(no subject)
Found this on 1up.com (my favorite video game news site):
Creating Kaos -- An all consuming ambition and the struggle for video game fame might lead a group of game designers headed in the wrong direction. You'll have to tune in to find out what happens. (Kudos to J Mac for posting a link to the show.)
Right off the bat, when someone wakes up with a dream to make a video game with little money and no experience, the road that person treads will be a painful one... especially when you're a bell boy at a hotel who's never tinkered around with game design before. The days of making games in your garage for little or no money are long gone, but apparently for Damon Grow and a handful of faithful followers the dream of MMO Triple-A success comes with utilizing the power of the internet and no surprise a reality show/Documentary series featured on games.net (gamepros equivalent to ziffs gamevideos) to promote his project.
If the goal of the show is for the audience to feel sympathetic towards the subjects in Creating Kaos than the producers have succeeded. Damon Grow has lost his wife, his father and his son all in pursuit of his ambitious video game dream which he feels will beat the big boys NCSoft (Aion) and Blizzard (World of Warcraft) at their own game. Now if that isn't naive then I don't know what is. His project Kaos War: Rise of the Fallen doesn't sound revolutionary -- a battle between good and evil Demons and Angels, with nifty looking concept art to back it up, but really the pretty pictures ain't jack shit until it's fully realized. With a crew of a handful of people devoting their lives to realizing Grow's dream, one has to wonder whether these people are throwing their lives away for something that will ultimately fail... or simply not reach the level of Triple-A success that they so desire to achieve. Are they following a Leader into a hell hole?
Having a Programmer move into Grow's stinky cramped apartment, surviving on drinking Redbull and eating Cup O' Noodles daily isn't exactly healthy, but I suppose it's a sacrifice for success as a devoted member of the Kaos War team. I guess having John Romero (of Daikatana fame... oh yea he was co-founder of id software too) adding his two cents (on camera) about Kaos War isn't too bad either. Maybe it's helped when scouting for talent, or maybe it's a reason why crew members have decided to bail on the project altogether. (read JMacs Blog, and games.net article for ex-Kaos War talent.)
In any case Damon Grow also managed to lose his Hotel Job within the first few episodes and while he's rallying artists and programmers worldwide thru msn trying to convince them to move to San Francisco (the land of high-tech dreams) he has no money to pay them... only a well written business plan, budget, and his undying enthusiasm...in ultimately a project that's financed by his roommates restaurant... Why do these people have faith in this project and in someone who's never done anything game related before?
Part of me thinks that Damon is someone who's seen failure one time too many in life and wants to prove to everyone that he finally achieved something worth the sacrifice. To give up on his game design dream would be devastating for someone who's devoting his soul to the project. If Grow had tried this 10 years earlier and perhaps had a job in the industry (or even a stable food service job or something) his chances of making an indie game would have been better than they are now. Trying to topple WOW, now that's barking up the wrong tree. Sometimes working in the industry and then going solo is better then just chasing a dream with no experience whatsoever. He wants to be a CEO but he can't even take care of himself let alone the people volunteering for him!
Creating Kaos is how you say...painful... you wanna believe that they'll succeed yet you get the impression that their judgment seems clouded. It sorta reminds me of a documentary film called Overnight, a story of an indie filmmaker (Troy Duffy) who struggles to get his script for The Boondock Saints purchased and produced alienating relationships with friends and family along the way, and in the end ends up at the same shitty Bar job he started out in.
Who knows what will happen though, Will Kaos War Fly or Die? I'll be tuning in to find out and yall should too. Episode 7 has just been put up, but I suggest you watch from episode 1.
Also be sure to checkout PLAYED OUT! Episode 1... it's freaking talking puppet action!
The original post can be found here, which includes comments left by other readers.
holy hell am i glad i jumped off that project. Seems like while it's hella ambitious considering it's an indie game, the chances of it actually being published are slim to none. I remember being in Ventrilo chat rooms with Damon and the other devs, and Damon having to leave from discussions quite often to go take care of his kid, and now his wife and his kid are gone. And for what? It's one thing to dream and to work towards your goals, but this guy is honestly throwing his life away. It really does seem like this project is doomed. I really didn't think about it when I first joined up, but man. Trying to develop an MMO independently, with the hope of downing the top MMO makers (NCSoft and Blizzard)?!? Wowwww. Good luck with that, especially when Blizz is saying that they have 9 million subscribers for WoW. Thinking about it in retrospect, I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. Oh well, live and learn. I put a lot of work into it, but I got some cool artwork done because of it.
I bring this up because I'm looking around for some other company or people to do work for while I put together a portfolio. Just something to make me keep working on it. Now that Tiff and I have beat Halo 3 on legendary, I'm shifting my focus back to my artwork and my dream. I'll get there someday. I just know a hell of a lot more about the industry now than I ever have, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here idle and let it go. I think meeting Gary, submitting resumes, and even attending the Zenimax Online Studios job fair has helped me get a far better understanding of how this stuff works. And what it really all boils down to is a killer portfolio. Hence my interest in wanting to find more work in game development somehow, even if it is done for free for somebody's mod side project.
I'm looking at this one company who has already put out a couple products, One being a mah jong game (or sudoku? can't remember which, just found it last night) and the other a Half Life mod. So it shows that they're actually producing something, not just talking about it. The project they're currently working on is another Half Life mod, but this one they actually have a payment plan in place for people who help with development when the game is released, which will be distributed on Valve's "Steam" network.
I hope I can get in on it, even though I have no Half Life experience. But I do have a great interest in Sci-Fi, so here's hoping. I'm sure I'll be making posts about it if I do get in on it. So we'll see how it goes.
