Starting your own Studio/Dev team?

MagicIRL

Hey guys,

This might not be the right forum so perhaps you could point me in the right direction. I'm in my final year of my Comp. Science degree, and I'm working on my own game at the moment for my final project but Game Dev is 100% what I want to get in to post college.

So I decided that I'd go about doing it myself in my spare time as it's something I enjoy. I'm finding myself spending more time in Unity and less on Steam when on the PC! :cool:

So, to the crux of the post, I'm looking to start a little project with two friends abroad (In England and Wales) but, obviously, I want to protect what are essentially my ideas in the ever so slim chance that I can actually monetise this adventure. Do I register myself as a company, or what? I really don't have a grasp on the business side of things- I just wanna' make games and tell stories!

Torakx

I have always been told to worry about the business when you start making money.
In a way it was right, because I spent months and motnhs researchign the business side and still wa s alittle lost, and in the end I stillhaven't gotten to thatstage where I am making any money.
So My advice to myself now is to just make games and try publish them. If theystart making moneyi would then consider the process of registering.
I think if you are three people you could set up a partnership instead of a limited company. I'm a bit rusty on that though.

satchmo

Forget about the business side and just focus on making what you want to. If you're successful and it turns into a serious endeavour then you can start looking into making it official, but in the mean-time it would just be a distraction. And don't worry about "protecting your ideas" - ideas are easy, it's the execution that's the hard part.

RedXIV

As mentioned above, this is a common enough thing to ask about bit the reality is the chances of someone A) understanding your vision well enough to steal it and actually a having the ability and inclination to steal an idea from, essentially (and no offence) one of the lads is extremely slim.

Everyone thinks the idea is what makes the money but in reality it's the visionary's drive to get it created that is what is people need to steal, and as long as you keep focused, that won't happen

Register a company when you've enough money off it to pay for the registration fees, not before!

ShowMeTheCash

Just going to reiterate what has already been said but as someone who set up their own company there is not a whole lot in the setting up of a company.
Register it, get an accountant, set up a business banking account but these things really only come into play when you make money or have been given some kind of funding.

As Red already stated the ideas I have found is not as important as you might think, We tend to have a lot of them!
It's actually doing something to put the ideas into something and actually complete a project... If doing on your own or with one or two people part time you might come to find that finishing a polished idea can and will take years!