Author: DaveWeLike

I'm the editor of StuffWeLike.com.

PS3 Doomed?

With the recent announcement of not only a lower quantity of shipments and the delay of launch across Europe, is the PS3 Doomed?

Short term yes but we all new that to begin with.

Long term is almost impossible to predict.

There are so many variables with this machine that could change the outcome. Yes the PS3 will do fine, but who knows how well it will sell. Hardcore as well as mainstream gamers will eventually buy a PS3 once it reaches a price point of $300 (for the high-end package).

Mainstream gamers will not be buying the PS3 for at least the first year that it comes out. The costs of the hardware as well as the games will be too high when compared with the Xbox 360 and Wii. Plus the wider selection of games that these two consoles will have is another factor not in Sony’s favor.

People like brand names and the PS3 will be a hot item this holiday season but gamers will go elsewhere if they cannot find the consoles. This will hurt developers tremendously. Be prepared for major staff reductions. Come February/March 07 if the PS3 is still out of stock be prepared for PS3 development support to decrease and move onto other platforms.

Communication

Look bottom line is that you’re always going to be communicating through email. It’s ruid if you do not answer your emails in a timely fasion. If you are working on a deal and allow for a week to pass before you answer your emails those potential deals will be gone. At a maximum reply to your emails 2-3 days after you receive them. Even if you have to contact someone else before you get the needed answer, write an email to the sender so they know to wait a couple of days.

This is a huge issue no matter what side of the industry you’re in. It costs time and money waiting for people to respond to emails so please be concious of your response time.

The 3rd day is the worst

After all the orientations and move in, I feel like there’s nothing for me to do. Classes aren’t starting till Tuesday. I don’t have anything major to do with my games right now. There was a lot of excitement on the first two days but this morning it’s all waning away.

Much like with game projects I always want to move onto the next thing. At times this can be a problem and with real life it’s something that I have to fix. As I’ve always told myself, enjoy it while it lasts.

There are only so many years that you’ll be an indie developer. There are is only one time I’ll have these college experiences. So enjoy it now and stop nagging.

Tomorrow begins a Day

For me tomorrow is a historic day. It’s one where in 5th grade I was completely baffled by being that old. It’s the reason why 11th and 12th grade were full of so much stress and expectation. Tomorrow begins the journey that in 9th grade I figured out that I would need to be a college student before I could ever complete a game.

Well that statement was technically disproved last year. The point is that tomorrow is the day that I’ve been waiting for years. I almost let it slip pass me, but the future has come to present and I remember.

I don’t know what I’m anticipating nor do I know why I’m excited. I’m officially leaving behind my life and starting over. There are only so many times that you can do this so enjoy it. Maybe I’m excited because I’ll finally find people who are interested in game design, maybe they’ll be serious about creating films, maybe it’s something that I can’t even think of.

The unknown, it’s dark very dark. I haven’t found the light switch yet but when I do I’ll let you know what it looks like.

The leap of faith

I have jumped off the edge of the mountain. Over the weekend I made a deal with United Minds Games to publish their upcoming game Space Renegades: The Series. The deal includes me doing the same things that I do for marketing any game but as a publisher the game will eventually have a recognized name behind it. Names and brands go a long way with consumers. Normally they don’t like to buy things made by a company that they don’t know.

The other great thing about this if Space Renegades becomes popular I can created a boxed version and get the game into retail outlets.

So it is really going to be an interesting ride from here on out. I’ve wanted to publish games for years and now I’m finally here. It took me a while to learn the ropes and gain the knowledge that I needed so now it’s all a wait and see process.

My goal isn’t to grow at a fast rate. College is my first priority so I have to see how that goes and how much I can handle before it becomes too much. 🙁

So what’s next?

I think that was the slogan for GDC 06… and now it’s the title of this entry.

Main thing is that I’m working on something pretty big that is really the only logical step for me to take if I want to grow. Of course what I’m I going to do about college? I’m starting up on August 29th so I don’t know if that will hinder anything, most likely it will.

Bottom line is that I won’t have a lot of time for this blog so I doubt I’ll be writing daily entries but I will still try my best to write something weekly. Maybe that will improve the quality.

As always connecting this situation to game development, as a high school student you really have a hard decision to make. Go to college, go to a game college, or make games full-time. I too went through this and damn it was difficult. With my skills making games full-time at wasn’t such a smart idea. It would be much better if I networked in college and planned my life out more.

So the next question I dealt with was, well game college or regular college? Places like Full Sail and Westwood intrigued me by their fast earning 2 year degree programs but I soon realized, why would I want to limit my high school social life to a bunch of nerds? It’s highly unlikely that there would be many if any hot girls at a game college. This factored in with my curriculum only being about video games bored me. Why spend 2 years only learning about video games? There’s so much else to learn about in the world. Do you really think the best game designers studied games?

So that’s how I decided. Of course that’s not even getting into the issue of what regular college to choose! If you can get into a regular college that still has game degrees, awesome! Sadly I didn’t. Instead I’m going to be studying my other love, film. The major that I’m aiming for is Electronic Media Management so I’ll still be able to deal with computer stuff.

I am happy with where I’m going though, in theory of course. Maybe when I get there I’ll hate it, who knows. cough cough The Shadow knows…

PS – I find it obnoxious when people do that. It’s a part of my life that has been used and abused, but I hold it against you.