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Comments: 57 • Responses: 21  • Date: 

CriticDanger35 karma

How did you find money to hire 14 people before releasing the game?

mikimiki161862 karma

  1. Started working on the game alone
  2. Posted it on social media and saw some potential
  3. Spend all savings to hire some freelancers for the game
  4. Game got better, the more traffic on social media come
  5. I found a group on Discord where people are talking about the marketing of the games
  6. I posted my game with some numbers from social media's
  7. Few publishers contacted me
  8. I signed a deal with one of the publisher
  9. Publisher is funding the development
  10. Right now we have a kickstarter live to boost our budget

shum_bum12 karma

What made you decide it was time to get freelancers onboard, rather than just continuing as a solo hobby? Congratulations on the initial success btw!

mikimiki161816 karma

One of my posts went viral on social media, that was the time I realised that if I invest more this can become a real thing. Thank you!

twoscoop0 karma

Yall still hiring?

mikimiki16183 karma

Not now, we are fully booked sorry.

twoscoop12 karma

I can spell years.

mikimiki16187 karma

Hired! xd

twoscoop1 karma

Okay you can pay me 256 dollars a week.

mikimiki16182 karma

We have a deal :d

Dannan215 karma

Hi! How did you get the idea for the game?

mikimiki161816 karma

Hi! After watching Interstellar I realised that there is no single player fps story adventure game on the market that would tell a story like that (of course a different one, it was just an inspirtaion).

adeadlobster3 karma

Damn. I'm wishlisting ASAP

mikimiki16183 karma

Thank you! :)

Stroomschok2 karma

Yeah the Interstellar vibe is strong with this trailer. :)

mikimiki16183 karma

Yeah it's one of the main inspirations along with Firewatch (Story telling) and Half life 2 (gameplay and variety of vehicles)

eScheeee2 karma

What direction are you taking the soundtrack & sound design? I'd love to see similarities there to interstellar too (as this had perfect soundtrack thanks to hans zimmer).

mikimiki16182 karma

We have a Sound Designer and Composer on board, as you said we are taking inspiration from Interstellar.

WhoWhyWhatWhenWhere3 karma

Do you work on this full time now?

mikimiki16185 karma

Yes, I work full time on it. As well as 3 people.

4 people are working full time, 11 part time.

MacShuggah2 karma

Looking great! What engine are you working with?

mikimiki16181 karma

Thanks! Unreal Engine 4

uziman551 karma

When did you know that this was something that could actually be feasible to dedicate a ton of time and resources into?

Like did you meticulously plan everything out before pulling the trigger, did you jump right in, or was it somewhere in between?

Good luck on your game!

mikimiki16183 karma

First I was posting on youtube and the views were really low, but after my first post on social media, I don't remember right now where. Maybe reddit or tiktok - the post went viral, I got nice amount of wishlists on steam (the KPI that publishers are looking at) and I said to myself "wait - this actually can be a real deal".

Important note is that I didn't start the project to earn money, I started it just as a hobby and continue it even after my first videos on youtube went really bad. I didn't plan anything. I was making this game for me and to show my friends. The response from people made it a real thing.

eScheeee1 karma

What were you working full time before starting out? What is your role right now?

Love the interstellar inspiration you mentioned!

mikimiki16183 karma

I was working as an UX Designer in the IT industry. My role now is a producer/game director. I'm managing the entire team and also working with publisher on the marketing.

Thanks, Interstellar is an amazing movie!

eScheeee1 karma

Very inspiring! I'm a ux designer myself, so it's very nice to see that you followed your dream and created (hopefully) your own dreamjob by doing what you did.

Will follow your progress, all the best to you and your team :)

mikimiki16181 karma

Nice! :D Thank you so much and good luck as an UX designer.

