ID:1601826
 
So I thought of an idea of a business. You see I made a Classified Ads post about seeking a BYOND team and was contacted by self-proclaimed BYOND experts at game design, programming and iconning. But the thing is they asked for professional sums of money in order to complete this game from scratch. Around $500-$1000. They said if I invest in this I can sell the game on Steam and make a profit. But right now I don't have the money so the deal's off. So I had a thought. If I get money and pay professionals to make me professional BYOND games that I could later submit to Steam, will I be able to make a profit off this? How will I know the game will be greenlit on Steam and make a profit? Do you think this will work?
....

Please name these professionals you speak of..

You can easily spend that amount of money on art..

You may be getting scammed..
Well, at least you're trying.

What you are asking, are HUGE ifs.

You can invest thousands, or millions into a game. Have it all professionally done by qualified workers, and still have it fail.

That being said, you never know if you game will be greenlit or not, it's up to the Steam community. If it gets greenlit I am sure Tom will help you out getting your game ready for a steam launch, I recall when NEStalgia was greenlit Tom talked with Silk about preparing their game for the launch (even if it was something small I assume he'd talk to them about it).

Following A.T.H.K's post, really, post their keys. There are only a handful of "BYOND Experts" (Oh do I remember that), and that is more or less programmatically if anything (it's the only thing you can be expert to BYOND specifically). If they're not your standard posters, be wary.

Classified ads needs a new layout and system. Just by added a few check boxes and fields ads can be more straightforward with what they want and what they are going to give.
Okay no problem I will post their BYOND keys. I only have one though. He contacted me saying he wants to boost his reputation and has a degree in game design and is a graphics artist. He asked me for $600+ for the whole game and said it will be a success on Steam. His key is Gold94. He also had a programmer I talked with on Skype who's Skype name was Soul who Gold94 says is the best programmer he knows.
Have you done any research on these people?

http://www.byond.com/members/Gold94

(Joined: Mar 26 2013) - this doesn't always matter.

No games, no portfolio

The art in each of this users posts look ok to average

http://www.byond.com/members/Gold94?tab=index
Without experience it's difficult to say if your game will be successful or not, but it's definitely possible to make a profit, take Eternia(Wasn't released on steam) and NEStalgia for example.

Having said that, the price range of $500-$1000 seems unrealistic to me. I'll just assume you're not making a small casual game and it's going to take anywhere from a few months to a year to complete, for "Experts" to work that long with only $500-$1000(Where I live that's equal to 1 month full-time minimum wage) it's only natural that it looks like a scam.

$500 to $1000 is cheap but if you're buying bits and pieces, and doing some of the artwork/programming yourself, it's possible. Not sure where you get that mentality from.
Hey if that is cheap because I thought I could get away with $20-$40 per game.
Now I'm unsure if this is trolling or not..
$20-$40 for everything in a game, per person? Like, you pay $40 to the artist, $40 to the programmer and expect something?

If they were actual, qualified professionals, with portfolios and experience in hand, that is only worth 1-2 hours of their time.

Shit I am an underpaid developer, and designer for a 3 person start up, and that is only worth 3 hours of my time at max.
In response to UPD4T3
In the original post he asked about having professionals make a game for him.

As you said it's possible if you do programming and art yourself, but in the end that's doing the larger portion of the work yourself and having someone else help out
I thought the game would be fast to make not months maybe 1 day. Here is my post about the game: http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1601827&first_unread=1
In response to TheDarkChakra
TheDarkChakra wrote:
I thought the game would be fast to make not months maybe 1 day. Here is my post about the game: http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1601827&first_unread=1

You're completely unrealistic.. Not to mention you have no idea what you want anyway the majority of your posts are "I need this help me do it", "I can't think of this you think it up for me".

It's ridiculous and you've been told before, we won't make a game for you, you have to put in some effort at least.
A game in a day isn't going to make you any money.

Also unless you plan on paying someone to design your game too I'd recommend making a design document clearly stating what you want. If you can get gold94 and his friend to make your game for $600 it you might as well take the offer, though it's good to take precautions whenever working with someone you don't know
In response to A.T.H.K
A.T.H.K wrote:
TheDarkChakra wrote:
I thought the game would be fast to make not months maybe 1 day. Here is my post about the game: http://www.byond.com/forum/?post=1601827&first_unread=1

You're completely unrealistic.. Not to mention you have no idea what you want anyway the majority of your posts are "I need this help me do it", "I can't think of this you think it up for me".

It's ridiculous and you've been told before, we won't make a game for you, you have to put in some effort at least.

No need to be rude. I don't have enough ideas for game design and I can't create certain BYOND things because I don't know the interface well enough.
In response to Anon1
Anon1 wrote:
A game in a day isn't going to make you any money.

If you can get gold94 and his friend to make your game for $600 it you might as well take the offer,

Worst advice :P

though it's good to take precautions whenever working with someone you don't know

Of course, to me it sounds like a money making scheme.

Portfolios are needed from both employees and a clear understanding of the game is needed from the employer with again as you stated documents for Art and also Game Functions/Features.
In response to TheDarkChakra
TheDarkChakra wrote:
No need to be rude. I don't have enough ideas for game design and I can't create certain BYOND things because I don't know the interface well enough.

I wasn't intending to be rude, more putting my point across that you have no idea what you want which was validated by this response.
In response to A.T.H.K
What I want is some kind of good-looking cinema tycoon game.
Seems you're not getting the point here..


Reading your post, it has no core functions, I can choose a "movie type" and "special effects" then what? what happens then?

Is that it game over?

So I made a little something but its not fun

So make it fun, think of new ideas you are after all looking after this project not us.

I included very basic programming in there.

Fine you can't program, doesn't stop you from learning how.

How can I make such a game fun?

Again not up to us, why not read up on how movies work, how the box office works, why certain things are more popular at different times of the year...
My point is that with things going in the direction they're going he needs someone who will work with low rates and will make the game without any direction. Chances are you won't find anyone fitting those criteria, so you might as well go with the people who offered, if you take the necessary precautions you can avoid having all of your money taken
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