion may be the only "indie" who can get a wii devkit - and they hate consoles, so that's unlikely).

As I see it, despite getting a harsh date when software will begin to be available, nothing has changed.  This has been Nintendo's stance since way back before the system launched.  You can't be "licensed" if you don't have secure office space.  Well, what's funny is a home office is technically "more secure", since you're there both whilst your working and asleep.

The playing field changed some 10-15 years ago when we all started getting on the internet.  Now, games can and are developed with the teams not even being in the same country.  Many commercially viable games don't even need teams larger than 2 people.  It's one of many ways we keep development costs down.  A shame some businesses haven't realized this.

Fine.  Get some cheap office space then.  Bleah.

[fish]

ugh.
thats so infuriating.
even if some team i was working with became a registered, official company, we'd chose not to have office space. id much rather save my money and work from home.
would that make us any less of a development "studio"?
well...i guess.
but still!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I don't know how they could know whether your office is in your home or not. Do they visit it?

[fish]

nintendo knows.

[PoV]

even if some team i was working with became a registered, official company, we'd chose not to have office space. id much rather save my money and work from home.
would that make us any less of a development "studio"?

Perhaps less of a traditional studio, but the team is always the meat of any game development studio.  I like to push the idea of "team" over "studio" these days.  Be it individuals, a traditional studio, a traditional studio working with outsourcing companies, etc.  The game is the sum of all parties involved.  The team.

I don't know how they could know whether your office is in your home or not. Do they visit it?

No probably not, but that's beside the point.  You shouldn't have to "lie" about having a home office versus office space.

You should be able to, straight up, approach a platform holder, tell them you and your team have developed a game they might be interested in, and go from there.  There is and should be a competence barrier.  So long as you can pass that, the environment it's developed in should be irrelevant.

nintendo knows.

Oh noes! 

[ravuya]

We traced that call from Nintendo of America.

IT'S COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

[fish]

We traced that call from Nintendo of America.

IT'S COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

ooh, man, i actually justed LOLed quite hard to this.

[ravuya]

You should get that looked at.

BY A DOCTOR.

[PoV]

A ROFLDOCTOR.

...

Worst... convoluted... referential... netism joke... ever... rofl... copter.

[fish]

I DONT KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!!!

[Guert]

Ha ha fish, are you a buzznut too?

[fish]

a what?

[Guert]

Oh well, never mind then Its how a radio station I listen to calls its listeners. It uses this line in one of their jingles. Coincidence I suppose!

[fish]

99.9 the buzz?
yeah i used to listen to that.
i never listen to the radio anymore.


the line is from anchorman.
one of the funniest movie in recent history, IMO.

[FARTRON]

I still reckon we all need some kind of physical indie commune where we pitch our tents together and share expertise and devkits and whatnot... one for europe and one for the americas (because of america's insane immigration laws).

Then again, indies exist because of/despite regimented structure, so maybe it's a fallacy to think that this commune idea could work.

Communal space has been popular and successful in punk rock and artist circles, in encouraging creativity and fostering cross-pollination.  I suspect the major obstacle to its adaptation in indie gaming is a lack of critical mass.  When you can find a dozen people in one spot who like making games to the exception of other social duties, you might start getting Forts Thunder.

[fish]

I still reckon we all need some kind of physical indie commune where we pitch our tents together and share expertise and devkits and whatnot... one for europe and one for the americas (because of america's insane immigration laws).

Then again, indies exist because of/despite regimented structure, so maybe it's a fallacy to think that this commune idea could work.

Communal space has been popular and successful in punk rock and artist circles, in encouraging creativity and fostering cross-pollination.  I suspect the major obstacle to its adaptation in indie gaming is a lack of critical mass.  When you can find a dozen people in one spot who like making games to the exception of other social duties, you might start getting Forts Thunder.

true, it works for a lot of other creative fields.
why, just in my neighborhood i know of a bunch of communes, shared spaces and group studios.
all ran by some vegan punk lesbian, or some 40-something scenester artist ex-druggie. people always end up basicly living there, even if theyre not supposed to. but the printing studio, as an exemple, has a lot of giant crazy-expensive printing machines, silk screens, inks, space, etc etc. artists join and pay a part of the rent for the right to use all that stuff.
and theyre always in some old warehouse or industrial building.
i love these kinds of places.

[Guert]

This is highly off-topic but...
I've never seen anchor man... Lot's of people saying it's a great comedy, I think I'm gonna check it out! 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

My entire apartment building (where I grew up in and still live) is an artist's commune of sorts -- it was an apartment complex specifically designed to house only artists (of any type -- it also includes musicians, poets, and so on), to foster this city's artists community; the rent is very low (only 1/3rd of whatever someone's income is), and the environment when growing up was pretty great, there were lots of interesting people around. While not a strict commune in that we each had our own apartments and paid for our own food and didn't walk into each other's spaces and so on, it's close.

[CosMind]

i just caught wind of this factoid:

from:
http://www.siliconera.com/2007/06/27/wii-ware-opens-the-door-for-indie-developers/

There is only 512 MB of internal memory on the Wii compared to the gigabytes of space for downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

not necessarily a worry, but definitely something that i didn't expect/realize.