Plans for the next phase of the tsumea initiative

Hi folks, a while ago we started the tsumea initiative, and I'd like to talk a bit further on my plans with all of this. The idea of the tsumea initiative is to get some game projects of varying sizes started, and to encourage more people in our community to be actively involved, whether you're a student looking for some experience, a developer with spare time, or someone who's just passionate about making games. If you visit tsumea, we want you onboard.

Tsumea is a site that focuses on local game development, and what site would be better suited for catering and fostering initiatives like this? Currently, we have three projects happening, with engine licenses being purchased for one of those projects. But there's room to do a whole lot more, and I want to hear your thoughts and comments on my plans.

Our chosen engine
I've chosen the Unity 3D engine for all new projects on here. It will export to numerous platforms including PC, Mac, iPhone, and Web, has excellent community support and documentation, as well as features like networking and physics inbuilt. You can program it using Javascript or C#, and it's a very capable engine. It has an awesome Asset Server client which means that version control is taken care of. Just open the client, log in and receive the latest assets and scripts that the others have checked in, or check out/in your own work.

You can try the demo out for 30 days, and an Indie license is very affordable at $199 (US) or roughly $255 (AU).

There is one negative, however...

To publish on the iPhone with Unity 3D is expensive.

Also, the cost of Unity 3D with the Asset Server client license is also quite expensive. You need the pro license of Unity 3D ($1499 US) to be able to use the Asset Server client ($499 US). That's $2000 (US) total. ***Note, I just read the Unity roadmap, and they're looking into SVN/Perforce integration, so an Asset Server client license may not be needed.

However, if you're budget stricken, there is still hope.

Artists: you won't be working on design or scripting, so you can make do without Unity 3D at all (although an indie license would be useful to at least test out your assets). You'll also have to constantly send updates to another team member via email or other file service.

Programmers and Designers: If you are scripting, you could make do with just the indie license. Once the project is finished, I will compile the final build.

Here is the plan

What I intend to do:
tsumea will look after the iPhone publishing and final builds. With the sponsorship money that tsumea receives in the upcoming months, I will purchase the relevant licenses:

Unity Pro license : $1499 (US)
Asset Server client license : $499 (US)
iPhone Advanced license : $1499 (US)

What else is needed from me:

A Mac-mini to publish iPhone games : roughly $1000
I have to be a registered Apple iPhone developer : $99 (US) per year
I will provide the tsumea server (database and the ginormous web space required) for the Unity asset server system

What do I want from this:
Throw in a hundred bucks with every finished project, and let me slap on the tsumea logo in there. That's all I want.

Now, I don't have the funds at the moment to cover what I just mentioned (roughly $5600), but I'll be depending on upcoming site sponsorship to cover that... in the meantime, we can still 'wing' it and do it for cheap - just count out the version control and iPhone publishing for the time being. That will come in another 6 months, hopefully. In the meantime, you can just download Unity and learn its nuances.

If you're interested in taking part, have any suggestions, comments, or feedback on any of this, please let me know.

Submitted by Bittman on Thu, 21/05/09 - 10:53 AMPermalink

Hey Souri,

We probably won't be using Unity 3D, probably Ogre3D instead. I'll probably fund it out of my own pocket also, so no need to worry there. That said, if our team does need any extra funding I may come running to you with bribes and what not...

And we'll still credit tsumea in our game since it's where it was all started. Speaking of which, hoping to do art, programming and design threads similar to Team B and C to get some specific feedback on our progress. Sorry updates have been few and far between, but things are happening.

I'd also like to know, what is your aim for completion of these games? Do you envision a particular deadline? I kind of plan for our deadline to be GCAP 09 (December 2 - 5 according to the gdaa website). Just curious if you have one or are fairly carefree about it for the other two teams?

Submitted by souri on Thu, 21/05/09 - 2:58 PMPermalink

Team B is at a bit of a stand still, we need the new design docs up, and also some specs for the artists. I've requested Roger on the screen sizes so we can get the artists working on the backdrops, but I will have to chase that up. This project can be finished before GCAP 09, but we just need to get a few things sorted.

Team C is receiving their engine licenses, and we're waiting on concepts before the artists start. The game design doc is great. Now, because we're using TGEA and the programmers are going low level and learning as they go, this will no doubt be a long term project.

Things are going a bit slow at the moment, but I think if we get those initial things sorted, then we can get some momentum going.

The other projects planned with Unity in mind, we should probably consider doing much smaller scaled projects for starters with the indie version of Unity 3D.

Submitted by designerwatts on Thu, 21/05/09 - 3:33 PMPermalink

I agree with the sentiment of starting small.

The plan you've outlined sounds solid enough. But as for the 'right now' a few licences of Unity Indie will do well enough to let these indie dev teams dip their toes into collaborative development. You guys have some strong ideas that have a good chance of being seen all the way through to their implementation.

As for the iPhone licensing and such. Leave that until you have a fully completed prototype demo that shows that the team can communicate and work solidly. Once that has been accomplished. You can purchase those licences and start on some iPhone projects.

This all being said. I would also advice caution with the iPhone venture. iPhone is very popular as a brand and hardware right now. But will it be in the next 12-24 months? What i'm saying is that buying those licences sets should be left until you guys have a solid implementation pipeline going. Then re-evaluate your position and the iPhone marketplace. Then go on from there.

Cheers

Submitted by souri on Fri, 22/05/09 - 3:06 PMPermalink

Thanks, yeh, the Apple and iPhone development plan is way further down the line. I don't have the funds to cover the hardware and the license at the moment anyway, but I think the iPhone platform will still be a profitable and desirable market then, and it's something we can aim at. I'm pretty determined on using Unity as our development engine, and I hope *everyone* who's interested in doing something downloads the demo and tries it out.

The bigger picture is for tsumea to provide the place to find people willing to work in teams, use tsumea's facilities (web, forum, wiki, cvs etc), and for tsumea to provide a cheaper publishing route for things like the iPhone.

Submitted by suggo on Fri, 22/05/09 - 9:19 AMPermalink

This is a great idea and definitely something I would like to be involved in somewhere down the line, I think I am going to have my hands full with the current project for the time being. I also agree with designer watts, the iPhone license can wait until there is a large amount of work done.