Exchange student technology and business questions

[soundguy]

Hey !

First I must say The exchange student is one of the best games that was released recently ! but short (yeah yeah you know that...).

I already know most of the answers to my "identical questions" i've been posting to other developers, but still here they are copy pasted for sake of other curious people:

1. What game engine and technologies are you using to make the game ?

2. How are you funding the production of the game ?

3. How much did making episode 1 cost, and has been a commercial success so far ?

4. do you have any tips and advice for us independent game developers out there working on their first game ?

some TES specific questions:

5. Are you working from a central office or over the net ?
6. what stuff are you oursourcing and what are you keeping in house ?
7. can you describe a little bit your current work proccess for making the game ?

[soundguy]

ooh ! another interesting qeustion:

why did you decide on episodic development ?
was it because of funding issues ?

[Dimitris Manos]

Hey !

First I must say The exchange student is one of the best games that was released recently ! but short (yeah yeah you know that...).

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

I already know most of the answers to my "identical questions" i've been posting to other developers, but still here they are copy pasted for sake of other curious people:

1. What game engine and technologies are you using to make the game ?

We are using flash. This is why we can't use the right click in The Exchange Student. But on the bright side, making the game in flash gives us many porting possibilities. For example porting for Macintosh was much easier for us than if we had developed our game using another programming language. It is also a quite robust engine and we have not had many bug problems or many compatibility problems.

2. How are you funding the production of the game ?

I had to take a loan to fund the development of the first episode. The income made by the first episode was used to pay the loan back and to fund the development of the second episode.

3. How much did making episode 1 cost, and has been a commercial success so far ?

I would not like to go into details about how much it costed, but we are happy with the numbers it has sold so far. If we weren't, we would not be making a second episode.

4. do you have any tips and advice for us independent game developers out there working on their first game ?

Yes.

1. Start small. You don't have to make the best title in the history of gaming on your first try. You are going to make some mistakes the first time, everyone does. Don't be disappointed, just try to learn from them.

2. The episodic format is the best one if you don't have the money needed for a full game. But, you have to make sure your game fits the episodic model as well. An interactive sitcom like The Exchange Student fits the episodic format very well.

3. Make sure you have a good team backing you up. It is one of the most important things when developing a game. Make sure that the people working on the game are really into it, and that they are people you can TRUST.

some TES specific questions:

5. Are you working from a central office or over the net ?

Over the net. It's not so difficult working over the net nowadays, as long as you work with people who are punctual and honest.

6. what stuff are you oursourcing and what are you keeping in house ?

Well everything is made by freelancers. I made a budget for episode 1 and 2 and said I can spend X Euros for animation, X Euros for backgrounds X euros for programming etc. Then you have to find freelancers and make a bid to them.

7. can you describe a little bit your current work proccess for making the game ?

Yes. The script is completed, the artists are currently working on the backgrounds and the animations. Our previous animator has found another job so we had to change our animator, you will see the new animator's work in a few days' time. We're also currently recording the lines for episode 2. The coder, who is also a new person, will start putting everything together at the end of this week.

why did you decide on episodic development ?
was it because of funding issues ?

Yes it was mainly because of funding issues. But I think it is also very appropriate for first-time developers, because you can learn from your mistakes and improve episode by episode. So if we made a mistake on episode 1 you won't see it happening in episode 2. This way your game improves episode by episode, something that would not happen in the case of a full game. Plus, I think that the episodic format fits well the casual audience.

[soundguy]

Thanks for the answers, Good luck with TES, anxiously anticipating EP II..


Oded