Help me help a friend find/hire a coder who has written games and is willing to do it again.

May 21, 2006 2:28 AM

Where would I look for a couple of experienced game designers in the Baltimore Washington area who aren't so experienced that they avoid startups?

This isn't for me but for a professor of mine who, along with several of her colleagues, is planning what might misleading be labeled an edutainment. Misleading because most edutainment is either educational and dull or just dull. They have a pretty solid idea and I gather a large part of the focus will be on quality, addictive game play. They know their market quite well and I suspect they have a pretty good chance if they can get the right people on board. They asked me if I could do it, which I can't, and which shows their technical understanding is severely lacking. I've been asking the hackers I know for suggestions to pass on to the prof, but none of them are remotely linked to entertainment and leads have been slim. If there are forums or freelance sites where she (the prof) could look, or any other suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I owe her a favor and I'm personally interested in seeing where this project goes. What do you say, fellow mefites?

posted by Grod to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Try this guy... he's worked on games before and is an avid gamer... his site is uxpforge
posted by Corky at 4:37 AM on May 21, 2006

Starting up a studio is hard, very very hard, and probably impossible without a strong coding team signing on at the start. It would probably be a better idea to team up with an existing studio. You can check Gamasutra for articles on "Serious Games" (that's the latest buzzwords for training and educational games), or if you can wait until October the Serious Games Summit would be a great place to meet possible partners. You can also check Gamedevmap for developers in your area (The site is actually missing a large number of studios, at least in the San Diego/Los Angeles area, but it's still a decent resource).

If they don't go for that and want to hire individuals you'll want to check out the aforementioned Gamasutra and Gamejobs. Experienced coders in the game industry are always in short supply, and are especially so right now as studios enlarge teams for the next console generation, so competition for these people will be stiff and you'll have to offer quite a bit more than usual for them to risk it at a startup.
posted by hamhed at 11:53 AM on May 21, 2006

You can't do game development with a startup in the Baltimore-Washington area without a gigantic cash investment -- much larger than would be required for a new shop in, say, Texas.

I've actually thought a lot about how I would do development, and the best I can think of is starting an electronic artisan colony somewhere on the Eastern Shore. Build cabins for dorms, pay for food, get a van for trips to Baltimore, and make everyone part owner of the title.

I also second the idea of working with an established company, but in the case of having a microbudget (say, under $100K) - there are plenty of skilled, but fringe-y developers and designers out there that aren't with a big company now, but still have the skill.

Also, are you looking for game designers or developers, or what? I grew up in Silver Spring, spent 7 years in the games biz, and I'm now a journalist in upstate New York, but on a lark I designed an edutainment game last week for a company that also has a professor at the helm. (Not for the US market. Exciting!)
posted by bugmuncher at 9:15 PM on May 21, 2006