Creating Kaos -- An all consuming ambition and the struggle for video game fame might lead a group of game designers headed in the wrong direction. You'll have to tune in to find out what happens. (Kudos to J Mac for posting a link to the show.)
Right off the bat, when someone wakes up with a dream to make a video game with little money and no experience, the road that person treads will be a painful one... especially when you're a bell boy at a hotel who's never tinkered around with game design before. The days of making games in your garage for little or no money are long gone, but apparently for Damon Grow and a handful of faithful followers the dream of MMO Triple-A success comes with utilizing the power of the internet and no surprise a reality show/Documentary series featured on games.net (gamepros equivalent to ziffs gamevideos) to promote his project.
If the goal of the show is for the audience to feel sympathetic towards the subjects in Creating Kaos than the producers have succeeded. Damon Grow has lost his wife, his father and his son all in pursuit of his ambitious video game dream which he feels will beat the big boys NCSoft (Aion) and Blizzard (World of Warcraft) at their own game. Now if that isn't naive then I don't know what is. His project Kaos War: Rise of the Fallen doesn't sound revolutionary -- a battle between good and evil Demons and Angels, with nifty looking concept art to back it up, but really the pretty pictures ain't jack shit until it's fully realized. With a crew of a handful of people devoting their lives to realizing Grow's dream, one has to wonder whether these people are throwing their lives away for something that will ultimately fail... or simply not reach the level of Triple-A success that they so desire to achieve. Are they following a Leader into a hell hole?
Having a Programmer move into Grow's stinky cramped apartment, surviving on drinking Redbull and eating Cup O' Noodles daily isn't exactly healthy, but I suppose it's a sacrifice for success as a devoted member of the Kaos War team. I guess having John Romero (of Daikatana fame... oh yea he was co-founder of id software too) adding his two cents (on camera) about Kaos War isn't too bad either. Maybe it's helped when scouting for talent, or maybe it's a reason why crew members have decided to bail on the project altogether. (read JMacs Blog, and games.net article for ex-Kaos War talent.)
In any case Damon Grow also managed to lose his Hotel Job within the first few episodes and while he's rallying artists and programmers worldwide thru msn trying to convince them to move to San Francisco (the land of high-tech dreams) he has no money to pay them... only a well written business plan, budget, and his undying enthusiasm...in ultimately a project that's financed by his roommates restaurant... Why do these people have faith in this project and in someone who's never done anything game related before?
Part of me thinks that Damon is someone who's seen failure one time too many in life and wants to prove to everyone that he finally achieved something worth the sacrifice. To give up on his game design dream would be devastating for someone who's devoting his soul to the project. If Grow had tried this 10 years earlier and perhaps had a job in the industry (or even a stable food service job or something) his chances of making an indie game would have been better than they are now. Trying to topple WOW, now that's barking up the wrong tree. Sometimes working in the industry and then going solo is better then just chasing a dream with no experience whatsoever. He wants to be a CEO but he can't even take care of himself let alone the people volunteering for him!
Creating Kaos is how you say...painful... you wanna believe that they'll succeed yet you get the impression that their judgment seems clouded. It sorta reminds me of a documentary film called Overnight, a story of an indie filmmaker (Troy Duffy) who struggles to get his script for The Boondock Saints purchased and produced alienating relationships with friends and family along the way, and in the end ends up at the same shitty Bar job he started out in.
Who knows what will happen though, Will Kaos War Fly or Die? I'll be tuning in to find out and yall should too. Episode 7 has just been put up, but I suggest you watch from episode 1.
Also be sure to checkout PLAYED OUT! Episode 1... it's freaking talking puppet action!
The original post can be found here, which includes comments left by other readers.
holy hell am i glad i jumped off that project. Seems like while it's hella ambitious considering it's an indie game, the chances of it actually being published are slim to none. I remember being in Ventrilo chat rooms with Damon and the other devs, and Damon having to leave from discussions quite often to go take care of his kid, and now his wife and his kid are gone. And for what? It's one thing to dream and to work towards your goals, but this guy is honestly throwing his life away. It really does seem like this project is doomed. I really didn't think about it when I first joined up, but man. Trying to develop an MMO independently, with the hope of downing the top MMO makers (NCSoft and Blizzard)?!? Wowwww. Good luck with that, especially when Blizz is saying that they have 9 million subscribers for WoW. Thinking about it in retrospect, I honestly had no idea what I was getting into. Oh well, live and learn. I put a lot of work into it, but I got some cool artwork done because of it.
I bring this up because I'm looking around for some other company or people to do work for while I put together a portfolio. Just something to make me keep working on it. Now that Tiff and I have beat Halo 3 on legendary, I'm shifting my focus back to my artwork and my dream. I'll get there someday. I just know a hell of a lot more about the industry now than I ever have, and I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here idle and let it go. I think meeting Gary, submitting resumes, and even attending the Zenimax Online Studios job fair has helped me get a far better understanding of how this stuff works. And what it really all boils down to is a killer portfolio. Hence my interest in wanting to find more work in game development somehow, even if it is done for free for somebody's mod side project.
I'm looking at this one company who has already put out a couple products, One being a mah jong game (or sudoku? can't remember which, just found it last night) and the other a Half Life mod. So it shows that they're actually producing something, not just talking about it. The project they're currently working on is another Half Life mod, but this one they actually have a payment plan in place for people who help with development when the game is released, which will be distributed on Valve's "Steam" network.
I hope I can get in on it, even though I have no Half Life experience. But I do have a great interest in Sci-Fi, so here's hoping. I'm sure I'll be making posts about it if I do get in on it. So we'll see how it goes.