Here is the final installment of the series of three articles that has been run by PSP Fanboy:

Tiki Games is currently developing a PSP-exclusive RTS game called “Galaxy’s End.” Read more about the trials and tribulations of being an upstart developer in this three-part series by Tiki Games President Kevin J. McCann. See Part 1 of the feature here. See Part 2 of the feature here.

That said we’ve recently begun to get some interest both from potential investors to major publishers. One of the publishers even contacted me due to Galaxy’s End appearing on PSP Fanboy – so thanks to Andrew (and thanks to Joe who originally passed us along). Toward the end of 2006 I was concerned that Galaxy’s End may not see the light of day (not to mention financial concerns since Tiki Games is self-funded). But now I’m feeling a bit more optimistic (a somewhat dangerous thing to feel, but it helps) that we’re finally getting close to landing a real contract.

I’d also like to thank the various posters at PSP Fanboy (and other forums) that have responded positively toward the little glimpse of Galaxy’s End. It’s reaffirming for us at Tiki Games to see largely positive feedback toward our game from our intended customer-base.

For those of you that feel the RTS genre can’t be done justice due to potential control issues on the PSP – we (and the publishers that have seen our game) feel the controls are solid. The key is designing the game from the ground-up with the PSP in mind – specifically designing with its controls and screen dimensions in mind. Not simply porting a PC RTS to a handheld – instead taking the most popular elements of the RTS and “translating” them to a handheld, while adding a few innovations/improvements of our own.

Likewise for those of you wanting Blizzard’s WarCraft/StarCraft or EA’s C&C series – give us a try. We’re aiming to surprise you with a solid RTS experience on a handheld. Besides, those guys are doing well already! ;)

While Galaxy’s End future is still uncertain, hopefully we’ll secure a publishing deal soon. Your enthusiasm and spreading the word does indeed help. Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Kevin McCann
President / Creative Director
Tiki Games, Inc.

Okay.. so I posted the first part a day late – here is the second part in the series:

Tiki Games is currently developing a PSP-exclusive RTS game called “Galaxy’s End.” Read more about the trials and tribulations of being an upstart developer in this three-part series by Tiki Games President Kevin J. McCann. See Part 1 of the feature here.

Looking back, there are things I’ve done right, and other aspects that were in some senses just plain naïve. The areas that were right were our approach to the tools/technology and assembling core team members that I’ve worked with while avoiding anyone that had egos (or primadonna attitudes) and laying out the design and milestones before actually bringing the team onboard. The last thing you want to do is be writing designs while a team is being paid and waiting for you to finish designs. This happens a lot in the game industry – so I was happy to avoid it. And I targeted the RTS genre because it’s a genre I really enjoy, and I wanted Tiki Games to be the first to create a high-quality RTS for the PSP. The PSP has the power to do a very attractive 3D RTS which made it even sweeter.

But for what I did right there were also things that were naïve. It’s easy to convince yourself “I’ll create an original IP for the PSP that focuses on an untapped market – the RTS. It’s huge on the PC – let’s try to bring them over by creating an RTS from the ground-up for the PSP. And we’ll also be relatively low-cost in terms of overall budget. Surely publishers will appreciate that!”

In reality, while myself and my team had been in the industry for a long time, and shipped a number of titles, as a new start-up we’re unproven from a publisher’s viewpoint. And an original IP isn’t nearly as powerful as having a license for some big property.

So to step into this with “I’ll create a new IP in the RTS genre for the PSP. We’ll then create a solid proof-of-concept playable demo. How can it go wrong?” Well, toward the end of 2006 I did a lot of traveling (and have done similar this year so far), and while Galaxy’s End was well-received at most publishers, we’re still a new company with no shipped titles, and the RTS genre doesn’t equate to guaranteed success on a handheld.

We had some extremely positive meetings with publishers – they felt the game looked sharp, that we had conquered any control doubts (meaning the game does play well on a handheld), and they liked the overall game concept. Then the following week was something along the lines of “marketing finds it too risky.” Lots of temporary elated moments followed by extended periods of frustration.

Part 3 should be released tomorrow!

The folks over at PSP Fanboy are hosting a three-part series on the problems and issues that Tiki Games are encountering in their quest to get a publisher to bring their real-time sci-fi strategy title, Galaxy’s End to the PSP.

I figured that there are going to be tons of gamers out there who are following this story, so I figured I would do our readers justice by posting it on up here too:

Tiki Games is currently developing a PSP-exclusive RTS game called “Galaxy’s End.” Read more about the trials and tribulations of being an upstart developer in this three-part series by Tiki Games President Kevin J. McCann.

I’ve been working in the game industry for a little over ten years, always in lead designer capacity, and also wearing the dual-hat of producer for half that time as well. It’s not uncommon for game industry developers in various game studios to want to do their own thing so they “can do it right.”

When you work in a large game development studio you can start with the best of intentions and a design you feel really rocks, but along the way various levels of interference – from fellow team members all the way up through various levels of management – can and generally will alter your original game vision. And virtually never in a way you feel is favorable.

I’ve worked on large projects and they tend to be over budget and fairly disorganized. It’s also hard to establish a good team dynamic on a large team – you get various factions, unnecessary politics, and so forth. Basically things that get in the way of putting together a great game.

I’ve been trying to start my own company for several years now. And I wanted to avoid having an unnecessarily large team, and do something I’ve never had the opportunity to do on prior projects – a real preproduction cycle. So in November and December of 2005 I wrote game designs and assembled a preliminary milestone schedule for Galaxy’s End. Another thing I wanted to avoid was bloated budgets – being a self-funded start-up, the best approach was to target a smaller platform (the PSP) where a small but talented team can create an extremely high-quality game with solid production values for a reasonable budget.

In January 2006 I hired my team (folks I had worked with in the past, so I knew they could get the job done) and we began working on our first major milestone – a proof-of-concept playable build of Galaxy’s End. We also designed our tools and engine to be scalable to different genres and platforms (so that if we later wanted to make a shooter or RPG it wouldn’t be starting from scratch).

I will, of course, be putting up the other two parts as they are released. Stay tuned…

Tiki Games, the developers of a game called Galaxy’s End are currently shopping around for a publisher to help get their real-time strategy game out on the market… and one of their visions is to have that game be released for the PSP! Yup, you heard me right, a RTS game for our little PSP… our little handheld is getting all grown up!

Galaxy’s End, an original science-fiction RTS designed from the ground-up for handhelds and consoles, is the first game being developed by Tiki Games. Compelling 3D visuals complement a streamlined and intuitive control system that allows players to learn the game within a matter of minutes. Galaxy’s End has also received Stage 1 Approval from SCEA.

You have to admit that this move is quite ballsy for a brand new developer out there, to attempt to put a fully infrastructure supported game out there. Apparently they are having trouble coming up with a partner due to the fact that their just so darn new as a development team.

Feel free to head on over to check out some gameplay that they claim comes straight from a PSP!