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GameDev.net Webmaster FAQ
The thoughtful questions and the polite answers...
The not-particularly-thoughtful questions and the not-particularly-polite answers...
The thoughtful questions and the polite answers...Q: Can I get hosting with GameDev.net?A: To find out how to get hosted on GameDev.net, go here. Q: What schools should I go to in order to learn how to program or specifically to develop games?A: See our For Beginners for some answers to this one. Q: What tools do I need and where do I get them in order to start developing games?A: This is kind of a loaded question because everybody has their favorite _____________ (insert programming language, operating system, or integrated development environment). We've tried not to take sides on this subject but you can see some advice on our For Beginners page. Q: Where do I start to learn about developing games?A: You are there. GameDev.net is your place to learn everything you might want to know about developing games. If you have some of the most common beginner questions then you probably want to start here: For Beginners Q: I have a question about a game development API or an algorithm. What's the answer?A: We get a lot of these questions and often we know that the answer isn't contained on any page of the website that we can just point people to. But unfortunately we just don't have enough time to answer all the questions of this type that we get, especially since the responses to some of them can take quite a while to research, think through and write. In general, your best bet is to ask the question politely on our message boards and hopefully you will receive a thoughtful response from the multitude of people who use them. Q: Will you publish information about this new game we are releasing? Here's the press release.A: Unless you are releasing the source code to your game, libraries you used, or something else that would interest game developers then the answer is probably not. Remember, we are not a game site, we are a game development site and as such we don't spend time reporting about the umpteen zillion games in development because most of our readers are rather focused on the one game that is really important to them. Their own game... Q: Will you please add this item to your news?A: We often do that but we get upwards of five or ten press releases and news items via email every day. During busy times of the year (i.e. game developers conference) we get a great deal more than that. So we ask that you please enter your own news item using our online interface here: Add A GameDev.net News Item You can even use HTML in the item to break up your paragraphs, highlight links, do bullet lists, etc. This makes our job a lot easier because we just have to review what you entered, do a quick edit if needed and hit the approval button. Bang! Your news is on the website. Q: How much can I get for this great game idea I've got? Who do I sell it to?A: I was tempted to put this under the "not-particularly-thoughtful" questions category but people who ask it are all so earnest. So let me turn the question around and ask it back to you, "Can you think of any other creative endevour where people get paid to come up with just the idea of what a particular creation should be? Movies? Books? TV Shows? No, and video games are no different. In fact, the gaming industry might be even more harsh because you can sometimes sell a movie based on nothing more than a really good script treatment of the movie. In the game industry a really good idea plus a complete design document would not be enough for most publishers. Most are going to need to see a rough implementation of the game before they would give you a penny of funding. Also, "sell" is a funny term but it comes up a lot. No publisher I've ever seen is interested in "buying" a game on which to work. They might be interested in funding your team to develop it provided you've got: a good idea, a great design document and a significant start on the game already. But you aren't going to "sell" any idea to any publisher and just walk away counting your money. If you still think you can sell your game idea, try reading the articles below:
Can I Sell My Game Ideas? So, You Have Cool Game Ideas? Dave Perry's advice on sending your game idea to a company Ernest Adam's advice (requires a free Gamasutra login to view Q: I really want you guys to join my kewl new game development group. Will you? It's gonna rock!A: While we are really flattered by these kinds of requests, we get asked to join projects all the time. We haven't joined anything yet because we have jobs, a large website to run, several of us have families, some are writing books, and we have our own kewl game projects too :) The not-particularly-thoughtful questions and the not-particularly-polite answers...Q: Can you send me source code or an article to do X? Where X is anything from reading a JPEG file to initializing Direct3D to the A* algorithm.A: Um, no. We put together a large site with links and repositories for everything precisely so we don't have to try and individually serve the needs of each of the tens of thousands (yes, that many come visit every month) of programmers, artists and designers who frequent our site. Put in other terms, if we serviced every request we get like this every day then you could kiss the site goodbye because that would be all we do. Start with a search of our message boards and a search of our site. If both of those come up blank try Google and then if you are still batting zero, ask politely in the GameDev.net message boards. Q: I have this bug in my code. Here is everything you need to help me debug it. What is my bug?A: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. (Wipes tear from eye) That's a good one. No. See the request above to have us go do code research for somebody to get a longer answer to the same kind of question. Q: I just bought a new game and it won't install. Here's an error message it gives, tell me what to do to make it work. (Sometimes this is about a sound or video card but the essence is the same)A: Whoa! You are so totally clueless I can only guess that you spent no more than five seconds looking at what our site was about before you decided that we are your unpaid tech support. Don't email us, in fact, maybe don't come back to the site at all. Contacting usHaving read this FAQ, if you would still like to contact us directly you may do so by sending mail to webmaster@gamedev.net.
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