"What are some things that a start-up game company should be aware of that would have been really useful to know when you started? Any words of wisdom picked up along the way?"

Submitted by: Peter Vale

Answered by: Gabe Newell (co-founder, Valve Software)

"Peter,

"One thing we see a lot in the unsolicited game proposals that are sent to Valve (we're a developer, not a publisher, so it's sort of a mistake to send them to us in the first place) is that most people don't know how to write a professional game specification. Most focus on the back story and character designs, and have cursory descriptions of the functionality of the game. They rarely address hardware requirements, they rarely describe multiplayer support in terms other than our game will support Internet and IPX networks, and in general contain none of the interesting or difficult portions of a product design.

"Oddly enough, it is very easy to pick up a standard computer science text on requirements and functional specification, and use this as a bible for building a game specification. Over time, designers will develop their own style, but just using a cook book approach will be better than just about any of the game proposals I've seen in the last year.

"Two books anybody starting a software company, games or otherwise, should read are Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, published by Dorset House Publishing, and The Mythical Man Month, by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., published by Addison-Wesley. I think both are available from amazon.com."

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