Ok-Feedback56041 karma

The things(guns,moonbuggy etc)that are depicting in this Game are reality based or just fictional?(I mean have you done some research just like nolan did to make accurate blackhole in interstellar or this game depicting not that much accurate cosmic world but just a pure fiction only?)

mikimiki16181 karma

Yeah of course we are doing a lot of research like that. For example wheter there should be space in sound and how much. Does the guns actually works in space etc. etc. :)

Raioc24361 karma

What are the most important things you’ve learned on the business side of it? And how was your transition from your old job to managing multiple people and owning a company?

mikimiki16181 karma

Things I have learned.
1. Give freedom to people - they will work more efficient. But it probably depend on people and the industry.
2. Listen to people feedback
3. Test game with the players as soon as possible even if it's still WIP

  1. Always try to do better, even if it's already ok. We have on old trailer which was ok, but this one on IGN is way better. Publisher didn't ask us to do it, we wanted to make a new one and it's going pretty well.
  2. There will be a LOT of paper work.

  3. Find a good lawyer (for contracts etc.) and accountant it would be great if they have an experience in the industry.

The transition was pretty hard, but overall a good experience. I was already working on a an IT startup with few friends where I am managing the team, so it wasn't that unbelivable hard.

tinyglasscups1 karma

Congrats! This looks amazing!

Super generic question, but I'm really curious what the timeline and progression looked like from going solo to having not only a full blown team but a functional and finished game within the span of just only two years. Could you share a bit of the history? And maybe some of the hiccups, mistakes and big lessons along the way?

mikimiki16183 karma

I was working on it alone 3 months, then I hired some freelancers for help, and after next 3 months I found a publisher who is also a investor. With money from publisher I was able to hire people.

About making it all in that short amount of time, nowadays the unreal engine that we are using is super friendly, there are a lot of 3d assets which you can buy, a lot of ready solutions so the game dev is faster than ever BUT the game is still WIP and need a lot of work.

tinyglasscups1 karma

Thanks for the response! How does the publisher and investor aspect work in terms of ownership of the end product or your company itself?

I would imagine publishers would give you some amount of funding for development, but did you also choose to/have to give up some company ownership in order to bring them on as an investor?

If you could share some details on how the publisher deal went, that would super neat! Not money numbers wise of course, but is it essentially the same as pitching a bunch of publishers and finding the right group to work with?

Im in the SaaS tech space so having investors is my bread and butter, but I'd love to branch into the game space so your progress is super encouraging to me.

mikimiki16182 karma

Thank you. I can't answer the first question because it's under NDA in the contract. I can only say that the deal is pretty good in terms of that :)

I also can't say that, but almost always the deal is 50/50 for the dev team and for the publisher from earnings from the game. It split might differ in AAA games, but I'm not 100% sure, it can be 50/50 too. About owning the company it depends, but the best deal is to keep 100% shares of your company.

So signing a deal with a publisher was actually a great experience, I have 3 calls and I liked the guys from Freedom Games the most. They have "freedom" in their name and it's a real thing. They really do not interupt you with the game development, they don't throw any ideas and change your vision. You are responsible for the game, they are responsible for the marketing.

I'm not sure hows in your profession, but nowadays having some traffic on social media can validate your idea. If you have a good response from social media investor can see that it's worth to invest.

tinyglasscups1 karma

Makes sense, and I appreciate you answering wherever possible. After seeing how some investors like to constantly stick their fingers into things in my industry, I'm glad to hear you've found a great group to work with.

You've got my wishlist! And you've given me one more reason to pursue my childhood dreams of game development after I've finished my current stint.

I'll be keeping an eye on Moon Mystery!

mikimiki16180 karma

Thank you and good luck!

Counymouny0 karma

Will you get sued by the film makers of interstellar for using that blackhole image in this thumbnail?

Raioc24364 karma

I don’t think interstellar owns black holes

mikimiki16182 karma

Exactly :D They don't own the image of black hole.

Counymouny0 karma

I don't think Lacoste owns alligators either

mikimiki16181 karma

They don't but they own the logo design. The video from the trailer shows black hole which is a natural thing in the space. It's like would show a Saturn planet and somebody own the image.