Could this plan work?

[lowemark]

Ok, let me first explain my current situation. I'm 29 years old with a girlfriend and two kids (2½ and 1 years old).
At the moment I'm in a "computer game programming school" in sweden. It's a 3 year course and I'm about halfway done with this.
The final year in school gives the students a chance to either apply for some practical working experience at some company
(preferably a game company) or they have the possibility to start their own company.

So my plan is this:
The final year in school I'll start my own company and create as many games as i possibly can (hopefully more than one).
At the moment I have more than 20 game designs on paper and even more in my head. Some of them might be crap and some of them might be really
good. I've already completed one small puzzle game and one larger space shooter as part of school work. These games received a lot of praise from the
teachers.
During this year I'll also work on creating a company webapage to sell the games from and try and build up good relationships with other indie game
developers.
All this time I'm getting money for going to school so surviving won't be a problem.
Then after school is over I'll launch my company webpage and start selling the games that I'we have created this last year.

Does this sounds like a good plan or should I just give up and go look for something else to do with my life?
I really like game programming and I don't see myself working for a big company. I'd rather have creative freedom and the possibility
to take the day off and go and do something with the kids (but at the same time keep a strict working schedule and work atleast all week 9-17).

The reason I'm writing this is that some times I'll loose my motivation to continue doing this and it would be great to hear what other people
think of this plan.

[Jack Norton]

Does this sounds like a good plan or should I just give up and go look for something else to do with my life?
No one can really answer this: because no one can predict if your games will do well or not :)
So my suggestion is to try it. You can always fall back to regular job if you can't keep up with indie-life!

[andyb]

I'd say go for it. If I'd have had an opportunity like that at Uni then I'd have grabbed it with both hands and made the best of it... I have a 9 month old and I'd love to work from home so that I can see him grow, however I don't have that chance just yet, but I'm working on it ;)

good luck with whatever you decide though :D

[mahlzeit]

Then after school is over I'll launch my company webpage and start selling the games that I'we have created this last year.
Is having to wait something that your school demands? If not, then why wait... the sooner you start selling, the better. Especially since it's the selling that will bring in the money, not the development. My advice is to publish your first game as soon as it's ready. Then spend some dedicated time on promotion and improvements. As soon as your first game has gained momentum, start working on your next game.

[Anthony Flack]

Right.

As for it being a good plan - yes, that depends on you. But it certainly sounds like a golden opportunity to me, and more of a leg-up than most of us here get.

If you want to do this thing, there'll never be a better opportunity.

[GameStudioD]

It sounds like a great plan. It sounds even more like my situation right now.

I am in my final year of university. In my spare time, I am working on my game that I cant seem to finish. School work, job, family, social life, etc are very big distractions. Developing a game takes a lot of focus, and working alone can be a distraction in and of itself. I also have a million treatments for cool games sitting in my drawer. Bringing those ideas into reality is another story.

I would recommend working somewhere first. Its important to see how professionals develop software, how long it takes them and where they succeed and fail. And most importantly, how they handle it. Plus, there are more aspects (QA, marketting, customer service, etc) that you will have to juggle. Seeing and doing these things at another company will give you really good experience. There is a difference between developing some crap for school and a product that someone will have to use.

[Andy]

Well. You are from Sweden - all guys from Sweden are great. Of course they always dressed in that black shirts and rope with that metal thing on their neck... and always eat that their not fresh fish... :)
OK. I'm kidding really. Our webmaster is from Sweden. So, I'm always diggling him by this kind of jokes. He says in change that we all are always drunk by amount of vodka.

Seriously. Henrik, you got great, almost golden opportunity. The rest really depends from you. It would be pretty hard to build a company in one year or so being alone. So, focus on your growth but don't forget to search for good partners. Sweden is reach of pretty talanted guys.

Wish you good luck,

[Morphecy]

That sounds a very good plan but I would add two things there:

1) Instead of "good game ideas" I'd suggesting doing market research

2) Instead of doing "as many games you can" ... pick one potential idea & do the market research & create that one REALLY GOOD game.

(extra) oh... and read all the articles by Steve Pavlina: www.dexterity.com/articles :)

You seem to have a golden opportunity there. Create a long-term plan (where you want to be in 5 years) and do it.

[HunterSD]

Some univerities might have clauses that make anything submitted as an assignment the property of the university in question (or a joint ownership with the author). You probably will want to make sure you don't have a similar policy where you are!

[lowemark]

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their possitive replys on my game plan.
The more I think about it the better it sounds, this really is a golden opportunity for me and I think that it would be really stupid not to take advantage of it.

Is having to wait something that your school demands? If not, then why wait... the sooner you start selling, the better.
No my school do not demand me waiting, but I thought that it would be better if I concentrate on school work for the moment and start working on my own games as soon as I get less school work to do.

It would be pretty hard to build a company in one year or so being alone. So, focus on your growth but don't forget to search for good partners.
That is true and I dont really plan on doing all by myself, I already have one friend creating music for me and I'm talking to some other friends for doing artwork, hopefully I'll find someone as I stink at creating graphics.

Sweden is reach of pretty talanted guys.
:)

1) Instead of "good game ideas" I'd suggesting doing market research
2) Instead of doing "as many games you can" ... pick one potential idea & do the market research & create that one REALLY GOOD game.
That is a good idea and that is probably what I will do, however I find it hard to work on just one thing at the time, so I'll probably do some market research and look through my gamedesign scrapbook and pick out a few games to start working on.

Some univerities might have clauses that make anything submitted as an assignment the property of the university in question (or a joint ownership with the author). You probably will want to make sure you don't have a similar policy where you are!
Thanks for the warning. I've looked into this and my school has no such policy which is really lucky for me.

So thanks again guys and wish me the best of luck :)

[Mithril Studios]

Best of luck Henrik! :D

Anthony